But here, around the future wedding table, the families swapped rumors, talked politics and entertained company.

The oddities of female opera stars are well known to their loyal subjects, who swap rumors the way Washington correspondents spread leaks.

This series of rapid-fire actions, along with other moves, has startled Volkswagen's rivals and excited investors, who are swapping endless rumors about Mr. Piech's next deal.

We sat in the McDonald's just off the square, newly refurbished since having its windows smashed during the revolution, and swapped rumors of new parties and coalitions.

Industry sleuths are digging for clues, enthusiasts are swapping rumors and magazines are promising full disclosure.

They swapped rumors that Mr. Spitzer, who had said he wanted the job to go to an Albany outsider with financial sector experience, had somehow managed to stack the deck.

Cyberinvestors swapped rumors on Internet chat boards weeks before Tyco International and the U.S. Surgical Corporation announced their merger on May 25.

But the recent spate of bad news out of Albany - where swapping rumors about subpoenas has supplanted the usual political chitchat - had been good news for Mr. Spitzer, giving an added sense of urgency to his proposals.

His critics, though, suspect more insidious forces were at play, and to this day they swap rumors that make the stipulated facts seem like frat-house hazing.

I spotted a group of journalists, all people I knew slightly, and they let me join in as they swapped rumors.