Note to self:

To avoid heart attack, do not look at 401(k) or Roth IRA balances over the next few months.

Yesterday I finally saw “Fight Club” for the first time, that cultural touchstone, becoming the last American male over the age of 20 to do so. Took me long enough.

Unfortunately, about a year ago someone spoiled me on the plot twist. (Whoever it was, I hate you.) I tried to watch the movie pretending to myself that I didn’t know, but it didn’t totally work. Various scenes took on extra meaning even though I tried to pretend they didn’t.

I still enjoyed the movie — how can you not enjoy a David Fincher movie? And in a way I feel like I saw the movie for the first and the second times simultaneously.

So I guess I’m all caught up on pop culture now.

Ten years ago last night, several days after it appeared in the Drudge Report, the news of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky broke into the mainstream news media via ABC News and the Washington Post.

From the Washington Post print edition, January 21, 1998: Clinton Accused of Urging Aide to Lie.

Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr has expanded his investigation of President Clinton to examine whether Clinton and his close friend Vernon Jordan encouraged a 24-year-old former White House intern to lie to lawyers for Paula Jones about whether the intern had an affair with the president, sources close to the investigation said yesterday.

Clinton, coincidentally, had several media interviews scheduled that day to discuss his upcoming State of the Union address, including this one with Jim Lehrer of PBS.

JIM LEHRER: Mr. President, welcome.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Thank you Jim.

JIM LEHRER: The news of this day is that Kenneth Starr, independent counsel, is investigating allegations that you suborn perjury by encouraging a 24-year-old woman, former White House intern, to lie under oath in a civil deposition about her having had an affair with you. Mr. President, is that true?

For an engrossing narrative of the events surrounding the eruption of the scandal, read this excerpt from The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House, by John F. Harris.