Forgive and Forget

In law, unring the bell is an analogy used to suggest the difficulty of forgetting information once it is known. 

Reading the slanted opinion section of yesterday's New York Times, which I do with trepidation since it usually causes me to have conniptions, I came across an article that seemed worthy. Until I saw the byline: Jeffrey Toobin. While the accompanying bio identified him as the author of a forthcoming book, all I could think of was the once-respectable lawyer jerking off in full view of his colleagues at The New Yorker during a 2020 Zoom call.

Obviously Toobin has been forgiven by the powers that be since he was re-hired as a talking head at CNN and found a publisher for that forthcoming book. But he'll never be back in my good graces, as long as I still have a functioning memory. Bad behavior is something that sticks, at least with me. That's why the name Bill Clinton still conjures up visions of cigars and a stained blue dress, even though his transgression with Monica Lewinsky happened almost 30 years ago.

I know -- we are supposed to forgive and forget. But I don't. Sue me. As the old saying goes, "You can't unring a bell." So whenever I see Jeffrey Toobin, his pants are down around his knees. (Bill Clinton's too.)