If You Have to Explain It ... Don't

According to the FBI, as mediated by Vanity Fair, accused inside-info trader Jesse Tortora e-mailed the following to his buddies and co-conspirators:

"Rule number one about email list. There is no email list, fight club reference."

Okay, here's a rule. If you have to explain that your previous sentence (or, strictly, the first half of the sentence you're still writing) was a Fight Club reference, don't. Delete, abort, retry.

Especially since he didn't really get the allusion right, anyway.

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