The Plame Story

I've been spending way too much time reading, watching and listening about the Plame affair. It's starting to swirl around in my head, all of the speculation, innuendo, bickering between the pundits, and the wholesale concocting of wild, implausible theories all based on leaks and rumors, some obscure, nonsensical, or meaningless. So tonight I'm going to take a break and watch a movie.

Since this is for comfort, I won't risk a new film that may disappoint. Instead, I'm going to watch an old favorite: Murder By Death.

It's nearly 30 years old, but has held up well. A spoof of mystery books and movies based on a Neil Simon play, Murder By Death is about a group of the brightest detectives invited to solve a mystery. They are presented with meaningless, nonsensical and obscure clues, rumors, and innuendo, bicker amongst themselves about who's right on every minor point, accuse each other of vile things, and each concocts wild implausible theories about the crime. In the end, none actually solve the crime, and each is thoroughly discredited. The punch line is that the crime never really happened in spite of all the clues.

Hmm, escape time. Now if you'll excuse me...