I saw Judge Wapner on television today, as part of the celebration surrounding his Hollywood Walk of Fame star initiation. And I remember a time, years ago when I would often watch the show during periods in between job assignments. And something I always remembered, from the hundreds, if not thousands of shows was something that I put into practice.There was a case where a man and woman were driving down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, and the male driver got into an argument with a couple of recent immigrants (this was in the early 80s) at a stop light. Their English was not all that good, but they knew enough about what was being yelled to get offended by an insult offered by the driver. It may have had to do with one car cutting off the other. A common enough occurrence.

But the two men took severe offense at the insult, got out of their car, with a baseball bat and smashed up the hood and front window of the car. Judge Wapner took exception to their behavior and gave them a reprimand. That was the core of the case, the repayment of damages.

But Judge Wapner also reprimanded the "victim" with a tongue lashing as well, for putting himself and his girlfriend passenger in danger. "You never know who you are dealing with" he warned. He mentioned that it could happen that he could have been beaten, or worse yet shot over a minor traffic incident. And he reprimanded the young man (who was in his 20s) for putting both himself and his girlfriend in potential danger.

And I have in my life, driven up and down that same Sunset Boulevard, and may have yelled remarks at my fellow drivers, maybe with the windows rolled up, and not at a stop light. But I took pause at the judge's remarks, and considered the possible error of my ways. It was one of the few times that I learned a life lesson from television. And I think twice before yelling remarks out the window of  a car.