Quick, count all your wish-I-had-it-back moments that prove the truism, Common sense isn't all that common. Too many to remember?

I throw out this challenge because most of us, confronted by our own stupidity, chalk it up to experience and promise ourselves to do better next time. We don't try to shift blame.

I'm wondering now whether I got it wrong all these years. Instead of recognizing my mistakes, instead of slapping myself on the side of the head, instead of wallowing in the humiliation I deserved, maybe I should've found a lawyer and sued.

For something. For anything.

Others have. Here's a hot-off-the-press example: A Brooklyn mother has sued Starbucks, claiming her baby boy was injured when she dropped a cup of hot tea on him. Villona Maryash filed a complaint last week, blaming a Bensonhurst Starbucks for the scalding last October.

In the complaint, she claims that son Arnold Glouchko, then 5 months old, was next to her in a stroller. As she waited for her food order, she took a sip of her tea. But it was so hot that she dropped it, spilling the contents on the baby. Lawyer Martin Garfield said the cup of tea should have been served with an insulating sleeve and on a tray. (I suppose Ms. Maryash would be lifting the tray along with the cup, a most unusual tea-sipping habit, but there you have it.)

This is the second time in as many months that the Seattle-based company has been sued for hot tea. In a May filing, another New York resident claims to have suffered second-degree burns because of "unreasonably hot tea." Starbucks has yet to brew a comment, but I suspect company counsel must be wondering if this is a remake of "McDonald's 1994."

Back then, an Albuquerque woman, Stella Liebeck, sued the fast food giant after she suffered third-degree burns. Liebeck was in the passenger seat of a parked car her grandson was driving. To add cream and sugar to her coffee, she placed the coffee between her knees -- not on the dashboard, not on a tray, not on the console between the seats -- and pulled the far side of the lid to remove it. Surprise, surprise.

A jury awarded her $2.86 million, which the trial judge reduced to $640,000. Liebeck and McDonald's then settled for an undisclosed amount. Eventually that lawsuit inspired a Seinfeld episode and became a rallying cry for tort reform.

I do not want in any way to insinuate that the burns have been minor nor that McDonald's or Starbucks, as well as other companies that have faced similar suits, couldn't have done more for safety. But come on, folks. Order hot tea and you'll get ... hot tea. At home, no one expects to drink a cup of boiling water -- a necessity to steep tea -- on a tray. And at home, if you put the hot coffee between your knees, chances are it may spill on you if you bump your legs.

I've burned my tongue countless times eating at restaurants and at home. A bag of drive-through window French fries is the usual culprit. I don't blame the restaurant, only my foolish impatience.

There comes a point when we must assume responsibility for ourselves, for our bonehead moves, for actions that cause us pain and distress. It's not always someone else's fault. Sometimes the negligence is our own.

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