do you hear the people sing?

MUSICALS ROB ME OF JOY BY JACK VENING

A few years ago, I witnessed a pretty jarring scene that I still have some trouble processing today. Every time I bring it up, it takes people a little while to fully accept the horror of it. “Surely,” they say, “surely it couldn’t have happened that way.”

I don’t blame them. How could I expect them to believe that I’d really seen a co-worker – mid-conversation with several colleagues – interrupt the chat by singing show tunes to themselves, completely candidly and without explanation, as the conversation slowly died around them.

Not humming. Not singing quietly under their breath. A completely full-throated rendition of some gaudy number from (!) as if they were