One of the most memorable expressions of Gomer Pyle, the dimwitted Mayberry mechanic who became a bumbling Marine, was this gem:“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Anyone can be fooled by a conniving person once. When the victim realizes that he has been taken advantage of, however, it behooves him to be wary of the person who took advantage. To let oneself be fooled by that same person again is just plain stupid.
Even stupider would be to broadcast the account of the second transgression and let the whole world know how flat your learning curve is.
You’ve got to wonder about Scott Walkinshaw, for instance. According to his own account, he was flying first class on United Airlines three years ago, enjoying much more capacious seating than the poor folks in coach and chowing down on a much better grade of food as well, assuming the passengers behind him got anything more than a tiny bag of stale pretzels.
The ample extra space enjoyed by first-class passengers wasn’t enough for Walkinshaw, however. He needed more elbow room to eat his meal. As a result, when stewardesses “carelessly came barreling” into the first-class section with a service cart, they neglected to notice that his elbow was “protruding slightly into the aisle” and struck the slightly protruding joint “with enough force to knock the utensil out of (his) hand.”
Shame on them, right?
Did Walkinshaw learn not to let his elbow slightly protrude into the aisle while traveling by air? Apparently not. Several months later, it happened again, on another United flight.
This time he wasn’t eating but working on his laptop, joint protruding, when a stewardess struck it once again with a cart, “worsening the already injured elbow.” He should have known to tuck his elbow in, or at least had sense enough to sit on the other side of the aisle.
Shame on Walkinshaw, right? Nope. He’s not as wise as Gomer Pyle. That’s why he’s suing United for the results of his own stupidity.