Random Jottings 8.5

Watergate Redux Random Jottings 8.5, Watergate Redux is an irregularly published amateur magazine. It is available in printed form directly from Timespinner Press or through Amazon.com; a free PDF version is available at http://efanzines.com/RandomJottings/. It is also available for “the usual”: contributions of art or written material, letters of comment, attendance at Corflu 31, or editorial whim. Letters of comment or other inquiries to Michael Dobson, 8042 Park Overlook Drive, Bethesda, Maryland 20817-2724, [email protected]. Copyright © 2014 Timespinner Press on behalf of the individual contributors.

This issue was originally contained in the print edition of Random Jottings 9. For reasons of file size, I’ve broken this section off as a separate issue. The print edition, perfect bound with wraparound color cover, was published by CreateSpace and is available on Amazon for $9.95 retail, though they’re discounting it to $8.96, at least at the time of writing. http://www.amazon.com/dp/ 1499134088/.

This issue also contains the letter column on Random Jottings 8, which kind of works.

Artwork is by Steve Stiles except for pages 3 and 26, which are by Alexis Gilliland. Photos and memorabilia are from Earl Kemp or Wikimedia Commons. What Would Nixon Do?

Finally, my neighbor Mark Hill sent me a link RANDOM JOTTINGS 8 WAS the “Watergate to a Smithsonian Magazine story containing Considered as an Org Chart of Semi-Precious ’s FBI application, which I’ve Stones” issue, an anthology of various essays, reprinted here. The full story is at http:// comic book scripts, and other stuff about the tinyurl.com/NixonFBI. . The letter column, which is all about the Two letters of comment were of note. The first Watergate issue, completes the section. one I almost missed, because it was caught in my Random Jottings 8 also saw life as a book: junk mail folder. It was sent from “earl,” with a Watergate Considered as an Org Chart of Semi- subject line reading “Number 8.” Precious Stones, a title I love but which is “Michael, there is no escape for you. See incomprehensible to anyone outside the science what you caused. You should be ashamed of fiction. I’m planning a re-do that incorporates yourself. Please don't stop.” these new pieces, with the working title What There was an attachment labeled Would Nixon Do? “Dickless.doc.” I didn’t click on it immediately, There’s room for more material, in case but there was something about the message that you’ve got something to say about Watergate didn’t seem completely spammy. I took a closer yourself. look at the address and realized it was from Earl Kemp! Perhaps foolishly, I decided the attachment was probably safe and opened it to find his own Watergate story, “Dickless in San Clemente,” Ω which begins on the next page. The second came from Alice Sanvito, who noticed a curious omission. “Do you remember , John Mitchell’s wife? Wasn’t she blowing the whistle on these guys, too? Calling the press, telling them stuff? They made her out to be a crazy woman and carted her off to a mental hospital. I think, in the end, she turned out to be right. They did her wrong. How could I have forgotten? That omission is repaired in the essay following Earl’s, “Are You There, Post? It’s Me, Martha.”

3 SOMETHING UNACCEPTABLE has been California, Mexico. Only that walk is all uphill happening to my mail recently. Things that I have and all very negative, and unbelievably insulting. been told to expect just never arrive. I kept going And, because there is a much larger demand for a to the post office regularly, looking for those very U.S. post office box than the U.S. provides, there items but, time after time, there has been no “pick are a number of Mexican owned and managed up parcel at counter” notice in my mail box. And, sub post offices with boxes available for rent. It is just reaching that mail box is a bit of a struggle… there, under the Mexican handling, where my it involves encounters with the feds…the snarling parcels began stacking up. ones intent upon filtering out all the criminal There was one package I was particularly types trying desperately to enter the land of the anxious to get my hands on, that’s why I kept free and the home of the brave. For that reason I going back to my mail box week after week…all try to limit my time running that gauntlet. I force those trips without success. Finally, in myself to do it at least every week and a half. desperation, I approached the man behind the The U.S. post office is roughly three blocks counter and asked him if he would please check from the Mexican post office in the contiguous, and see if there was a package hidden in the back cross-border city of Tecate, CA, and Tecate, Baja room somewhere directed toward me. And he went to look, and he found FIVE parcels just

4 languishing there, gathering dust, for an unknown Damn you, Dobson…you’re making me period of time, including the one I was most remember, rework, reword all those thrilling days anxious to locate, and not one of them had a and nights with just me and Dickless, doing “pick up parcel at counter” notice placed into my battle, doing good, doing bad. Wasting time, mail box. remassaging the ancient wounds. Pissed off hardly describes my reaction. * * * * * * In 1959 I was a reasonably well known Included among those five parcels, delayed science fiction fan, collector, bibliophile, pain-in- for an unknown length of time, a copy of Michael the-ass wannabe something significant. By that Dobson’s fantastic Random Jottings 8 had also time I thought I knew absolutely every single resided there, ignored and lonely. person of any consequences involved with science fiction, and they knew me. But, at my No more. I had it in my hand, and I looked at core, I was really Mr. Moral the Wussy Man. My it and saw, glaring at me, the ugliest thing there dysfunctional background, lack of family input, ever was, the lying crook and major criminal, the etc. had not prepared me for life anywhere, much dickless wonder, Milhous Nixon. less in Chicago where absolutely everything I My hero. The man who loved me more than encountered was radically contrary to everything I any other. had ever known before. I was a stand-out outsider I could hardly wait to read Dobson’s to everything going on around me. thoughtful, considerate, well-researched prose. Most of my friends smoked weed and did Doing so, unfortunately, brought back to other drugs, and offered them to me, and urged mind many truly horrible memories, things I had me to join them in…in what?...I never knew then. fought long and hard just to try to forget, mostly It was nearly a decade later before I lost my unsuccessfully. virginity and did the down and dirty…smoking * * *

Earl Kemp

5 my first hit of marijuana. That virginity thing was It took me almost three years to begin to also a problem. The fact that I was married and recognize them as the unconscionable criminals a had children didn’t cut any ice. I would no more very large portion of them were in actuality. And, violate my imaginary moral restrictions than I the higher the ranking, especially into the federal would smoke that first joint. levels, the bigger criminals they were. And all around me, everyone I knew, Something happened to me that was beyond certainly my closest friends, were living normal my control. I began objecting violently (but only lives, loving at will, smoking them when they had inwardly) to them and, especially, to their illegal them, sharing themselves with others. It was really activities. One alone against the masses. One difficult for me to maintain most of anything while alone to correct the wrongs. One alone to save trying to convince myself that I was fitting in humanity. One alone to guarantee the future. rather nicely, doing the things my contemporaries My goodness, what a fucked-up mess I was were doing. But not. turning into. And, high on my list of absolutes was the * * * certain knowledge that the law-enforcement community existed only to protect me, and that All this, my world, changed abruptly when Ajay Budrys persuaded me to join William they were all honorable people devoted to the truth and justice. I, obviously, had a lot to learn. Hamling’s publishing combine in Evanston,

