Date:  Mon, 26 Jan 1998 13:37:24 -0500
From:  Larry Horn <laurence.horn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Sexgate words (a defense)

>Why is this here? Partisan and not funny. Please, no Ken Starr wannabes
>on this list.
>
As a lifelong "left-liberal" who has no use for witch-hunts or Clinton
crazies, I have to disagree here. I find the elaboration & collection of
these word-formation-in-action -gate terms non- (or meta-) partisan (you
don't have to be a right-winger to find these charges plausible and
unpleasant, if--pardon the expression--a bit overblown), funny (at least
the good ones, although that's an aesthetic call--my personal faves so far
are 'zippergate' for the phonology and 'tailgate' for the pun), AND
list-relevant, although more toward the WOTY/coinage component of the
Society than to dialectology per se. If Barry had his way and we schizzed
into an ads/dialectology group proper and an American Popular Speech
list/website, the "-gate"s would obviously head for the latter, but since
we implicitly spurned the schism, bring 'em on.

Larry