User talk:Graybooks

Welcome!

Hello, Graybooks, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome! —Giggy 08:21, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

GA stuff

Please take a look at Talk:L. Patrick Gray/GA1. —Giggy 08:21, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Roswell Gilpatric

Hello, Interesting about what Gray said in his book (which I have not read). I've only read what The Times and others have said. Was Sandy Smith a correspondent at the magazine at the time?Regards,MarmadukePercy (talk) 18:57, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, he was, and a very well-known one at that.Graybooks (talk) 19:37, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Dumb question. I thought I recognized the name. I was also a correspondent for the magazine.Regards,MarmadukePercy (talk) 19:39, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The only dumb questions are those not asked... Cheers,Graybooks (talk) 20:09, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How right you are. Thanks and enjoy your day. Regards,MarmadukePercy (talk) 20:20, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed you posted the conversation from the Nixon tapes. Out of curiosity, and given your username, are you related to L. Patrick Gray? MarmadukePercy (talk) 03:08, 18 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm a big believer in -- and a careful practitioner of -- Wiki's NPOV rule. A username is simply an identifier, no?Graybooks (talk) 14:51, 18 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, no worries. As a former journalist, I was just curious.MarmadukePercy (talk) 19:59, 18 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In Mark Felt's obituary in tomorrow's New York Times, the newspaper recounts a conversation of Oct. 19, 1972, in which Nixon's chief-of-staff H. R. Haldeman told the President that they knew who was leaking the Watergate information. "We know what's leaked, and we know who leaked it," The Times quotes Haldeman telling his boss.[1] So I'm just curious. If Nixon and his aides knew the identity of the leaker in the fall of 1972, several months before the alleged conversation between Gilpatric and John Mitchell in February 1973 that you mentioned from the Nixon tapes, why did it matter what Gilpatric did (or didn't) tell Mitchell if the President's aides already knew exactly who the leaker was? MarmadukePercy (talk) 05:58, 19 December 2008 (UTC) So[reply]

Actually, Haldeman is passing Gilpatric's information along to Nixon during this 10/19/72 conversation. He had just heard it from Mitchell. If you get the transcript of the entire 10/19 conversation you'll see that Haldeman calls the source (Gilpatric) "a legal guy" but won't say his name, apparently because both Haldeman and Nixon knew they were being taped and wanted to keep the source off the tapes.Graybooks (talk) 20:44, 19 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the background. Most interesting.Regards,MarmadukePercy (talk) 21:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Frost/Nixon. Just curious as to whether you've seen this new film, and what your thoughts were? I thought it was pretty good, given the understandable liberties it took with the facts.MarmadukePercy (talk) 05:04, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Haven't seen it yet.Graybooks (talk) 15:34, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Just curious if you've seen this piece in tomorrow's NYTimes about the editing of the transcripts from the tapes. What do you make of it? [2]MarmadukePercy (talk) 22:46, 31 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have read it. If you have ever listened to the actual tapes at the Archives, you know how maddeningly difficult they are to transcribe. Kutler certainly made errors. Deliberate? I have no idea.Graybooks (talk) 15:26, 1 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That's the problem with all transcripts from recorded conversations. They're open to interpretation by the transcriber. One only hopes those doing the transcribing are scrupulous about accuracy – or at least have no axe to grind. MarmadukePercy (talk) 05:04, 2 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

New Revelations from The New York Times

This was just published by the UK's The Guardian. What do you make of it? [3] Regards, MarmadukePercy (talk) 23:16, 25 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The story is (was, actually) all over the news. Smith was interviewed on BBC. Ed Gray commented at [4]. Graybooks (talk) 13:49, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]