6 Illinois. It changed because for the first time I had And the feds began coming from every within my grasp far too much directly personal direction, uncoordinated, each seemingly acting knowledge of just how criminal those federal alone, and each more determined to rid the world fuckers were in the period of Mary’s reign over of “our kind” personally, with or without Mary law in the land. When the great fag John Edgar Hoover’s permission or desire. They broke every Hoover was running his personal pension rule in the law books, but they were law- compiling organization, assisted by his lifetime enforcement, they couldn’t be expected to, partner and bedmate, his lovely private dick, themselves, do anything as gross as obeying laws. Clyde Tolson. For Hoover there was no such thing They would walk into the office in the middle of as law and order. Law was what he decreed from the day and ask stupid questions. They would day to day as he would consort with his best divert our mail, open and read it. They would tap buddies, the local bookies, in his FBI office, our phone lines and listen to all the incoming/ making bets on sporting events he had no outgoing conversations. We would trip over them concept of and pocketing his illegal winnings. If standing around the office building during work he lost the bet, so what, it wasn’t his money he breaks. They would jump out of the landscaping was betting, it was the FBI’s…it was private and insult us when they could catch any of us citizens’ tax dollars…the federal feed trough. alone and unobserved. “I’m going to bust you, The year was 1961. Harlan Ellison was the fucker!” boss, but absolutely and positively not (he Internal office politics messed lots of things insisted), but he was. Budrys was his first assistant up. Ellison quit as chief editor…twice…and and messenger boy for CEO Hamling. I was fourth Budrys replaced him, and I moved up one notch string flunky and editor intern. We were gearing to become his second assistant. And the feds and up for very large scale production of what the local cops kept doing their thing. appeared to be titillating novels but weren’t. The And the more they did their thing, the more first job for all the editors was to make sure that we fought them in the quickest way we could. not one single salacious word appeared in any Each time they grossly transgressed against us, we one of those novels. It was all innuendo and false elevated the level of eroticism in our paperback pretenses, leaving the reader’s mind to fill in all novels. It was definitely a “fuck you” combat we the blanks for themselves. If they got a bit heated, were engaged in trying to equal the “fuck you” tumescent even, it was their own doing, never attitude they directed toward us. All of us lost, of ours, Hamling insisted on that. course…life isn’t for petty nuisances…. By 1964 Hamling had discovered California and fallen for it big time. It took him almost a full year to, slowly and with premeditation, switch his publishing operation over to the San Diego area, and another year to convince me, as chief editor by then, to move to California along with him. And I did, and Mr. Moral the Wussy Man died an abrupt death. California does things like that to the unsuspecting…alters the way they think, feel, act…turning them into viable beings for a change, starting with all that weed falling from heaven onto the grateful inconsequentials, inundating them in goodness and truth and inner realities and all that mysterious shit Don Genario taught as the way of Yaqui knowledge.

7 on the U.S. citizens. We were an integral part of Now the former Mr. Moral, finally wussyless, that commission from its very beginning. They could better direct his personal counter-attacks came to us. They asked many questions and against those depraved lawbreakers. Me against wanted very many research papers, etc. that we them all, Ma, top of the world! promptly supplied. They relied upon us to make The feds in California were much better connections between the commission and equipped and managed than the feds in Illinois people, places, things they felt they needed. Over (but of course you know everything was for sale time, several of those commission people (one in Illinois, and the price was negotiable always commissioner in particular, their executive between you and the law-enforcement guy director, and lots of insignificant clerical holding out his open hand as usual for more of helpers…better known as “whistle blowers”) were the same and bigger denominations this time….), frequent communicators. They kept us extremely but just as big criminals. It was much easier for well informed about the commission’s activities… them to, nightly, break into our offices and work including copies of correspondence, position their will against whatever they encountered, papers, advance copies of tentative placing all those bugs around the office. announcements…everything an honest, law- It was routine then for us to hire private abiding, major corporation could ever expect detective types to periodically “cleanse” the office from those who protect and serve. Especially if of all the illegal equipment. The same private that material they would send us referred to us in detective types who were mostly defrocked feds any respect. of some sort who were banished from the forces It was also the year when U.S. Supreme Court because of too much evidence against them but Justice Abe Fortas contacted us and demanded a at the same time the very people the feds relied “contribution” of $50,000 in cash to make sure upon so thoroughly to do most of their we “would never be convicted of any crime.” Of subcontracted dirty work. The same operators course we paid the bribe he demanded, hand would come in during the night and place those delivered to a secret hotel room in Washington, bugs as they would come in during the daytime D.C., where he spent an entire five minutes and remove same only to return the same night, accepting the loot. He resigned the following year on the federal payroll, and replace same. in disgrace. There was no way to avoid them. Pierre Salinger, personal assistant to President They would even follow us wherever we went Kennedy, a couple of years earlier, speaking and, by that time, we were going to very many directly for the president, insisted that for $20,000 places. There were international book fairs, (again in cash, such a piker), Kennedy would see publishing conferences, distributor conventions, that we weren’t indicted for any reason. Cash in and the like, all over the world. It must have been hand, he rushed off happily to deliver the loot to the plushest, most-sought-after assignments in the his master. Sure he did! FBI, CIA, and Interpol ranks. Just imagine weeks- In 1969 President Nixon took over and long “vacations” to far-off exotic places just among his first actions was to destroy Johnson’s dogging our steps, from one luxury hotel to the pornography commission. He began by dictating next. Those agents must have been fighting over to the commission the findings he wanted them to who got to do the most illegal, warrantless arrive at. And, one of his major movements to surveillance. For some of us, playing “spot the sabotage that commission was to replace retiring feds” became a continuous game. Again, a game commissioner Keating with (no relation) Charles without winners. Keating, rabid anti-human activist, founder of In 1968 President Johnson created a “Citizens for Decent Literature” (no one knew for commission to study the effects of pornography sure if Keating could read. He certainly couldn’t

