Ooops part 2

 Here's the way it usually goes:

Someone rich, or famous, or both, makes a horse's ass of himself in public. (Except for Roseanne Barr, it's always a man.)

He's caught driving drunk, or swiping money from a poorbox at church, or cheating on his wife, or waving his whatsis from a beachside balcony, or asking for Swiss cheese on a cheese steak sub.

Step one in response is usually silence, and a request that "the family be left alone as we face this situation in faith together."

Then a carefully written screed appears, purported to be the words of the subject of the furor, but crafted in a way that only someone who recently emigrated from one of those Brazilian jungle communities so cut off from the world that they've never seen "America's Got Talent" would fail to recognize its inauthenticity. Always expect the words "this is not who I am" to appear in the text.

Then, if we're lucky, the jerk disappears for six months, only to re-emerge in time to promote his "frank tell-all" memoir in an interview with Michael Strahan.

Those six months are usually some of the sweetest days of any year.

This past weekend, we saw a slight hiccup in the normal procedure. A rich guy grabbed a hat that a tennis player was giving to a young man at the US Open.

At first, this Polish millionaire went full-on horse's patoot, saying, "You've got to be quick to get ahead" and other self-serving righteousness. He quickly deleted his social media as social media turned on him. 

Two days later, apparently under the direction of a wise public relations person, he's changed his tune. 

Now he says he "made a huge mistake" and was convinced the tennis player was passing the hat to him.

Sure. He gave it to the kid to pass to you, buddy.

But here it comes:  "I know I did something that seemed like consciously collecting a memento from a child," he wrote in a statement. "This wasn't my intention, but it doesn't change the fact that I hurt the boy and disappointed the fans. I would like to unequivocally apologise to the injured boy, his family, as well as all the fans and the player himself."

A little late, a little too late. As the proverb says, the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best is today.

Meaning, don't be a jackass in the first place, but when you're caught in jackassery, don't make it worse by doubling down with more.