When children act like children, generally there isn't much harm done -- and what damage does occur usually happens to the children alone. But when adults act like children, it's not just the people involved who get hurt.

The May 29 brouhaha between Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority member William Fennoy and civic activist Woody Merry didn't help either of their reputations, or Merry's face. But the two men also cost the Coliseum Authority more than $10,000 in legal fees and tied up the courts with a frivolous, juvenile escapade.

In the process, they hurt the public image of the Coliseum Authority -- and considering how battered that image already was, that's a neat trick.

The case has come to a merciful end, with Fennoy off the hook and Merry's criminal case put in the "dead docket" where it will die if he behaves for a year, when he can have his record expunged.

If only the entire episode could be as easily erased.