an instrument of the devil

Watching the Senate hearings on banking practices yesterday put me in mind of the Watergate hearings -- Sam Ervin, D.-N. Carolina, ran the Senate hearings -- televised. (Only three networks in those days, so they started getting angry calls from homemakers upset that their soap operas weren't on.)

One day there was a telephone call with a message for Sam Ervin -- Nixon was going to give up the tapes. Turned out to be a hoax, a crank caller.

Senator Ervin had to explain on national live TV that he had been tricked. UPI reported Ervin's announcement --
^^^ "It's an awful thing for a very trusting soul like me that there are human beings, if you can call them such, who would perpetrate a hoax like that," the white-haired senator said in his North Carolina drawl. "My trust in humanity has been grossly abused."

"Some people think the telephone is an instrument of the devil anyway," he added.

Nixon didn't find the incident funny.... ^^^

I did.
Some little girls play hopscotch -- I watched Watergate hearings.

Played hopscotch too, plus swimming & other Activities; it was summer--there was time.

-30-