"It was a long and winding road between Camelot and Watergate"

And only ... what, eleven years between them? Nicely put, 'SPaw. On the other hand 11 years ago modems came in 300 and 1400 baud, the Berlin Wall was still up, but not for long, and Tienamen Square was in the near future. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and "If You Don't Know Me By Now" was on the charts, as was Bette Midler singing "Wind Beneath My Wings" plus scores of songs I am happy to have forgotten. George Bush was about to be elected and "Batman" , "When Harry Met Sally", and "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" released. The technological breakthrough was the ability to make a phone call via radio from a car. There are emotional scenes at the Old Bailey in London as the Guildford Four are declared innocent of crimes for which they served 14 years. The Internet was unknown, generally.

But the eleven years between 1963 and 1974 were more intense, more towering in scale, somehow, than the eleven years since George Bush stepped down. What made it so -- the tectonic nature of events? The intensity of that 11 years was unusual not only subjectively, I think. Itwas a multidimensional watershed of a decade and I for one still have not figured it out .

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