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Deep Throat, Episode III

NYT: F.B.I. Official Revealed He Was Watergate Source in Interview

WASHINGTON, May 31 — W. Mark Felt, a senior F.B.I. official during the Nixon administration, was the “Deep Throat” of Watergate lore, the secret source who provided information that helped Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post unravel the scandals of Richard Nixon’s White House, the newspaper said today.



Well, it’s certainly not like this is breaking news at this point. I must, however, for what is presumably the final time, note that this “M. Wark Flannel” character or whateva is most certainly NOT Deep Throat. Deep Throat, as we revealed here some three years ago, is the deceptively youthful Ken Goldstein, late of the blogosphere and Seattle precincts, and missed quite heartily in both districts.

I would nitpick over spelling but that’s burned me recently so a derisive, virtual sniff will have to do.

(For the record, Deep Throat is a great American hero, the preceding is satire, and even though in the current climate of absurdity and repression it’s unlikely he’s gonna get the Congressional Medal of Honor, it’s clear to me that no-one in the entire history of the Republic deserves it more.)

Posted on by mwhybark

Sith Mental Muddle!

As multiple perceptive readers have joyfully pointed out, I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.

But the signs I refer to are spelled “Capital Hill.” They may have been removed. I hope so.

Seriously, once I knew that the capital of North Dakota was Bismarck, and the capitol of North Dakota resided therein. Again, I blame the Sith and their evil, evil ways.

Posted on by mwhybark

Episode III: Capital!

Viv and I saw Star Wars Ep. III tonight after a wander about the Pike Place Market Festival. In short, my opinion is on the median – much better than the other two recent films, not the greatest SF film I have ever seen, a few scenes that were quite successful on any terms.

I’m sure everyone in the world got the Frankenstein quote, a few got the at-least two 2001 quotes, and some may have made the Close Encounters samples. But why is it that as of this writing (pre-Google though it is) I have not read of one person pointing out the typo – practically a Freudian slip – in the title crawl?

We read of “War!” et cetera. Apparently, General Greivous has sneakily kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine from the very heart of the “capital” of the Republic.

Who knew that the old sneakerino was being kept in Scrooge McDuck’s money vault?

Seriously, this totally disrupted my enjoyment of the film. Film is an art in which insane attention to detail and insane control freaks are often mistaken for one another and encouraged to reach for the outer limits of sanity. George Lucas’ final word in commercial cinema is apparently to be misspelled in ignorance. It’s a fitting testament to one of the means whereby democracy perishes to applause.

The homonym, of course, is well chosen, as it’s capital to which essentially all the failings of the prior two films can be laid, and of course, it’s capital to which the failings of our own great nation’s system of checks and balances ever owes its’ tottersome state.

As I am certain one or two of you may be wondering what the rumpus is about: “capital” is large concentrations of currency, with a significance of power, while “capitol” is the geographical center of political power. I live in an optimistically-named neighboorhood, Capitol Hill. The misspelling is common enough that it is immortalized upon several signs that welcome persons to this neighborhood. the mispelling is so well-ingrained, in fact, that I wonder if we aren’t witnessing a socially-mandated spelling shift. As money corrodes democratic expression, the perceptual gap between “capitol” and “capital” fades softly to nil.

I should note that “captial” employed as an ejaculatory statement also means “excellent” or “satisfactory;” such use carries a whiff of anachronism.

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MFT

Musical Family Tree is working toward the goal of providing a comprehensive archive for independent music stemming from the scenes I grew up in, Bloomington and Indianapolis. There’s a ton on there and I have some stuff that needs to be digitized, such as the amazing live farewell show by the Pit Bulls on Crack circa 1987. I alos have a bunch of stuff from John Terril that I should see if he wants shared, just amazing material.

Matt, had you seen this thing? Your stuff should go up there, immediately!