8 write. Nixon had to have his speech writer, Patrick Buchanan, ghost all of Keating’s words from Nixon’s dictation) and major future criminal to be. It was he, Charles Keating, who stole all those millions of retiree funds from Lincoln Federal Savings and Loan to construct a major lush resort (The Phoenician) for extremely rich Republicans in Arizona. He went to prison for his crimes but was later “released” under mysterious circumstances but remained as a personal assistant to Nixon who was gradually surrounding himself with ex- and future convicts. It was also the year of the first world fair of sex, Sex 69, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Of course we attended, participated, was honored resoundingly, and we produced the book Sex 69 at Greenleaf commemorating that significant event. It was also the year when Midnight Cowboy, an X-rated film about adult sexual encounters was awarded the Oscar as best film of the year. When, in far too many cities no X-rated film was even allowed to be advertised in local media… including, especially in San Diego where, even on the day when Nixon finally resigned in disgrace to avoid criminal prosecution, the Union-Tribune ran puff pieces about what a really great guy he was…what crimes? Then came the big one…1970. Armed law- enforcement types, at Kent State University, opened fire upon many “First Amendment” activists, casually killing far too many of them. There were 750 Pussycat theaters showing hard- core pornography nation wide. It was also the year when I personally was a card-carrying member of Private Club in Copenhagen, where nonstop live sex shows were underway. A card- carrying member of Paradiso, the old shell of a discarded Catholic cathedral turned into cannabis “paradise” in Amsterdam, complete with left-over stained-glass windows. And the year when Suck, the sex newspaper, sponsored their first Wet Dreams Film Festival which, of course, we attended, along with special pot-

9 smoking buddies like Al Goldstein, from Screw, copy. I am still asked, publicly as well as privately and and ultimate hero Barney Rosset from Grove Press. secretly, to autograph copies for their owners. I do, of And, finally, on November 11th, shortly before course…it’s a shame to waste such egoboo. my 41st birthday, my personal response to all of If Nixon thought he knew me before then, he had Richard Nixon’s continuous illegal harassment another think coming. I was, finally, retaliating…doing became a reality. The Illustrated Presidential Report the unimaginable…fighting back…in spades! of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography * * * was published. Michael, see what you’ve caused? It’s all your fault, this reliving, all these babbling words, all this ado about nothing. * * * In 1971, with the national press finally daring to take note of Nixon’s personal crimes against the U.S. citizens he was allegedly representing, protecting, and helping…but in reality screwing without first at least lubricating or caressing…and the whole house of cards began tumbling down. The Pentagon Papers, thanks to an early day Edward Snowden (Hero of the world! Protector of the naïve and innocent!), began appearing in newspapers nationwide, starting with . And, on March 5th, several of us at Greenleaf Classics were indicted for publishing Illustrated. Our trial began on October 23rd. Behind the scenes, before the indictment, in D.C., Nixon ordered Attorney General John Mitchell to commit another criminal act in Nixon’s name to “get” us. Mitchell assigned his flunky assistant William Rehnquist the task of writing the script for our as yet unannounced trial and to staff it with the appropriate players. When we were finally indicted, Mitchell, on the front steps of the Justice Department, held a press conference announcing with great flourishes the take- down of the nation’s most prominent pornographers. I often wonder if, when he was ushered into his prison cell a couple of years later, if he remembered how he felt at that enchanting moment. (A copy of the unreleased, unpublished official report was hand-carried by one of the Locally, in San Diego, some of our well-placed and commissioner’s sons directly to San Diego and extremely knowledgeable friends and associates began directly into my hands, whereupon every preparing us for the upcoming indictment. Fortunately employee in Greenleaf was put to work, overtime, indeed because unknown to the feds we had direct-in producing the resulting, illustrated volume.) routes to Judge Thompson’s daily existence…the judge assigned to prosecute our case. I had access to every Now, some 44 years later, the book that cost piece of mail (not the contents) he received from D.C., $1.50 to manufacture and retailed at $12.50 is still to every telephone call from the White House, to notes available, via auction, online, for around $200 per

10 on Judge Thompson’s every personal visit to and as did a number of major U.S. publishing (Ian and with Nixon in San Clemente where they would Betty Ballantine, Dwight V. Swain, etc.) and routinely discuss that ridiculous “conflict of creative persons and scholars defending the First interest” stuff as Nixon would give Thompson Amendment. The trial lasted weeks and weeks…I direct orders of how to proceed. thought it might even go on forever. To me the whole thing was ridiculous, a Two professors from San Diego State fantasy of unreality. So very much knowledge of University each assigned one of their classes to inside, allegedly secret, definitely illegal but cover the trial. Each day the audience was packed unavoidable events to come. How could those with those professors and their students, each people, from such a lofty position, spend so very holding copies of the book and each there to much time and so very many millions of taxpayer support and encourage me. During breaks in the dollars to soothe the conscience of a notoriously trial they would line up in front of me so I could criminal president? sign their copies and they were joined in that line As the trial itself progressed, I was informed by court reporters, bailiffs, TV and news reporters, of each daily phone call, after the trial session and participants in other trials ongoing in the was over, from the White House, as Nixon was same building. kept up to date by his ass-kisser, Judge Thompson After the trial was concluded, members of the who, a few years later, was further rewarded by jury and alternates contacted me and asked if I being named chief judge of the district circuit. would please meet with them secretly and For our trial itself we received major support privately and sign the copies they had used from the former commission, including its throughout the trial, that the prosecution had executive director who appeared in our defense,

11 allowed them to keep as souvenirs of their public In reality Terminal Island was saturated with service. Of course I did, with smug satisfaction. sex (hetero, homo, and bi-) and overflowing In 1972, Nixon’s “friend,” the one he called with the best drugs money could buy. Even “that old cocksucker,” fag (I do not normally use this though the inmates were forbidden to possess word but because Hoover so insisted he wasn’t gay any currency, every day those prison guards he became THE anti-fag of the nation) Mary Hoover would leave work with their pockets stuffed with finally died. Watergate and the plumbers erupted Benjamins that, somehow, seemed to appear out full-blown upon the public consciousness and, for of the very air itself…the air that was Nixon, there was no longer any place to hide. The continuously filled with free-flowing, constantly shit had hit the fan for sure. The upcoming burning, thoroughly forbidden, hand-rolled presidential election convention was scheduled to joints. Scents of sex intruding from the pimps take place in San Diego. Massive infrastructure to and whores crowding the classrooms and accommodate such an event, including construction “doing it” beneath the tables surrounded by of a number of major chain major hotels, etc., took convict students. place. San Diego itself became an armed camp, What’s not to love about it? much to the discomfort of the local citizens. Every * * * route in and out of San Diego was periodically sealed off completely to prohibit any form of See what you’ve missed, Dobson? You, too, automobile movement. Armed prison camps were could become a First Amendment hero. All you set up around town to accommodate all those have to do is dissent. “radical unworthies” who were to be rounded up * * * and imprisoned for the duration of the convention In 1974, unable to pretend any longer, after so as not to inconvenience Dickless Nixon to any arranging his permanent and forever innocence, extent. And, after all that investment, all that dissent, tricky-Dick Nixon finally resigned. The nation all those far too many complaints from the local celebrated. citizens…at the very last minute the convention was In 1975 the rest of the Watergaters were cancelled and quickly moved to Miami “for Nixon’s convicted and sent to prison. In March, at the convenience.” district U.S. court of appeals, by a mysterious On February 7th our sentencing took place. vote of one, signed in a blur by a dying or dead In 1973 what little about Watergate was still justice who had been loudly and vocally on our unknown was revealed, prosecutions of the side throughout the entire session, declared us criminals involved began, and those White House guilty as charged. Oval Office presidential assistants began moving In December the U.S. Supreme Court took into prisons…including Attorney General of the U.S. over the case, and then Chief Justice William of A. John Mitchell himself. Vice President Spiro Rehnquist presided and, much to his delight, he Agnew, totally outside of Nixon’s criminal empire, even got to write the major opinion. Really was himself convicted of illegal money made me wonder what that “conflict of interest” manipulations and sent to prison. stuff was all about anyway. It was Rehnquist What a charming, prideful group of government who followed the criminal commands to “get” goons. What’s not to like about being free and us…to plan the case and write the script and brave? staff the actors. What the hell was he doing On June 7th we were formally sentenced to participating in the end game? prison, to Terminal Island in Long Beach, CA, a I note, with much interest, that Michael former Navy prison, then a co-educational “country Dobson, on page 54 of Random Jottings 8, had club” for very special federal felons. this to say about Rehnquist:

