A few of you have asked why The Beat attempted to call the whole Amazon Omnibus thing Omnibus Dome. This is a reaction to the over use of -gate as the suffix of choice for scandal or controversy. Prior to Watergate — so named because it involved employees of the Republican party breaking into the Democratic National Committee HQ at the Watergate Hotel in Washington — the biggest US Government scandal was Teapot Dome! This scandal involved oil deposits, bribery and no-bid contracts and led to Warren G. Harding generally being considered the crappiest president of the 20th century. It was also, in all regards, a fine template for the concerns of many other political scandals to unfold. While many writers use the -gate scandal suffix exclusively, we here at Stately Beat Manor like to occasionally dip further into the history books with a different allusion. Hence our Omnibus-dome sobriquet which, admittedly, fell a bit flat even though it sounded ominous as hell.
What do you think? Is -gate overused? Is there a different scandalized suffix that we should be using? Or is the Big Amazon Glitch a good enough name? Or should we just call it Omniboo-boo?
I like Omniboo-boo, but it would have been nice to lead with a juicy headline like “Amazonian Blunder Leads to Wonder Woman Woes”
Omniboo-boo.
Definitely!
While I am familiar with Tea-pot Dome I nonetheless thought you were making a Mad Max reference that didn’t seem to fit.
“Hurricane Diamond” First, for the massive two-day event at Amazon, of which they are still recovering, then, a few days later, a smaller but just as damaging hit at BN.com.
I don’t think there is any scandal involved, just error.
“-gate” is overused. “Affair” is good.
“The Great Diamond Blowout of 2010″ has a nice epic, historical quality to it.
Amazon-Contra.
I like Omnibus Dome. I knew what you meant, and I thought it was well-played. Of course, living in Bakersfield, I’m only a few minutes from Elk Hills, which was also involved in the Teapot Dome scandal, so maybe I’m not the best judge…
How about a “panic?” We haven’t had those since before Teapot Dome, I don’t think. “The Great Amazon Panic of 2010?”
For my conservative friends: Omnibus-quiddick.
Create new buzzword every time. It could rhyme, or have slippery double meanings, but the “Gate” thing is tired, and well, dumb.
WaterGate was the name of a hotel, wasn’t it? So why add “Gate” to everything, and not “Water”at the beginning, whatever. That whole “Gate” stuff never made any sense to me at all, it was just laziness.
“-gate” is so-o-o last century.
Shoulda been “Amazon/11″.
The Amazon Screwjob.
“Amazon didn’t screw Diamond, Diamond screwed Diamond.”
“Watergate” refers to the scandal which took place at the Watergate Hotel and Office Building, which is part of the Watergate Complex. “Watergate” references the terraced steps west of the Lincoln Memorial, just north of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. This plaza was to serve as a formal reception area for dignitaries arriving via water taxi, but was never used for that purpose. It’s a bit difficult to get to… I recommend heading south along Ohio Drive to the Ericsson memorial, then taking the Rock Creek Park Trail north along the river. That trail will eventually lead to Georgetown, the National Zoo, points north, and is a nice walk. (Rock Creek Park is DC’s Central Park.)
I think I’m peddling back from my campaign for “Amazomnibust” toward the simpler “Omnibuse”.
“-erfuck.” Ergo, “Amazonerfuck.” Not generally palatable, but applicable.
I too thought it was a Mad Max reference. But unlike the poster above – I found it strangely appropriate.
I don’t know why. The visual of dirty post-apocalyptic geeks throwing 6 pounds books at each other?
At least you didn’t use -pocalypse, as in Omnipocalypse. I think Boing Boing corned, saturated and ruined the market on that one in the past year.
Personally, my favorite fan scandal name ever was “Potterdammerung” for the swirl of leaked books and controversy around the last Harry Potter book.
The whole -gate suffix thing makes even less sense, when you consider that if Watergate happened today, then it would be Watergate-gate!
Count me in the Mad Max column.
Mel Gibson IS Warren G. Harding in …
BEYOND TEAPOT DOME!
Every time I hear them use the word “gate” to name a new scandal I’m always think “how lucky it was they didn’t break into a Holiday Inn”
Amazonageddon?
Bay of Amazon?
“The Amazon Affair” is nice – sounds like a good movie.
How about calling it a “feeding frenzy”?
Or, “Ouroboros”? After all, people are eating themselves up over not getting in on this.
Why do we have to decide? Let’s just use them all:
Amazon-dome-gate-colypse-ageddon.
Since this error is not solely contained to Amazon, I suggest DBD-bacle.