Fitz This... !

The palpable giddiness in the progressive universe over the last few weeks reached a crescendo yesterday, an event that will almost certainly go down in history, at least for the moment, as a time when the prefix Fitz had supplanted the suffix gate (as in Water). This, in honor of and directly attributable to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who has, as no one else since Nixon's resignation had, brought to heel the Republican dogs of war & personal destruction.

I arrive upon "Fitzmas" and its etymology a bit late, having absorbed it only subliminally the last week or so while perusing the blogosphere, and just as suddenly it would dawn on me to google it. Here is the Wikopedian definition:

Fitzmas is the name given by some liberal American bloggers to the atmosphere of excitement and anticipation among Democrats and others preceding the announcement of results of Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the Plame affair. On October 28, 2005 Fitzgerald announced that the grand jury had indicted George W. Bush administration aide Lewis Libby. The word "Fitzmas" is a portmanteau of Fitzgerald's name and "Christmas".

Speaking of Googling, there are (as I write this) 474,000 entries for "Fitzmas," including Fitzmas Carols, Fitzmas Bingo, Fitzmas T-shirts, etc., etc. -- Go Nutz!! And now Al Franken has a piece in today's HuffPo entitled "Happy Fitznukkah, Everybody!"

Extending the hilarity in my own little way, I am reminded by all of this of my Ex-, whose more loveable moments included her laughing hysterically at her own jokes, one of which was this, uhm, gem:

"Did you hear about the two gay Irishmen?

"Yah! Patrick Fitzmichael and Michael Fitzpatrick!! HEEEEGHEEGHEEGHEEGHEE... !!"

Ahh, memories! But of course it was her laugh that always cracked me up.