12 “Meanwhile the court case made its way to The oddest part came a little later. I finally the Supreme Court. On July 24, 1974, in the realized what a huge honor I had received, what case United States v. Nixon, the court ruled glorious knowledge about federal figures I had unanimously (with Justice William Rehnquist acquired. What a badge of honor had been recused because he had formerly worked for pinned on me. Such praise is hard to carry, it Nixon’s Justice Department) that the tapes grows heavier by the compliment received. should be released. Six days later, on July 30, I never dreamed, even had the slightest Nixon complied.” fantasy, that I could somehow become a First So, in 1974 his hands were so dirty he Amendment hero. That people would stand in couldn’t legally participate in Nixon’s line just to see me, to touch me, and to say conviction but by 1975, between drug- thanks, and to ask for a photo or an autograph, overdosing and luxury detoxing for “medical” or would “God bless” me. reasons, his hands were clean enough to Perhaps He had. I’ll never know the real celebrate his ultimate victory over little old me? truth. Surely you jest! * * * In 1976, after three months and one day of Even with all of Michael Dobson’s help. continuous drug consumption and saturated in sex activity, I was released from Terminal Island. * * *

13 Are You There, Post?

“I love its gentle warble. Although the world would later see her as I love its gentle flow. loudmouthed and flamboyant, Martha saw I love to wind my tongue up. herself as insecure and shy. She was left-handed And I love to let it go.” at a time when that was considered a disorder. At school, and during meals at home, her left Martha Mitchell’s hand was tied behind her back to force her to high school yearbook inscription use the “correct” hand, but to no avail. She developed a stutter, though she outgrew it, but when she became stressed or afraid in OF ALL THE STRANGE FIGURES in Watergate, later life, she would start to stumble over her only one achieved the distinction of having a mental words and quickly become incoherent. That illness named after her: Martha Beall Mitchell, the didn’t mean she stopped talking; she never “Mouth of the South,” wife of Attorney General John stopped. She had trouble telling left and right Mitchell. apart; she had trouble reading. She was prone to malapropisms; substituting “embellished” for The , named in her honor “abolished” or “detergent” for “deterrent.” by psychologist Brendan Maher, is the process by which a professional mistakes a She transposed numbers so badly that as an patient’s perception of real events as delusional. The adult her her long distance bills were always out effect is compounded in cases where the patient has of control. “Martha dialed more wrong numbers other mental health issues, as was clearly the case than she did right,” one friend said. for Martha. The Martha Mitchell Effect is most In high school, Martha was president of her common when patients have grievances against sorority. She sang in her church choir and taught other health professionals or institutions; they are Sunday School. In college, she developed a often considered crazy until proven otherwise. passion for dramatics, but her mother forbade Martha Beall came from the small town of Pine her to join a touring company in the summer. Bluff, Arkansas, population a little less than 50,000, “She thought a nice Southern girl should do one located in the southeast part of the state. Her father of two things — get married or teach,” Martha was a cotton broker and her mother was a said. She pledged Chi Omega. After her schoolteacher. (Some of what follows comes from sophomore year, she transferred to the 1979‘s Martha, by Winzola McLendon.) and was evidently part of the wilder social scene. She dated Al Capone’s

14 It’s Me, Martha Michael Dobson

son. She even met Bebe Rebozo, who would crop Mitchell’s star grew. He was hired as bond up again later in her life. counsel to New York’s governor, Nelson After college, Martha followed her mother into Rockefeller. It took a popular vote to raise the teaching, but after a year in Mobile, Alabama, borrowing limits for state and municipal bonds, returned to Pine Bluff. She became secretary to a but Mitchell found a way around the problem brigadier general at Pine Bluff Arsenal, a chemical by creating a new kind of financial instrument, a weapons repository. The general was transferred to “moral obligation bond.” A traditional state or Washington, DC, and Martha came along. She got municipal bond was a legal obligation, but married, moved to New York, and had a son. The Mitchell created special language that explained marriage was strong at first, but after her husband’s that while the government intended to make business failed, Martha resented his constant travel, bond payments, it wasn’t obligated to do so and later hired private detectives to uncover (hence, “moral obligation.”) The legal borrowing suspected affairs. They were divorced after ten years. limit remained in force, but “moral obligation bonds” didn’t count toward that limit. As the marriage unravelled, a friend arranged a blind date for Martha, and that’s where she and John In 1967, Mitchell’s law firm merged with Newton Mitchell met. Mitchell was a successful Nixon Mudge Rose Guthrie & Alexander, municipal bond lawyer. During the war, he (like JFK) bringing Mitchell into contact with the future had served as a PT boat commander, winning two President. The two men became friends, and in Purple Hearts and a Silver Star. 1968, Nixon asked Mitchell to serve as his campaign manager, a task Mitchell accepted According to Martha, it was love at first site. She with “considerable trepidation.” His went back to his place for a nightcap, and later said qualification? Mitchell explained it to a friend. John had told her that she was going to be his wife, “It was a natural. I’d been dealing with and would never have to worry about anything municipal and state bonds for thirty years and I again. They began dating every night, and a few knew every politician in the country, from the months later, her husband moved out. Within four courthouse clerk on up. months of the final divorce decree, she and John Mitchell were married. Martha became known for Mitchell ran the day-to-day operation, and her lavish parties, including one for former Vice is alleged to have played a major role in the President Richard Nixon, recently moved to New covert attempt to sabotage the Paris Peace York. Accords so the Vietnam War would not come to a premature end (see Random Jottings 8). After

