The Final Word by Jim Thompson The Watergate Scandal broke the summer I graduated from university, 1973—forty years ago. Although I was not so much into national politics then as I am now, it was memorable from the beginning. And here we are, forty years later, with a US federal government’s executive branch embroiled in scandals so much like those days that it is spooky. By fall of 1973, however, we briefly forgot the scandal as the first oil embargo shock took hold. That lasted from October 1973 well into the spring of 1974. It precipitated the launch of alternative energy sources. Perhaps we can be spared that disruption, the oil shock, this time around.