Cliché Corner   

"The years of guessing, second-guessing, third-guessing, and endless political parlor games finally all came to an end last week. 'I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat ,' announced W. Mark Felt, a top-ranking FBI official at the time of the Watergate scandal." (U.S. News & World Report)

"The news that Felt was Deep Throat was big news everywhere in America, but probably even bigger news here, where guessing the identity of the source was something of a parlor game ." (Christian Science Monitor)

Guessing Deep Throat's identity "was a diversion, like sports or working a crossword puzzle, a parlor game . Now there's a new parlor game . Did he do it for the right reasons or because he held a grudge, because he got passed over as J. Edgar Hoover's replacement?" (CBS News)

"[Valerie] Plame's cover had been blown by someone who worked in the White House and probably had the ear and confidence of the president. The Washington parlor game served up the usual suspects, with adviser Karl Rove's name topping the list." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

The BTK serial killer's "letters to the media turned the decades-long investigation into a parlor game ." (Washington Post)

"It's fair to say that the number one parlor game in Washington right now, hands down, is speculating about the high court." (CNN)

"[I]t has been a favorite parlor game on Wall Street to pick whether you think oil is going to go to $40 or $60." (Fox News Channel)

"Where's [Ricky] Williams? became a popular sports parlor game after he abruptly retired last summer on the eve of training camp for what would have been his sixth N.F.L. season." (New York Times)

– from more than 200 references in May and June