15 Nixon’s victory, Mitchell was offered the post of Justice Department, in which Liddy asked for $1 Attorney General. Nixon made a direct appeal to million for dirty tricks. J. Edgar Hoover to avoid the usual background Part of Liddy’s Operation Gemstone plan was investigation, and Mitchell was confirmed easily. an operation known as “Einsatsgruppe” (from the He served from 1969 to 1972, when he resigned German SS units of the same name), which to chair the Committee to Re-Elect the President involved recruiting a team of professional mob (CREEP). killers to deal with troublesome protestors. It’s unclear the extent (if any) of Mitchell’s “And where did you find men like that?” involvement in the Plumbers side of the Mitchell asked. When told they were organized operation. He did believe in wide government crime figures, Mitchell asked about cost, and discretion on matters involving “national security, when told they were expensive, he said dryly, arguing for the legality of wiretaps without court “Well, let’s not contribute any more than we have approval in national security cases, and he argued to to the coffers of organized crime.” for an expanded police right of preventive detention. He had his own resources, however, At the meeting’s end, Mitchell brushed Liddy and didn’t need to be involved with the Plumbers. off. “Gordon, a million dollars is a hell of a lot of money, much more than we had in mind. I’d like On the campaign side, there was no such you to go back and come up with something ambiguity. As noted in the essay on G. Gordon more realistic. Oh, and Gordon — burn those Liddy, “Watergate Considered as an Org Chart of charts. Do it personally.” Semi-Precious Stones,” Mitchell heard the initial presentation in Mitchell’s inner office at the

Martha Mitchell (right) with Julie Nixon Eisenhower 16 Liddy kept coming back, first with a interview. (She claimed later the White House $500,000 plan and then with a $250,000 plan. had cleared it.) In the interview, she was asked This was approved, although, as Jeb Magruder about the recent anti-war Vietnam Moratorium. said, “No one was particularly overwhelmed with Referring to the protestors as “very liberal the project, but after starting at the grandiose sum Communists,” she added “As my husband has of $1 million, we thought that probably $250,000 said many times, he’d like to take them and would be an acceptable figure. We were reluctant change them for the Russian Communists.” to send him away with nothing.” Mitchell’s first reaction when he heard the Mitchell, in any event, had other issues, interview was laughter, but walked back her especially in fundraising. His name showed up in characterization to claim he wasn’t talking about a deposition regarding fugitive financier Robert protestors in general, but “violence-prone militant Vesco. The resultant investigation led to his radicals.” Martha took this as a personal rebuke indictment (along with his finance chairman and holed up in her house for days. Maurice Stans) for obstructing an investigation This phase didn’t last long. Outraged at into Vesco following a $200,000 donation to the Senatorial opposition to the Supreme Court Nixon campaign. (They were both acquitted.) nomination of Judge Clement Haynsworth, In spite of that, he found time to attend Martha began threatening Senate wives with planning meetings on the Watergate burglary political retribution if their husbands voted agains (caught on tape and corroborated by other the judge. The offense was compounded by rough testimony), and used the resources of the Justice language — Martha had been marinating her Department in the attempt to cover up the anger in alcohol. Several Senatorial wives, hugely scandal, the crimes for which he eventually went offended, leaked the story to the press. to jail. This time the feedback was more positive, But we were talking about Martha. paralleling the reaction to Spiro Agnew. John was more supportive: “Anything my wife does is fine with me,” he said. Martha continued her signature parties on her move to Washington, and particularly enjoyed the The White House seemed to agree. Martha various perks of being the wife of the Attorney became known as “the account,” and was used as General: rides on Air Force One, weekends at a mouthpiece to say what nobody else could get Camp David, access to the Presidential yachts, away with saying. However, Martha could not be and (useful for Martha’s telephone issues) the kept on message. She called for wage and price White House switchboard available to place calls. controls against Nixon’s own policies, lobbied for a female Supreme Court justice, and most Warned by the White House not to trust any famously was quoted as saying, “The Vietnam War reporters, she stayed away from them at first. She stinks!” She tried to humanize her husband, gave a few obligatory “loving little wife” calling him “cute and soft and cuddly,” and even interviews, and otherwise kept her mouth shut once called Richard Nixon “sexy” on national around the press. This changed in late 1969 when television. a Wall Street Journal story revealed that Martha Mitchell was allergic to marijuana. (While visiting She was a heroine to the right and a the Bureau of Narcotics along with other Justice scatterbrained loudmouth to the left, but she was wives, she sniffed some burning marijuana in a very much news. According to her biographer, demonstration. She got the hives and needed she was “the most talked about, written about, medical treatment.) adored or hated, praised or maligned, admired or ridiculed Cabinet wife in the history of the United Somehow, CBS Morning News got hold of States.” Martha directly, and persuaded her to tape an

