On Life Mirroring Entertainment

Sometimes life mirrors entertainment (lately, it seems, more than ever…).

Like, for example, watching a movie from the 80’s or 90’s set in the “future” of 2020, and seeing that it got some things right (like handheld computers).

Or, when a couple of (alleged) criminals — borrowing from The Sopranos — refer to (alleged) bribes as “ziti”, over and over again in verbal and written communications, thinking they were being smarter than everyone else.

That was, in part, what was alleged to have happened during the trial of Joseph Percoco, a former aide to Governor Cuomo, who was involved in a very lengthy and dramatic trial in which he was accused of taking several hundred thousand dollars in bribes.

Now, leaving all else aside, one thing is for sure — he and his cohorts weren’t fooling anyone by using the phrase “ziti.” Why? Because context matters.

If you did not follow the trial, the cast of characters was often as entertaining as an episode of television. More significantly, the players involved made one of the mistakes that we routinely warn people about — Do not put anything in writing that you would not want to see written on the front page of The New York Times (in this case literally).

So, if you take one thing from this publication, remember that point, because we see it over, and over, and over, and over….