That's the sentence that bared it all ! Deep Throat, the Watergate informer was confirmed to be Mark Felt, then associate director of the FBI. The story was leaked by Vanity Fair magazine (Vanity Fair of all things ??) and confirmed by Bob Woodward on the 31st of May, the same day that the story leaked.

Mark Felt was the key control point for the Watergate investigation. All information gathered went through him. Infact, Nixon was caught on tape speculating that Felt migh be "an informer" as early as February 1973, at a time when Deep Throat was supplying confirmation and context for some of The Washington Post's explosive Watergate stories. But Felt's repeated denials, and the silence of Woodward and Bernstein kept the cloak of mystery drawn up around Deep Throat. In the 1970's, Felt was even convicted of organising illegal searches of houses of radicals but was pardoned By Ronald Regan in 1981.

"Deep Throat" was a blend of the rules of engagement Felt had with Woodward -- "deep background" -- and the title of a notorious pornographic movie. When the book and then the movie were released, Woodward said, Felt was shocked to have his place in history tagged with such a cheap title.Felt dreamed up the signal by which Woodward would summon him to a meeting (a flowerpot innocuously displayed on the reporter's balcony) and also hatched the countersign by which Felt could contact Woodward (a clock face inked on Page 20 of Woodward's daily New York Times).

Felt categorically denied being Deep Throat and repeatedly dismissed speculation by reporters over the years. Felt also hid the truth from his family until 2002, when a family friend in whom he had confided revealed the truth to Felt's daughter. Confronted by her, Felt admitted his secret to his family, they told Vanity Fair reporter John O'Connor.Caught flatfooted by Vanity Fair's announcement, Woodward and Bernstein initially issued a terse statement reaffirming their promise to keep the secret until Deep Throat died. Later however, Felt's identity was confirmed by Woodward.

The speculation surrounding Deep Throat's identity has focused on dozens of past Washington officials including Henry Kissinger,Pat Buchanan and even then U.N. ambassador George H.W. Bush !!

Posted by anish at 11:13 PM. |

It is the springtime of my loving - the second season I am to know
You are the sunlight in my growing - so little warmth I've felt before.
It isn't hard to feel me glowing - I watched the fire that grew so low.

It is the summer of my smiles - flee from me Keepers of the Gloom.
Speak to me only with your eyes. It is to you I give this tune.
Ain't so hard to recognize - These things are clear to all from
time to time.

Talk Talk - I've felt the coldness of my winter
I never thought it would ever go. I cursed the gloom that set upon us...
But I know that I love you so

These are the seasons of emotion and like the winds they rise and fall
This is the wonder of devotion - I see the torch we all must hold.
This is the mystery of the quotient - Upon us all a little rain must fall.

Led Zeppelin's 'The Rain Song', written by Robert Plant. Just couldn't resist this after today's downpour.... Its one of the rare songs to use the D-G-d-g-b-d open g tuning, so dont try to play this on a normal guitar. Originally written after George Harrison, a huge fan of Zeppelin complained to John Bonham that Zeppelin doesn't do any ballads. If anybody out there hasn't heard this song, I pity you....

Posted by anish at 10:01 AM. |

Our PM is busy searching for tigers in Ranthambhore. He's the first one to visit a tiger reserve in 20 years. As it turns out, the tiger numbers have dwindled so much that the pre-visit by officials failed to spot any tigers at all. Alarmed the prospects the rangers worked overnight by luring a tigress(who had just given birth and was in no position to wander far) near a watering hole by spreading carcasses all around. Furthermore, our PM goes in a 16 car motorcade to the heart of one the most eco sensitive areas in our country to watch tiger. Bleak the future is.

We need to seriously rethink our methods for tiger conservation. The Nagarjuna Sagar reserve in Andhra Pradesh is the only that has succesfully increased the number of tigers out of 29 sanctuaries under Project Tiger. Why ? Because it is in a Naxalite controlled area, and they do not tolerate poachers. A lesson in here somewhere ? Considering that we have only two to three thousand tigers still alive out of a 40,000 strong population around 1947, I think watching Kaal is the closest we'll actually come to watching a tiger. And dont count on the Rajiv Gandhi zoo either, the tiger cage has been off bounds for nearly 6 months now. Sarsika is a prime example. Despite the stand by the park chief that there are 23 tigers still in Sariska, not one has been seen since October 2004.

P.S. The Kaziranga sanctuary is soon to be declared a tiger reserve. Just what we need, another place to lose tigers.

