Why ask why?

A frequent posteur keeps asking why this blog is named what it is. Here's the answer. Over the summer, I read Chris Matthews' (yes, that Chris Matthews) excellent double-barrelled biography of John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. In it, Matthews explains how Nixon established a fraternity at Whittier College in response to an elite group of sons of rich new dealers who called themselves the Franklins. Orthogonian, which really isn't a word, is a mixture of the latin ortho which means straight and the middle-english suffix -gonian which simply means derivative of. People from Halifax, Nova Scotia are called Haligonians. According to lore Orthogonian meant "straight shooters."

To fully answer ARealOrthogonian's question, in the book Matthews' keeps framing Nixon's public service in terms of an Orthogonian railing against the Franklins, personified by Kennedy. I used that name for this blog because I think I share in some of that resentment that Nixon is said to have had. And while I'm not prepared to act on it, I am willing to appropriate the concept for a blog title.