"Que pasa" and "I don't know"

I overcome the blow,
I learned to take it well,
I only wish my words
could just convince myself
That it just wasn't real...

"There was another occasion when Mr. Mardian was at a big meeting in Mr. Krogh's office with Liddy, Hunt and three or four people I didn't recognize," Chenow said.  "And David [Young] used to talk to John Mitchell . . . I don't know what about; I don't know how often."

{    space    in the text     }

He asked about the telephone listed in the "stipulation."

"That was Mr. Hunt's phone.----- [All The President's Men excerpt] ----- It was put in for me to answer and take messages for him.  Mr. Barker always called on that phone; he as about the only one who ever called.  It rang an average of once a week, sometimes two or three times a week."  Hunt and Bernard Barker "were always chummy on the phone:  Mr. Hunt would usually say 'How are you?  What you been up to?' . . . Sometimes when he talked to Mr. Barker he spoke Spanish; he apparently liked to speak Spanish for some reason. . . . No, I don't speak Spanish. . . . I remember Mr. Hunt calling Mr. Barker and his [Barker's] wife -- nobody else.  Sometimes Mr. Liddy might have used the phone to talk to somebody Mr. Hunt had placed a call to.  I guess it was Mr. Barker.  Most of the phone calls were from August to November.  The phone was taken out March 15; by then it hadn't been used in ages."

Bernstein asked the obvious.  Why would a telephone in the White House complex, which had the benefit of the most sophisticated communications system in the world, be listed in the name and address of an individual in Alexandria?

"That's a good question," she replied.  "They apparently wanted it in my name because they didn't want any ties with the White House -- for what reason I don't know."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Operator, could you help me place this call,
You see the number on the matchbook is old and faded,
She's living in L.A., with my best old ex-friend Ray,
A guy she said she knew well, but sometimes hated.

Isn't that the way they say it goes
But let's forget all that,
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell her I'm fine,
And to show -- I overcome the blow,
I learned to take it well,
I only wish my words could just convince myself
That it just wasn't real --
but that's not the way it feels.

Operator -- could you help me place this call,
'Cause I can't read the number that you just gave me,
There's something in my eyes,
You know it happens every time
I think about the love that I thought would save me.

Isn't that the way they say it goes?
But let's forget all that,
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell her I'm fine
And to show -- I overcome the blow,
I learned to take it well,
I only wish my words could just convince myself
That it just wasn't real --
But that's not the way it feels,
No, no, no, no, that's not the way it feels

Operator --
let's forget about this call
There's no one there I really wanted to talk to
Thank you for your time
You've been so much more than kind.
You can keep the dime.

Isn't that the way they say it goes,
But let's forget all that,
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell her I'm fine
And to show --
I overcome the blow,
I learned to take it well
I only wish my words
could just convince myself
That it just wasn't real --

but that's not the way it feels.

========================
{book excerpt.  All The President's Men, written by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.  Copyright, 1974.  Simon & Schuster.  New York, New York}
{song:  "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)" -- written and recorded / Jim Croce.  Released Aug., 23, 1972, second single released from You Don't Mess Around with Jim album.  Included on Photographs & Memories - His Greatest Hits, 1974 compilation album, ABC Records, released after Jim Croce's death in an airplane crash}

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