The Wall Street Journal Does An Expose On Four Buddies Who Play Tag....Like the Kids Game You Play At Recess

Wall Street Journal - – Earlier this month, Brian Dennehy started a new job as chief marketing officer of Nordstrom Inc. In his first week, he pulled aside a colleague to ask a question: How hard it is for a nonemployee to enter the building? Mr. Dennehy doesn’t have a particular interest in corporate security. He just doesn’t want to be “It.” Mr. Dennehy and nine of his friends have spent the past 23 years locked in a game of “Tag.” The game they play is fundamentally the same as the schoolyard version: One player is “It” until he tags someone else. But men in their 40s can’t easily chase each other around the playground, at least not without making people nervous, so this tag has a twist. There are no geographic restrictions and the game is live for the entire month of February. The last guy tagged stays “It” for the year. That means players get tagged at work and in bed. They form alliances and fly around the country. Wives are enlisted as spies and assistants are ordered to bar players from the office.

One February day in the mid-1990s, Mr. Tombari and his wife, then living in California, got a knock on the door from a friend. “Hey, Joe, you’ve got to check this out. You wouldn’t believe what I just bought,” he said, as he led the two out to his car. What they didn’t know was Sean Raftis, who was “It,” had flown in from Seattle and was folded in the trunk of the Honda Accord. When the trunk was opened he leapt out and tagged Mr. Tombari, whose wife was so startled she fell backward off the curb and tore a ligament in her knee. Over the years, some of the players fanned out around the country—which curbed the action but raised the stakes. At one point, Chris Ammann was living in Boston. So Mr. Konesky dipped into his frequent-flier miles and crossed the country on the last weekend of the month. He spent the next two days in the bushes outside Mr. Ammann’s apartment, sitting in his friend’s favorite bar or driving up and down his street. Mr. Ammann never showed. Mr. Konesky was “It” for the year.

Umm I don’t get it. This was a real article in the Wall Street Journal? About four squids who play tag with each other?  Guys who fly across the country and hide in each other’s bushes and shit? Just so they aren’t “it”? What the fuck? Okay, okay, I got tricked.  This is the Onion right? Just no way this is real life. No way the Wall Street Journal really did a full blown story on an adult game of tag.  I refuse to believe that can be true.  Nice try Onion.  Adult tag?  Haha.  You almost had me.