Question of the Day | 05/13/2009 11:00 pm

Have you ever done something you feared would come back to haunt you? Did it?

Miss USA runner-up Carrie Prejean has come under fire for recently resurfaced topless photos. Have you ever done something you feared would come back to haunt you? Did it? Did you ever not do something out of fear it would come back?

Candice Bergen | 05/13/2009 11:00 pm

Candice Bergen's 'Murphy' Advice to Carrie Prejean

This whole Carrie Prejean thing. And THEY paid for it!! I happen to know because I read US magazine! I am talking about her implants. Big effing deal. Well, they are, in fact, pretty good-sized, but are ANYONE’S authentic anymore? Except my own tinies. And of course I have done things that I prayed would never be revealed. I mean, please. And when "Murphy" was at its height, I had to watch myself. For instance driving. Someone cut me off during the early years of the show when I was very visible and I caught up with the car and gave the driver the finger and her mouth dropped open.

11 Comments

Joan Ganz Cooney | 05/13/2009 11:00 pm

Joan Ganz Cooney: From a 'Generation That Didn't Take Nude Photos of Each Other'

I have lived most of my adult life worried about the front page of The New York Times. As in how would I feel if this were on the front page of The New York Times? Thus, during my entire career, I’ve been careful … certainly in letters (except once and it came back to haunt me), conversations with people I don’t know well and now with e-mail. In terms of personal life, I came up in a generation that didn’t take nude photos of each other.

1 Comment

Liz Smith | 05/13/2009 11:00 pm

Liz Smith's Southern Baptist Guilt

A Miss USA runner-up topless? Heavens! Well, it may be a matter of taste but it’s not really much of a scandal these days to show your body. And that’s in spite of the Mrs. Grundys who have made Janet Jackson’s costume “malfunction” into a federal case, as if it mattered.

And, yes, of course I have done many things I feared might come back to haunt me and I am constantly toeing the line because I am such a coward. Isn’t that partly what one’s conscience and common sense are for? I was raised with lots of Southern Baptist guilt and it’s still working.

4 Comments

Read more about: Carrie Prejean, Entertainment, Miss USA, Scandal

32 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

We are here a short time, and will be billions of years dead. I try to [mostly] do the right thing, and do not live my life by fear. So, no, I really don’t.

By Suzanne de Cornelia on 05/14/2009 12:15 am

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Proceed carefully. What goes around comes around…

Remember Murphy’s Laws…

By Diana T on 05/14/2009 12:19 am

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Amen Sister Di, Amen!

By f p on 05/14/2009 5:48 am

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More than once, but one of the creeds I live by is that people can accept/reject myself, but I do not absorb that which is not mine to carry with me. You can be okay in your own sense of being, or okay in an outward sense in this world and at times both, but being true to yourself is what will carry you forward.

By Linda Myers on 05/14/2009 12:27 am

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I can only wish my life was so colorful as to have had a "checkered past." Nowadays, if one does not have 15 minutes of fame (or disgrace, for that matter) on national television, it is considered a boring, wasted life.

I just don’t understand that way of thinking. I never will.

By kermie b on 05/14/2009 12:59 am

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I don’t believe anyone who has lived a half century or more hasn’t done something they might regret coming back to bite them in the butt. Of course I did it anyway, and usually more than once. I’m a big-time risk taker. CA

By C A Rose on 05/14/2009 2:07 am

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"The decisions you make today will determine your tomorrow". A motto I live by to hopefully avoid being butt bitten. A times, I’ve been lucky I didn’t have any nip marks.

By Dee T on 05/14/2009 5:19 am

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Dee,

I am happy that I did not come of age during the time of facebook and youtube. So many young people are accustomed to living their lives openly out in cyberspace and don’t always seem to understand/remember that there can be long term ramifications. My teens, when I’ve cautioned/warned them about over-posting on their networking sites, have asked me on more than one occasion, "didn’t you ever do anything dumb when you were 16 or 17 ?", to which I have replied "yes, but nobody remembers!" I think there is an even greater danger these days that poor choices will return to haunt you because so much is documented in one fashion or another.

By Lucinda Herbert on 05/14/2009 6:51 am

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Usually the things you most fear coming back will never resurface. What often gets dragged back into view are things that seemed inconsequential at the time.

Having said that, remove worry from your life - it has no redeeming value.

By Green Tears on 05/14/2009 6:11 am

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You must have known my dad! He said, " In life you will be rebounding from some problem or facing one coming up. You have two choices. Solve the problem if you can or learn to manage it. But worry is not an option".

By Maggie W on 05/14/2009 9:59 am

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Your dad gives sage advice. I wouldn’t want you to think that I never worry, it’s just a problem of mine that I have learned to manage. Worry wastes so much of an individual’s time, focus and effort - not worrying is more productive and fun!

By Green Tears on 05/14/2009 12:02 pm

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Everyone has made "Mistakes" The key is whether they lacked integrity. I can say that mine have not done so, and for this I’m grateful.

By HA BIBI on 05/14/2009 8:02 am

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That’s the thing, Ha Bib. If you know you did the right thing, bring on the haunting. I’m one of those who believes there will be justice in the End.

By James the Game on 05/14/2009 9:46 am

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You know… I must have. But I can’t remember what it was. I’m one of those people that’s always been willing to pay the consequences for my actions consciously. I don’t do much that I don’t know what the cost could be and haven’t already told myself "oh well… if I pay for it I do".

I used to have this talk with people quite a bit in political discussions about crime when i was in criminal justice. People were always saying we need harsher punishment and I was always telling them that if someone is willing to pay the consequence then no amount of punishment is enough. And most of the criminals i ever knew weren’t really all that worried about jail. the people worried about jail were normally people… who didn’t do things to go there lol. Or they were people like OJ who simply believed they didn’t deserve to suffer any consequence.

By Chrome Toe on 05/14/2009 8:35 am