17 In a 1971 newspaper story about Vice Watergate break-in. She saw the Operation President Spiro Agnew's gag Christmas gift list. Gemstone outline on Jeb Magruder’s desk. Included on the list were: "For Martha Mitchell, a brand-new Princess phone. For John Mitchell, a padlock for a brand-new Princess phone." Martha was in California when the Watergate break-in story erupted. When Mitchell issued a By now, Martha had her own network of press statement that James McCord was an petreporters: Lloyd Shearer of Parade, Helen outside consultant, not a CREEP staff member, Thomas of UPI, and Bob Woodward of the Martha knew it wasn’t true. She couldn’t make up Washington Post. her mind whether McCord was a double agent or Martha bitterly opposed John Mitchell’s whether he was following orders. appointment as CREEP chairman, seeing it as a Disturbed, she lit a cigarette, but the pack of substantial demotion from being Attorney matches burst into flame and severely burned her General. John thought it would be safest if the right hand. The doctor who treated her gave her CREEP publicity professionals could manage tranquilizers and pain killers; Martha was never Martha during the campaign, so she got her own able to remember the following days in detail. office and staff to field media and endorsement She tried to figure out what was going on, but no activities. Unfortunately, the people overseeing one would talk to her. She decided the only Martha weren’t particularly competent solution was for John to quit politics immediately, themselves, and quickly got their client and the and she sent him an ultimatum. For good campaign into serious trouble by approving measure, she called to tell her Martha’s endorsement for an organization called what she’d done. While she was on the phone, Young Americans for Freedom. one of the CREEP aides rushed into her bedroom, It sounded harmless enough, but the YAF’s threw her back on the bed, and ripped the phone politics were somewhere between wearing a from the wall. When Thomas called back, she was tricorner hat and wearing a tinfoil one. The told that Martha was “indisposed.” The doctor organization voted to oppose Nixon’s re-election, came back to administer more drugs; Martha evidently on the grounds that he was just a liberal fought back, but it was no use. “They pulled wimp, and began a fund drive to raise $750,000 down my pants and shot me in the behind,” she — using letters bearing Martha’s name. said. Fortunately for the campaign, the envelopes bore Staff put out the word that she was drunk and CREEP’s mailing address, and she ended up with doped, that anything she had to say was simple hundred of thousands of dollars in cash floating hysteria. Handlers tried to get her back to around her office. CREEP accounting standards Washington, but she slipped away and called UPI being what they were, that money joined the again, claiming she was being held against her other wads of cash scattered about the premises. will as a political prisoner, and had been beaten. In the end, Martha had the money returned to the The reporter who showed up noted the black and individual donors. blue marks on Martha’s arms, but found the The campaign tried to feed her substantive wildness of her story hard to credit. answers as an administrative spokesperson, but it Why did Martha want to spill the beans on was the uncensored Martha that got headlines. Watergate so badly? In part, it was idealism; in Highly popular, she ended up with the most part, it was her belief that the Nixon White House demanding schedule of anyone at CREEP, was trying to make John take the fall. In any although the staff there despised her. Martha was event, the administration went to some lengths to known as a compulsive eavesdropper. She later keep her from talking. On the phone with Helen claimed to have overheard parts of the dirty tricks Thomas, she said, "I've given John an ultimatum. planning, including her husband working on the I'm going to leave him unless he gets out of the

18 campaign. I'm sick and tired of politics. Politics is through with it, fearing her body would end up in a dirty business." an undignified and unladylike position when it hit A few moments later, her voice became the pavement. agitated. “You get away. Just get away.” The line After Nixon’s resignation, Martha’s reputation went dead. Thomas called back, only to be told, became somewhat rehabilitated. The “Cassandra “Mrs. Mitchell is indisposed and cannot talk.” of Watergate” was no longer disbelieved. She Thomas followed up with a call to John started appearing on talk shows and gave Mitchell, who reassured her, "That little interviews. However, her mental health issues sweetheart," he said. "I love her so much. She gets continued. A little over a week before John was a little upset about politics but she loves me and I scheduled to enter prison, her anger boiled over. love her and that's what counts.” Later, it She went berserk, so much so that a friend took developed that John Dean and other White House her child home for safekeeping. (Martha filed people were in the room with John, and had a kidnapping charges against the friend.) John good laugh over the situation. simply barricaded himself in the apartment until she exhausted herself and fell asleep. He left early Martha’s demand that John quit CREEP was, the next morning; Martha never saw him again. surprisingly, met — though later Nixon tapes made it clear he was simply being moved to In 1975, Martha fell while opening a handle more of the cover-up. The effort to refrigerator door, and X-rays revealed she had two discredit Martha went into high gear. She was an broken ribs and a broken vertebra. But it also alcoholic (probably true), completely delusional. revealed something else: Martha had multiple Her own family believed the story and withdrew myeloma; her bones were brittle and full of holes. from her. A year later, on May 31, 1976, she slipped into a coma and died. She was 57 years old. In spite of John Mitchell’s withdrawal from CREEP, the Watergate scandal drew closer and Richard Nixon said of her, “If it hadn’t been closer to him. Martha pleaded with him to roll for Margaret Mitchell, there’d have been no over on Nixon, plea bargain or turn state’s Watergate.” That’s probably an exaggeration, but evidence, but he refused, banking on eventual the heavy handed Administration efforts to keep executive clemency. She defended her husband her quiet testify how seriously Nixon viewed the fiercely, though she had become disenchanted threat. with her marriage. She had a physical fight with the press outside her house, throwing a cap at Martha Mitchell considered herself as having one reporter and hitting another with her open been persecuted more than any woman in the hand. “You are part of the Communists — every history of the world. When a reporter challenged one of you!” she shouted, and called on passers- her, Martha cried, “Name one woman who was by to go beat the reporters up. However, the persecuted more, just name one!” The reporter scandal took its toll on their marriage, and the ventured the name of Joan of Arc. couple separated in 1973. “She only burned!” Martha replied. John Mitchell testified before the Senate Watergate Committee in July of that year. Martha watched on television, periodically screaming at the TV. “You’re a goddamn liar! You’re a goddamn liar! Tell the truth!” She called the committee to advise Senator Baker to “get John so mad...that he will just blurt it all out.” She threatened suicide several times, once by leaping from her bedroom window. She didn’t go

19 Richard Nixon’s FBI Application

20 Richard Nixon applied to be an FBI agent shortly before he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937. Obviously, not all FBI applications are preserved, but someone noticed who it was from, and so it eventually ended up in the US National Archives.

21 After submitting this application, Nixon took a dictation test and underwent a 40-minute interview with a special agent in July of 1937. At the request of J. Edgar Hoover, he also had a physical. Nixon later said he never heard anything back from the FBI, though FBI records said he was actually accepted, but the offer was revoked before he was ever notified — Hoover said it was budget cuts.

22 In 1954, Vice President Nixon spoke at the graduation ceremony for the FBI National Academy. Hoover introduced him, and made mention of the fact that Nixon had applied to be an FBI agent. “The FBI’s loss ultimately became the country’s gain,” Hoover said, apparently without irony.

23 Random Jottings

Gregory Benford Good issue, bringing all those horrors back. Nixon's greatest damage comes from the War on Drugs he started and we've lost, and his price fixing that damaged the economy. He knew no economics. I refereed a debate between Liddy & Leary at UCI in the 1980s, had dinner with them, kept them moving in the debate. Liddy was organized and sharp, Leary a befuddled mind, using one liners to get a laugh. I asked Liddy why he thought the country was in so much danger he would break laws to defend it. He said, because the left was about to take over by violence. He still seemed to believe it, too. — [email protected]

