Board Member 3: "Right. Carly, you know we love you, but these gosh-darn shareholders keep asking why in the heck we can't seem to get our act together and start making them the money we promised we would when we went after Compaq. I mean, you can't blame them ... you know ... Lucy, why don't you jump in here?"

Board Member 4: "Thanks, Dick ... Carly, maybe it will help if I tell you a story about when I was a little girl ..."

And so on. You just know it had to be mighty tough to drop that particular bomb. Fiorina is tough as nails, and I can't imagine anyone wanting to be on her bad side.

While it couldn't be any more obvious that my approach was satirical, I can't help but wonder whether there might have been some tension-releasing banter among some of the board members prior to their meeting with Fiorina, and whether that banter might have been similar enough to what I wrote to raise someone's suspicions. It's a stretch, I know. But until all the names of the reporters on the list are released, as they absolutely need to be, I'll be feeling a twinge of discomfort.

I'm much more uncomfortable about the thought of Patrick Thibodeau, the Computerworld reporter who covers HP, being on the list. More than anything right now, I want an assurance from HP and from the California attorney general that he's not. And I want to hear from HP CEO Mark Hurd exactly what's being done to ensure nothing like this happens again.