MICHAEL MOYNIHAN: Putting spit shame under the spotlight

I’m especially good at expectorating, sings Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, and the hunter’s skill with a well-aimed spit is just one more indication that he’s the villain of the piece.

If that comparison didn’t leap immediately to mind at the news of Spitgate, it surely landed with a wet splash compared to other incidents from the recent and not-so-recent past.

You can go back to American football in the 70s, when a spit from Pittsburgh’s Joe Greene landed on the facemask of Dick Butkus of the Chicago Bears.