Ned Brooks What was I doing during the fall of Tricky Dick? I have a very poor memory for when anything happened. Of course, as a NASA engineer (or were they calling us “Aerospace Technologists” then?) I was in a very distant way working for Nixon. Apparently I was writing a FORTRAN program to allow anyone to generate high-precision coordinates for any of the old NACA wing sections. These were known to be pretty good, so that if you wanted to make improvements you might as well start there. In real life I was publishing It Comes in the Mail... I always thought that Watergate was a distraction from the much worse things that Nixon did, but it did let us see what sort of vermin populated the upper reaches of government. The cover looks as though Nixon had been playing the traverse flute and someone took it away suddenly. You aren’t the only one to complain about the messiness of mimeography, and I remember Phil Harrell using his Roneo (he normally used a Gestetner, but the Roneo would do a large area of solid color) and getting as much ink on himself as on the paper. But I never slipsheeted, and never had more of a mess than the occasional inky fingertip. I never used a lot of corflu, either — and none at all once I switched to cutting stencils with a dot- matrix printer. I am puzzled by the idea of publishing a book for each day of the year — what will these books include? Will the one for February 8 note that it’s my birthday? Or list more important things that happened on that day somewhere in history. Reminds me a little of David Wells’ Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers. The concept “day of the year” gets a little fuzzy if you look back before our current calendar was standardized. (The books-for-each-day have holidays/celebrations, events, births, deaths, and trivia about the month. They’re averaging about 80 pages (5.25”x8”) each, with lots of photos culled mostly from Wikimedia Commons. I do have a section about Julian/Gregorian and other calendars; the best on-line source for calendar conversion issues is the Fourmilab Calendar Converter at http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/

24 on Random Jottings 8

Letters (Editorial comments thusly.)

calendar. As far as putting you in the February 8 book, I certainly think of you as a historically significant person who deserves to be immortalized for the ages. Or something like that.) Funny cartoon by Steve Stiles! — [email protected]

Chris Garcia Sounds like Watergate is to you what the Jack the Ripper/William Desmond Taylor/JFK murders are for me: an endless source of fascination. I was born after Watergate, a few months, and thus missed all of that. As a result, I often look at Nixon through much different eyes than those who were there. I've looked into Watergate, even met a couple of the players in the scandal, but really, Nixon opened up China, ramped Vietnam into the frothiest of froths, then pulled the plug. He was a pretty good Ex-President, certainly not Carter, but better than many. I went to his Presidential Library while he was still alive, it was very well-done, even covering Watergate in a way that felt like they understood that you have to give a reality-based view. I also love that G. Gordon Liddy was at ringside for WrestleMania 2. And shockingly, this issue might just add Watergate to my list of obsessions! I've always loved Watergate movies, and the one that makes me happiest is Dick. It's the kind of Secret History, brilliantly a combination of teen flick and history comedy. Bruce McCollough as Bernstein was hilarious. It actually gave Nixon some humanity, which is interesting. Sadly, though it's by one of my three favorite directors (up there with David Lynch and Abel Ganz), Nixon wasn't a great movie. I mean, Oliver Stone was working in his finest arena, the script was strong enough in written form, the performance by Anthony Hopkins was great-ish, and the supporting roles strong, but for some reason, it didn't cross that line into wonderful. I need to watch it again. I just re-watched JFK (three times in two days!) and I found a lot of things that got me deeper into the story, and sent me back to my research volumes! I've met folks on the Enemies List. Daniel Schorr and Paul Newman, who both loved being added to that list. On the Master Political Opponents list, I've met Carol Channing, Jo 'Willy' Namath, Daniel Ellsberg, Henry Rowen, and various members of the Black Panthers and Common Cause. And my Enemies list also included Jack Valenti, the only former human upon whose grave I am apt to piss. The RAND Corporation always turns up, doesn't it? I've hung around with a bunch of old timers from the RAND Corporation as a part of my time at the museum. It's tied in with so many different areas of the government, even comes up frequently in the JFK conspiracy. One of my favorite quotes from The Simpsons is Milhouse (how apropos) - “...the Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people. Under the supervision of the reverse vampires, are forcing our parents to go to bed early, in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner. We're through the looking glass here, people.”

25 I used to live a few blocks from the Watergate, there was a Safeway there that all the kids in the dorm would go to like clockwork on Thursday night. It's run down now, It still had some of the class it did when it was first built back in the late 80s when I first visited, and even some of it leftover in the early 1990s when I lived there. Now, it needs a major upgrade. To me, it's an ideal site for a museum! Perhaps dedicated to the History of Video Games. Then again, I think every large building would be great for a museum of video games... I can't be the only one who REALLY wants to see the re-written history of a world where "Mr. Jameson Goes to Washington" was released and became the greatest of all Spider-Man issues, thereby changing everything and forever, and somehow, leading to me becoming a well-respected folk artist. All the threads are there, trust me! Lots of talk of The Godfather, which is one of my favorite films, and more importantly, it tells a story that is uniquely 1970s, you can see every major movement of the decade, some not even begun yet!, in the first two films. I once wrote a piece about The Godfather 2's scene of Don Corleone in the 20s were tied decisively to EST. It's true! You know, I'd love to see what Rick Geary would do in a graphic novel adaptation of Watergate. That could be magic! — [email protected]

Alexis Gilliland At the time, I followed Watergate closely if not obsessively, to the point where Nixon became almost a replacement for my father, who died in 1971, and with whom I had had issues on a number of subjects. Naturally I read and reread Woodward and Bernstein’s All the President’s Men and its sequel The Final Days when they came out a year or two later. Earlier this month we watched the DVD of All the President’s Men, which remains an engrossing movie despite the absence of car chases and explosions. — [email protected]

(My old DC apartment on 17th Street NW makes a cameo appearance in the movie of All the President’s Men. There’s a very long shot swooping over the city to arrive at the Library of Congress, where Woodward and Bernstein are doing research, and my apartment window is clearly visible.)

26 Tony Gruebl I just finished Random Jottings 8. [Thoughts that I dare not say out loud are in grey.] I really enjoyed it. [Until, that is, I hit the Random Jottings on Random Jottings chapter and remembered on what side of the political fence you reside. Alas, I’m resigned to the fact that while we work well together, we shall never desire to live in the same country. I doubt you will visit me in my theocratic, slave owning south, China style repulsive republic who sends terrorists to your enlightened north where Obama has free reign to make the world right again.] Thanks for sending it. It was an amusing read. — [email protected]

(Tony is the author of Bare-Knuckle Project Management, with me as credited ghostwriter. It’s available in ebook form for free at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/321173.)

