(no subject)
Local political journos find it really hilarious to pun on 'Watergate' when reporting minor scandals, chortling at their Wildean powers of invention. I've never understood why. Watergate was forty years ago and the newly 'gate'-ed words have no obvious lexical relation to it ('Iguanagate'? 'Utegate'?). At last, though, I've come across a passably witty use of 'gate', by Hendrik Hertzberg in the heading of a blog post on some airport kafuffle involving a US senator:
DEPARTUREGATEGATE, OR NEWS OF THE TRIVIAL
There's a lesson in this for our political media. But the safest advice is: when you come to a 'gate', stop!
DEPARTUREGATEGATE, OR NEWS OF THE TRIVIAL
There's a lesson in this for our political media. But the safest advice is: when you come to a 'gate', stop!