Mystery fog rolls into newsroom, smells like burnt coffee and deadlines

The Web Notifier staff could not see their own desks for six hours. Productivity went way up.

By The Fog, Weather Correspondent

The newsroom at 4:58 p.m. on deadline day.

At 9:04 a.m. Wednesday, a thick gray fog rolled out of The Web Notifier's break room and filled the entire newsroom.

It smelled like burnt coffee, printer toner, and the specific panic of a 4 p.m. deadline.

"Nobody could find me to ask me anything, so I finally got some work done," said Editor-in-Chief Barb Klonk. "Best day we've ever had."

Todd, our intern, disappeared at 9:15. He was found four hours later in the supply closet, where he had reorganized all the staples "by mood."

Around noon the fog formally asked for a desk and a byline. Management said yes because nobody could see who was asking. This story is its first.

The fog is now our weather correspondent. Its first forecast, filed at 3 p.m., reads in full: "Fog."