Become a “GATE Free Zone”
Roger L. Simon dropped me a note recently. He hates “the Gates.” No, I don’t mean Cristo in Central Park. Roger objects to EasonGate. RatherGate, ContraGate, FosterGate, MonicaGate, GannonGate. The last sylllable of “Watergate” signals scandal –but it’s become a bore, a cheap motif.
Time to close the floodgate and end GateGate. If Berkeley, CA and Takoma Park, MD can declare themselves “nuclear free zones,” this blog can declare itself a “Gate-free zone.”
Join the Movement. Become “A GATE free zone” (or at least a GATE free web blog or publication).
Besides, I think “The Eason Jordan Affair” has an Eric Ambler ring to it. And “The Monica Affair” is also a much more accurate description.
Make us a GATEFreeZone button for our blogs!
Comment by Oyster — 2/25/2005 @ 11:05 am
Great idea. Having become fascinated with the mysteriously unsolved mystery of the Belle de Jour blog, I have always eschewed any notion of terming the affair “bellegate” and have opted instead for “belle de jour saga.” Do you have an alternative term in mind or are you also intending to be free of the scandals/phenomena the “-gates” refer to?
Comment by Nick — 2/25/2005 @ 11:08 am
I prefer the Treason Jordon Affair myself, but I know that it is over the top. Just as an aside I wonder how many people know where the phrase “over the top” comes from (telling them its comes from “Over There” as it were, doesn’t help.
Comment by David — 2/25/2005 @ 11:40 am
An idiom in wide use today to indicate excessiveness (be it exuberant or foolhardy), the phrase ‘over the top’ has its origins in the First World War. It was used, chiefly by the British, to describe the process whereby infantrymen emerged from their trenches and scrambled into No Man’s Land to attack the opposing enemy trenches. Given the machine gun’s dominance of the battlefield during the war the prospect of going over the top was invariably regarded as doom-laden by infantrymen. This was unsurprising given the huge numbers of casualties sustained in such endeavours. Most notorious were the 60,000 casualties suffered by the British - chiefly in the face of enemy machine gun fire - on the first day of the 1 July 1916 Battle of the Somme. The American Arthur Guy Empey produced a novel based upon his own experiences as a volunteer with the British Army while the war was still underway, entitling it Over The Top.
Comment by Nick — 2/25/2005 @ 11:57 am
The ‘gate’ suffix has indeed become excessively employed in cases where the author wants to imply conspiracy, underhanded motives and deception. Nevertheless, what other suffix offers the same connotation? Sure, ‘affair’ and ’saga’ are nice but hardly convey the same emotions.
Comment by OJ — 2/25/2005 @ 12:15 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_suffixed_with_gate
Comment by Nick — 2/25/2005 @ 12:25 pm
I have a suggestion on what to wrap Cristo in: Duct tape.
Comment by James C. Hess — 2/25/2005 @ 7:58 pm
President Clinton so embodied all aspects of scandals, financial (Whitewater), sexual (too numerous to mention), etc. How about -billy as a suffix for scandal.
Comment by Greg — 2/26/2005 @ 3:51 pm
I agree with no more “gates”, except for Rathergate. That one really fits- third rate forgeries used to try to sway a presidential election, and then denial and coverup. Dan Rather became Nixon, except Nixon had more honor.
Comment by SR — 2/26/2005 @ 9:53 pm
I think I read somewhere else that all scandals from the left should have a ‘aquiddick’ attached to it, as in Chappaquiddick’.
Comment by John Kuran — 2/27/2005 @ 1:39 pm
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Trackback by 05f049b2fad117aba2 — 3/16/2005 @ 11:46 am
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Comment by 05f049b2fad117aba2 — 3/16/2005 @ 11:46 am