There was shock and amazement - if they are not the same thing - at the headquarters of satirical news website TheSpoof.com this morning when it was revealed that now-missing writer Duncan Whitehead is, in reality - and in fact - one of the characters he writes about - the indomitable Tatty Mullet!
Mullet is Whitehead's most written-about character, a scoutmaster who particularly enjoys ordering young kids about, and helping them adjust their toggles.
Whitehead has been missing for several weeks now, and was thought to be getting up to no good in Ireland, but this morning's news puts paid to that load of bollox.
Sometime-writer Atticus Finch broke the news to this writer in a private email addressed to a 'friend of mine', Mister Meaner, and Meaner passed it on to me, through another 'friend', Farida Benamar.
Messrs Whitehead, Mullet, Finch, Pint and Maxwell were unavailable for comment.