In 2007, what with 24-hour cable news, nanosecond-after-the-fact uploads to YouTube, and websites devoted to publishing celebrity mug shots, on-line uploads of gossip columns like the NY Post's "Page Six" (which, as you probably know is not located on the sixth page of the hard copy paper) there is no getting away with anything.
Michael Vick is indicted in connection with dog fighting. Lindsay Lohan (whom I will forever believe has never gone beyond her role in the 1998 remake of "The Parent Trap") is going to go to jail because her pal, Britney Spears had to spend slammer time for driving on a suspended license.
And Barry Bonds will break one of the most hallowed records in sports - the all-time home run leader - this week or, at the outside, next. It is generally accepted that, for some number of years, he used steroids to enhance his performance.
Barry, Britney, Lindsay and Michael. Too bad they were born 85 years too late.
They might find some solace in the final line of Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby":
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.