Posted by anish at 11:42 AM. |

Looks like Laloo's proxy government at the hands of his wife will come back to power again. The 2 District Magistrate's who oppposed malpractices by Sadhu Yadav and Sahabuddin have been transferred and T.S. Krishna Murthy just does not have the flair or the will of James Lyngdoh. Looks like its back to the bad old days for Bihar. I'd like to quote Mr Paswan on this one 'When Muslims and Dalits vote for us, the upper castes will have no choice but to vote for us'. So who's worse ? Churchill's famous statement on Hitler is defineitely the best title for this post.

Posted by anish at 11:19 AM. |

Although i originally envisioned posts on marathi , hindi & english soap opera's, that is now a lost cause. I suffered enough while watching the one marathi soap mentioned in my previous post(FYI, the soap was 'bhagyavidhata') and cant, for the life of me; sit through some of the gruelling hindi charades.The less said about english soaps, the better... So for know, those posts are abandoned.

I do say that return of the sith deserves a post. The culmination of George Lucas's epic works or something along those lines... Here's some peculiar things I noticed in the movie :

1. Disability does not exist in the Star Wars galaxy. Lose a hand, get a metal one; have your feet chopped and your skin burned off, get more metal ones and a plastic skin; have your whole body destroyed and get your mind and heart transferred into an android....
2. Jedi really should carry an extra hand around. Current list of people who get their hand cut off includes Anakin Skywalker, Count Dooku,General Grievous,Mace Windu and Luke Skywalker. Want more ?
3. You can travel across the galaxy in seconds, but you cant have interference free communication.
4. There is no anasthesia.
5. 3-CPO uses the tagline human-cyborg relations. When did the people fom planet earth get involved in this ?
6. Jedi are blind. The force does nothing but give them vague shudders down their spine. Obi-wan has a bad feeling about everything !
7. Is it light sabers or laser swords ??

Posted by anish at 12:45 PM. |

part 1 : marathi soaps

After the end of the melodramatic extravaganza called 'Avantika', new entrants have filled the void which try to diminish my joy of Avantika's demise. Here's a choice pick of mine, some unknown serial I was forced to watch at my grandma's. The scene is, one newlywed couple is honeymooning in france.
A list of things that were wrong in that episode :

1. The *newlywed* groom takes his mother and mentally retarded sister along with him to his honeymoon.
2. They hire a private plane to take them to France. Its shown to be a prop driven Cessna. A prop driven plane that takes off from Pune and lands straight in Paris. Didn't know props had become that advanced did you ?
   
3. The couple is shown going to France. O'course they dont actually go to france, they are shown honeymooning in the Corinthian instead. Yeah, the one in Pune. Apparently France and Greece are the same now.
   
4. They drive around in France in a Ford Ikon with a MH-12 number plate.
5. They find a marathi speaking nanny for the retarded sister, who gets conviniently lost and drives away in the Ikon.
6. A close up of the apparently rented French Ikon key shows the words Vijaya Bajaj clearly.
7. The backgrounds seen in France show among other things Maruti Omnis, Pulsars and dark men in lungis working the gardens.
8. They visit a beach in Paris. A *beach* in Paris. Didn't know Paris had one of those did ya ?
9. The bride insists on seeing the 'Eiffel cha minara'. Eiffel must have turned in his grave.
   
10. The serial is interrupted from time to time with actual shots of Paris to prove they really are in France. Shots always showing the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower at night, even though the couple is just waking up.
    

I will try my best to get the name of this serial. If anybody knows, please feel free to comment. Next blog on hindi soaps...

Posted by anish at 10:41 AM. |

how to get outta ur pracs unscathed :

1. Remember, the external is not ur friend.
2. Remember, the external is not ur friend.
3. Never ever say that u read that in Tanenbaum.
4. Defend what you say vociferously, no matter how much offtrack u've gone. Never accept u are wrong, u'll flunk, but u still got ur dignity right ?
5. For the girls, crying on the bench helps. Will some courageous guy please volunteer to try this for our sake ?
6. If ur external has done a Ph.D. in RS 232 , steer 10 miles clear of that topic. I tell from experience.
7. The first batch is always the sacrificial lamb. Again, having the initials AB, I tell from experience.
8. Use floppies, CDs and thumb drives to copy programs generously. Dont be like me and end up being the only fool who actually did the program.
9. Remember, bullshit baffles brains ! But externals have no brains...


FYI : viva comes from the latin, 'viva voce' meaning live voice, and not from that idiotic band.

Posted by anish at 9:21 PM. |