• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Process
    • Competitive Namescape
      • Namescape: Search Engines
      • Blank Namescape Chart
    • Company Names
    • Product Names
    • Service Names
    • Brand Positioning
    • Name Development
      • Descriptive Names
      • Invented Names
      • Experiential Names
      • Evocative Names
    • Trademark Prescreening
    • Linguistic Connotation Screening
    • Name Evaluation
    • Naming Project Work Plans
  • Portfolio
    • Clients
  • Manifesto
  • Press
  • Blog
    • Archives
  • About
    • Our Team
    • Our Name
      • Finnegans Wake
    • References / Testimonials
  • Resources
  • Contact

Zinzin

Archives for May 2015

May 13, 2015 By Martin

Bargins, rings, affairs, quiddicks, scandals and forty years of gatesuffixication

The NFL recently announced that it has suspended Tom Brady for four games for his “243-page, more probable than not” role in the Deflategate (AKA Ballghazi) scandal. The Patriots will also be fined $1 million and lose their first round pick in the 2016 NFL draft and their fourth round pick in the 2017 NFL draft. And so concludes yet another chapter in America’s long running love affair with gatesuffixing every scandal du jour, which originated in 1974 with two politically motivated burglaries at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, then located at the Watergate Hotel and Office Building. Ever since we have been awash in gates, or what sociologist John Thompson calls, “scandal syndrome.”

Philip Guston, "San Clemente" 1975, Oil on canvas, 68 x 73 1/4 inches
Philip Guston, “San Clemente” 1975, Oil on canvas, 68 x 73 1/4 inches

America, however, already enjoyed a deep and rich history of promoting, hawking and branding various forms of misconduct, long before Nixon’s bumbling henchmen had a chance to immeasurably disfigure the lexicon of scandal, going all the way back to our formative years as a country. Here is an abbreviated list of some of the more the noteworthy from a naming perspective:

1797 – The XYZ Affair: A confrontation between the United States and Republican France that led to an undeclared war called the Quasi-War. The name derives from the substitution of the letters X, Y and Z for the names of French diplomats in documents released by the Adams administration.

1801 – The Burr Conspiracy: U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr’s goal was to create an independent nation in the center of North America and parts of present-day Mexico.

1804 – The Pickering Affair: Federal Judge John Pickering was impeached and convicted in absentia by the U.S. Senate for drunkenness and use of profanity on the bench in spite of the fact neither act was a high crime or misdemeanor.

1831 – The Petticoat Affair: The husband of Margaret “Peggy” O’Neale was alleged to have been driven to suicide because of her affair with Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of War, John Henry Eaton.

1872 – Crédit Mobilier Scandal: The scandal involved the Union Pacific Railroad and the Crédit Mobilier of America construction company in the building of the eastern portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad.

1875 – Whiskey Ring: Massive corruption of Ulysses S. Grant’s administration involving whiskey taxes, bribery and kickbacks ending with 110 convictions.

1919 – Black Sox Scandal: The Chicago White Sox lost the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, and eight White Sox players were later accused of intentionally losing games in exchange for money from gamblers. The players were acquitted in court, but nevertheless, they were all banned for life from baseball.

1919 – Newport Sex Scandal: Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated an investigation into allegations of “immoral conduct” (homosexuality) at the Naval base in Newport, Rhode Island. After the report, which revealed nothing, the investigators themselves were also accused of homosexuality.

1923 – The Makropulos Affair: The Makropulos Affair is a play written by Karel Čapek and first performed in 1922 at the Vinohrady Theatre in Prague.

1924 – Teapot Dome Scandal: A bribery incident that took place in the United States during the administration of President Warren G. Harding. Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming and two other locations in California to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding.

[Read more…] about Bargins, rings, affairs, quiddicks, scandals and forty years of gatesuffixication

Filed Under: History, Naming

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Advertising
  • Art
  • Branding
  • Design
  • Film
  • History
  • Ideas
  • Language
  • Literature
  • Music
  • Naming
  • Narrative
  • Nomenclature
  • Photography
  • Poetry
  • Quotes
  • Science
  • Zinzin

Recent Posts

  • New IFG grapes launched — named by Zinzin
  • Naming Advice For New Businesses
  • Words have no size: the corny magic of Ed Ruscha
  • Industry Jargon: Elephant Walk
  • Playing For Change: Ripple around the world

Recent Comments

  • Bob Eilbott on Song of the Kindertransport
  • Lance Foster on Who was St. George William Joseph Stock?
  • Bob on How HAL from “2001: A Space Odyssey” got his name…and no, it’s not IBM minus one
  • Rudy on Cristo Redentor by Donald Byrd, 1963
  • Ivan Allen on Zen in action: no tree, no mirror, no dust

Footer

Contact

415-857-5775

contact@zinzin.com

Zinzin
1025 Carleton Street
Suite #9
Berkeley, CA 94710

Navigation

  • Home
  • Process
  • Portfolio
  • Manifesto
  • Press
  • Blog
  • About
  • Resources
  • Contact

Connect

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS (blog)

We are Zinzin

Zinzin is a naming and branding agency that creates powerful product and company names to propel and differentiate brands beyond their competition. We want to set your brand free.

Copyright © 2021 Zinzin Group Inc · Log in