You've probably heard by now that Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York got caught saying a naughty word on an airplane about a week ago after being told by a flight attendant to turn off his cell phone.

Schumer apparently muttered the word "bitch" as the woman walked away.

And how, exactly, did this become a news story? Because Schumer's comment was overheard by a Republican congressional aide who happened to be on the same plane and within earshot.

Good Lord. I can't even begin to imagine the sequence of events that followed the senator's comment.

First, the Republican eavesdropper had to decide the incident was newsworthy and that he wanted to play the role of childish tattletale. Then he had to figure out which reporter would view the incident as newsworthy. Then he had to screw up the courage to call the reporter and hope not to get laughed at. Then the reporter had to agree the incident was newsworthy ... and pitch it to his boss ... who also had to find it newsworthy. And then, maybe, the story would see the light of day.

Yeah, right. I mean, seriously, what are the odds of such a trivial thing clearing so many news filters and ultimately being reported by respectable media outlets?

Apparently pretty good. Because by midweek - in this era of "Any juicy, second-hand, unconfirmed tidbit qualifies as real news" - the story was all over the place.

The moral of the story, Sen. Schumer? Life's a bitch.