The Anti-Climax

One of the biggest mysteries was finally solved today with the revelation that W. Mark Felt is the source known as Deep Throat. And at the moment, it seems like the news is being met with a collective shrug.

Now, it IS possible that as I write this, this story could gain momentum because Redford, Hoffman and Robards, er, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Ben Bradlee have confirmed Felt's admission. But for right now, many people not from the original Watergate generation are probably thinking "Who is Mark Felt?" Because really, with a mystery as famous as this one, people expect the payoff to be a shocking sensation. Something along the lines of a famous person admitting in Scooby Doo fashion that it was him and he would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids. Personally, our money was on Ben Stein, as that would have been the perfect cinematic twist.

Alas, despite the lessons we've learned from Dallas' revelation that Kristen shot J.R., or more recently, that John Locke of Lost was a paraplegic, life does not make revelations in such dramatic fashion. They are usually made simply in a magazine interview without bombastic flair...so simply that the answer fails to make anyone take notice at first. And that's actually kind of sad, because it's no less a momentous occasion than one accompanied with fireworks. We're just now conditioned to expect the flash.