Lloyd Penney I think Americans now have the temporal distance to look back at the Nixon administration, and see what damage it did, especially through the lens of Watergate. Me, a non-American? Not so much. I’d like to know how you non-fannish friends who receive this publication receive your description of fandom. We know the origins of fandom and why it arose, but I’d wonder how non-fans would react to it. I do remember a lot of what happened with Watergate, but I am sure there’s plenty I’ve forgotten. Has it all been discovered? Do we know everything about the events that led up to it, and everything that was done in the name of the presidency? Did Woodward and Bernstein discover everything, or have there been some important things discovered since, even in the last few years? (Certainly the revelation (confirmation) that FBI Associate Director Mark Felt was Deep Throat was a big deal. Woodward, of course, knew, but not even Bernstein was officially in on the secret. Questions remain about who ordered the burglary and the motivation; theories abound.) In my humble non-American opinion, I can see where some would forget that Watergate existed, mostly because of the unsuccessful Republican efforts to discredit Barack Obama through various methods, including the efforts of the Tea Party. Exaggerations, fabrications and outright lies…perhaps Watergate was the source of all the disgusting anti-Democrat tactics America has had to endure over the last few years? Nixon may have resigned, but are there any conspirators who went to prison for their misdeeds, and may still be there? It’s been long enough, and probably most of those prison sentences have elapsed, or those serving the sentences probably passed away in prison. Steve Stiles’ artwork adds to the question I’ve wanted to ask. Are there parallels between the attitudes of the Watergate conspirators, and today’s GoP/Tea Party outrage? And can they be placed side by side for comparison in the format of a book? (I try to distinguish between the content of political ideas and their expression. The Tea Party clearly fits on the right end of the political spectrum, as did the Nixon Administration, but that doesn’t automatically make the Tea Party criminals in waiting. People on both left and right have from time to time decided that their goals were too important to be left to the people, and that violence and other criminal activity were appropriate tools to achieve those ends — Liddy’s “Battle Override.” Most people — on the left and the right — don’t go that far, although people often say things in the heat of argumentative passion that they don’t intend to follow through on.)

27 This sorry episode should still be in the public eye, but the public has been trained to care more about Dancing with the Stars and Snooki on Jersey Shore and less about the breaking news of the day. Attention span is now an oxymoron, measured in seconds. The chart on page 90…I think with the state of politics today, all sides have forgotten the difference between an enemy and a member of the opposition. Or, they have decided there is no difference. — [email protected]

Milt Stevens I can easily accept Random Jottings #8 as a fanzine. I’ve seen all sorts of strange things that were technically fanzines. In one case, there was a cactus that had an issue number. At some point, a fanzine does become a book. Fancyclopedia II and the Willis issue of Warhoon are examples of that. Niekas and Fantasy Commentator are examples of large publications that were still fanzines (to my tastes). With the increase in size, both fanzines were really anthology series. I heard your explanation of the cost advantages of your current format at Corflu. I have no plans for doing a really big fanzine at any time in the future, but I’m glad the advantages exist for people who want to do that sort of thing. You could use this format for a Best of the Year fan anthology. Unfortunately, people who do such public spirited projects are usually roasted for their efforts. Fandom does include some people who regard disagreement as an excuse for tar and feathers. That may be a major reason why there haven’t been any such anthologies in recent years. I never expected to see an issue of a fanzine devoted to Watergate. I think your cover is perfect. It admirably summarizes the whole situation. Before looking at this issue, I had pretty much forgotten about Watergate. More correctly, the memory was filed in some back bin where I keep things like the name of Alexander the Great’s horse. It’s funny I tend to know more about historical events that happened before my conscious lifetime than about those that occurred during my conscious lifetime. With historical events, I’ve read the summary which was written to make everything make sense. With current happenings, I’m focused on my own concerns and only have a little bit of brain space left over for the world in general. At the time of Watergate, I was just getting involved with working on conventions, and that was requiring all of my attention. I voted for Nixon. Given the choice between Nixon and Humphrey, I’d probably vote for him again. Nixon had some major personality flaws and his charisma was way over in the minus column. I’ve never seen anyone say that Humphrey would have been better. I marvel at our apparent ability to have uninspiring elections. The Continental Congress was possibly the finest collection of men ever assembled for any purpose. Why haven’t we been doing so well lately? — [email protected]

R-Laurraine Tutihasi It looks like a book, but I'll take your work for it that it's a fanzine. I dog-ear pages on fanzines that I want to comment on. I watched the Watergate hearings during the few months between grad school and getting my first real job. The televised hearings began the day before my birthday. I watched for about two months until it was time to start my job. I was just mesmerized by the proceedings. There are three other times in my life when the TV took over my life like that. The first time was JFK's funeral. The second time was the first manned lunar

28 landing. The third time was during the LA riots in 1992 (I think I have the year right); I had left my condo that was too uncomfortably close to the riots and was staying at my sister's in Glendale. Your articles were also of interest, because I'm fairly familiar with project management, having worked in aerospace where that was important. I was never a project manager, but I was often just one step down from that. I have a correction on the quote "Wotta revolting development!" If I can trust Wikipedia, Chester A. Riley's use of the phrase on the radio show "The Life of Riley" predated The Thing's usage by about twenty years. The radio show was on in the 1940s. — [email protected]

Bruce Townley There was a big, fat envelope in my mailbox last night. "Oh cool," I thought. "Maybe this is the next issue of Rob's zine. Possibly people commented nicely on the nice article that I had in the previous issue. That would be nice if they did. Nicest of all would be if Rich had read the thing all the way through." So I went upstairs, entered my conapt, put the groceries away and sat down to look at my mail. Imagine my shock and horror when I opened up that big, fat envelope and RICHARD NIXON's grim visage leered out at me. The zine's a hulking huge thing all about RN apparently. In honor of what is obviously a labor of love, no matter how twisted, let me present this link to a piece from The Onion's A. V. Club, "We'll always have Nixon to kick around: 17 memorable moments in Nixonia". My fave items in same are Harry Shearer's "Nixon in Heaven" bits on his radio show, LE SHOW and the Nixon head in a jar in FUTURAMA. http://www.avclub.com/articles/well-always-have-nixon-to-kick-around-17-memorable,2556/ — [email protected]

Taral Wayne I lived through Richard Nixon, in fact I even remember the Kennedy/Nixon debate on TV ... just barely. I would have been 8-years-old, and I found my issues of Tales of the Unexplained comic books more interesting at the time. The thing about Nixon, though, is that in many ways the less said, the better. I regard him as the beginning of the degeneracy of the office of President ... although the real rot probably didn't start until Reagan, who began to undo 40 years of progress that had been initiated by Roosevelt, leading ultimately to today's neo-con inspired global recession. — [email protected] We Also Heard From... Donna Cunningham — What do you want me to do with it? • Douglas Niles — Boy, that Nixon was an S.O.B., wasn’t he? • Alice Sanvito — I could never remember who was who in Watergate and now I don’t feel so badly about that. • Bruce Townley — Keep a wary eye out for the card with the stamp with the Yellow Delicious apple on it.

29 “Don’t shoot me, I’m only the piano player.”