Around 4 or 5 yesterday I'm in my room and see a couple of letters slide under the door. I didn't think they were anything special at first. Neither was addressed, and each one had a card in the envelope window with "Loyalty" and some cheesy slogan on there. Embossed and everything. So I open one up and it's this letter than says I (it wasn't personalized, but there was presumably one for each roommate) had been recommended for what sounded like some secret society for those "destined for greatness". So it had all this junk about "you will meet an operative" with a suit and a red tie at "19:45" in a bookstore in Provo and put down the card and follow all these elaborate rules, like accepting papers with the left hand. And then there were to be three questions, and the answers would be, in order, "power", "freedom", and "to see the world as it is". And, not surprisingly, it says that dues are required of members and to prepare accordingly. And this letter's on nice, watermarked paper with a "confidential" stamp and everything. So I'm chuckling at this thing, thinking it was really weird. Jordan wasn't around, but I showed most of the people on the floor. There was a room on the other side of the floor that got two letters too. It obviously wasn’t legit because the letter implied that the whole thing was very exclusive, but they’d clearly given random sets of roommates these things. So we could tell it was a hoax or a scam, but Sky thought it would be really funny to check out, and I couldn't deny being curious myself. And then Jordan came back and was all for it, and we came up with this whole intricate scheme. Jordan was "Signor Jones" and Sky and I dressed up in blue shirts and khakis as his flankers. And Patrick's the driver/cameraman (we totally had to get this on film), and we go to this bookstore. The guy, probably almost 30, was there in the back -- red tie, briefcase, the works -- and we walk up. Technically those without invitations weren't supposed to approach the table, but we'd already decided not to play by the silly rules, so we escort "Signor Jones" in, opening doors and getting the chair and everything. Jordan snaps, Sky gives him the card, and Jordan says "I acknowledge my tardiness". The guy obviously wasn't comfortable with our charade, and definitely not with the camera, so he's already zipping up his briefcase as he says "try again", waits a second, and says "tardiness is unacceptable" as he takes off rather hurriedly. He was totally running a scam. So Jordan taunts him on his way out (in character, by the way), and Patrick actually follows the guy at a distance with the camera. It was hilarious. We freaked that guy out so bad. Eventually some security guard asked what was going on and Patrick started telling him, and the guard says "Let me guess, a guy in a red tie. We've been having problems with him." But the guy had run away into the woods by that point. Then we went to the mall for some more shots, got told to stop by another security guard, and went home and showed everybody what had happened. So on the whole, it was quite a night. We're totally going to edit the footage and make a movie, which will be totally awesome by the time we're done.

Rick Wilde, 8 Sept 2005