The cartoon showed a meterological observatory so jam-packed with the most modern weather-predicting devices you could hardly see the two meteorologists crouched in the corner.

They were smothered by every state-of-the-art, imaginable, and even unimaginable piece of futuristic weather forecasting equipment.

"I predict rain," said one of the weathermen. "Why?" asked his partner. "Because," replied the first, "my corns hurt!"

You don't have to be a Henry Kissinger or a Zbigniew Brzezinski or a successful intelligence agent to ferret out some of the most closely-guarded top secrets of the world's most important countries.

Sometimes all you have to do is pay attention when those secrets tumble out. One tumbled out on me not long ago and my corns still hurt. Are you ready for a Russian top secret?