Since when have fireman staggered, soot-covered, out of burning buildings apologizing for being so cliché.

I'd say, since right around the time ESPN started replaying games and calling them "Instant Classics." Why can't it just be a "that great game yesterday"?

And in this self-conscious, prepackaged environment, it makes perfect sense for a company with made-up corporate name (Accenturate the positive!) to announce—in the disembodied third person—that its chief spokesman "is no longer the right representative for its advertising."

Wait. Doesn't everybody who consumes that announcement already know full well that a professional golfer was never the right representative of a business consultancy, any more than a TV actor has any actual credibility on the subject of how to invest our money.

And yet, when Accenture dumped Tiger Woods, we all nodded solemnly and intoned: They had to do it. He just doesn't have any credibility anymore.

Suddenly, we have decided, because he is a skirt-chaser, the golf pro doesn't have any credibility to tell us what consultancy to hire.

These days, we're the suckers and the hucksters both.

It's a hell of a lot of work, and it doesn't pay well.