Summer of the Shark

Someone pointed out on Twitter yesterday that the Chandra Levy case was trending. WTF? From the Hill:

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said that it believed it could no longer prove the murder case against Ingmar Guandique "beyond a reasonable doubt" and moved to drop the case "based on recent unforeseen developments that were investigated over the past week."

Briefly, Chandra Levy was an intern for Congressman Gary Condit who disappeared. Turns out Condit was schtooping her and in order to hide this fact, did nothing to cooperate with the cops. Or some such. I really don't care about the details. As my friend Bill Katz says, for the summer of 2001 the news was all-Chandra, all the time.

Frankly, I had no idea this was still a thing.

That was the summer of Chandra, and shark attacks; the summer of the shark. That was the summer when Corey Widmer, and NFL lineman dropped dead during training camp from heat exhaustion. It was the summer I finished my first semester at an on-line college (which people still needed explained to them) on a dial-up modem.

Of course, ll that was obliterated on 9/11.

A few days after the attack, when Bush made his address to congress the camera paused briefly on Condit. It was surreal. Like the rest of the country I had forgotten all about him. It was surreal, like watching someone from another era suddenly appear. Which is exactly what happened, wasn't it?

Gary Condit was the happiest man in Washington.