more -gates

[Laurence Horn]

On Mar 22, 2012, at 11:41 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:

> Larry Sheldon
>> Do we have a gate=gate here?
>
> The cliche use of the suffix -gate is perhaps worthy of a scandal
> label: gate-gate. I was sidetracked while looking for "gate-gate" by
> an interesting claim about "winegate" in the following article:
>
> San Francisco Chronicle
> Will 'gate-gate' ever cease?
> by John Diaz
> Sunday, July 25, 2010
>
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/24/IN921EFO31.DTL
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> The first use of the "gate" suffix as a designation for scandal was
> believed to be "Winegate," which involved the adulteration of Bordeaux
> wines in France.
>
> After that, the floodgates were open, even before "Floodgate," a 1978
> corruption scandal involving Rep. Daniel Flood, a Pennsylvania
> Democrat.
>
"Floodgate" isn't bad; two of the other classic -gates were "Underwatergate" for the coverup of the sinking of the Greenpeace flagship "Rainbow Warrior" in 1985 by French government secret agents (to avoid Greenpeace monitoring the French nuclear tests near New Zealand) and then gradually being forced to take responsibility for the action after first denying it, and "Pearlygate" for the series of scandals + coverups involving sexual and financial shenanigans of various televangelists beginning perhaps with the one involving Jim Bakker and Jessica Hahn back in the early '80s.

LH

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