If we didn't need to know would it not be best to simply refrain from mentioning it at all?

No because one of you would have asked about it anyway so I might as well tell you to not ask about it.

You know, sometimes I can't help but feel that our collective tendency to insist on withholding information from our compatriots is very much working against us.

In other words, our obsession with keeping secrets is, to use the vernacular, turning everything to shit.

Yeah well there are some things that need to be kept as secrets.

And I am certain that at the time, we all felt our chosen secrets were entirely deserving to remain so. Everything must be kept a secret until it shouldn't be.

[He sighs]

Can we not talk about this please?

Against my better judgment... very well.

Thank you.

Ugh, I really feel like I should be pursuing this topic with greater verve and intensity.

Suffice it to say if you are similarly cagey in the future I may not let the matter drop so easily.