According to the Associated Press, Fred LaRue, one of the men suspected of being the Watergate informant known as "Deep Throat," has died.

Most of you are probably familiar with the story, but I’ll repeat the salient points for those you unfamiliar with the pinnacle event in U.S. history that has led to so much government distrust over the last thirty years.

First of all, the name "Deep Throat" came from an X-rated movie that was popular at the time of the Watergate scandal; it was also a play on the phrase "deep background." He/she came to public attention in a book by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, a pair of Washington Post journalists who wrote a series of articles on Watergate. The book, All the President’s Men, was turned into an excellent movie, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein respectively, and Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat.

According to the lore, only three people know the identity of Deep Throat: Woodward, Bernstein, and their editor, Benjamin C. Bradlee.

There have been a number of theories about the identity of Deep Throat. One of them, that Deep Throat is actually a composite of several sources, has been denied by Woodward, who said that Deep Throat is a man in the former Nixon administration. He further stated that he would reveal his identity upon the informant’s death.

Woodward has yet to comment on LaRue’s death, which, according to the coroner, was the result of natural causes.

Or maybe that’s just what they want us to think.

Ian

Unless you’re putting them up for sale or operating some kind of lending library, I can think of no good reason to post your book/CD/movie collection online except to brag about what you own. Oh, look at what I have! I can’t figure it out. Why else would you want strangers on the web to know that you have the complete set of X-Files box sets? Does anyone care? I guess with books it might be seen as a status symbol. For example, if I owned the collected works of Tolstoy and post said information online, then I might project the impression that I am both intelligent and morally deep. More likely I’ll look like a pompous intellectual, and frankly I think I could probably do that without the book list. A truly marketable skill.

Ian

One of the teams in this year’s Amazing Race is a Christian couple who believes they will win because God is watching over them. Seriously. But if they lose, I’m sure it will be because the Lord works in mysterious ways. It’s the escape-route answer for the overly faithful to accommodate the contradictions that periodically threaten to destroy the bubble in which they live.

Not generalizing all religious people, of course, just the zealots and the wackos.

Ian

Just finished reading the sci-fi classic Neuromancer, by William Gibson, the man who launched the cyberpunk genre, coined the term "cyberspace," wrote a couple of X-Files episodes (one of them good, "Killshot," one of them very, very bad, "First Person Shooter"), and inspired several of elements features in the Matrix trilogy.

Speaking of which, I was surprised as to just how much the Wachowskis borrowed from Gibson. Neuromancer introduces the concept — and the name — of the matrix as a computer-created reality; a haven called Zion is featured (a space-station, in this case); and Mona Lisa Overdrive, one of Gibson’s other novels, is the title of one of the tracks on the original score to The Matrix Reloaded (specifically, the piece played during highway chase scene).

Neuromancer is an innovative first novel. It made me go out and pick up a bunch of other Gibson books, so I guess he’s doing something right.

Strongly recommend.

Ian

Remember a week or so back I told you about a documentary on M. Night Shamayalan, and how I was kind of suspicious that it was a mockumentary in the same vein as the marketing campaign behind The Blair Witch Project? Yeah, well, it turns out I was right. And according to the Associate Press, some people weren’t too happy about it.

Ian

Today I want to tell you about a writer friend of mine who has a new piece out this month. His name is Sean McNealy and, like me, he works for the CNIB. Before that he was a travel writer, then 9/11 happened and did for the travel industry, and since then he’s had to find other work. But that hasn’t stopped him from writing, as you can see for yourself by picking up the July issue of explore magazine. Cheers, Sean.

I should also mention Peterborough has suffered heavy flooding after an intense rainfall last night. Only Peterborough, nowhere else. Asked the gf if a gypsy curse was put on the place, but she only gave me a look. It wasn’t a denial …

Ian

Following the U.S. Senate’s report on faulty information from CIA (which paved the way to invading Iraq), an investigation into the British Joint Intelligence Committee found that some of their sources were "seriously flawed," and that the original dossier published last September on the threat posed by Iraq should not have included the claim that Saddam could deploy WMD within 45 minutes.

The walls keep tumbling down, eh?

Ian

Picked up a very interesting collection of horror fiction the other day. It’s called My Favorite Horror Story, and the premise is easy enough to guess. Contemporary horror authors (Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson, Joyce Carol Oates, to name a few) have picked their favorite horror stories and written introductions to each one. I’ve read the first one, "Sweets to the Sweet" by Robert Bloch, chosen by Stephen King, and it was quite good. A simple story with a wicked kick at the end. Just how I like ‘em. I recommend you pick it up.

Ian