2785 Schadenfreude?

Monday, February 22, 2010

From the 1985 movie "Bliss": "The entire economy of the Western world
is built on things that cause cancer."

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The guy who flew the plane into the IRS office in Texas left an explanatory screed on his website. The FBI had it taken down within hours, but The Smoking Gun copied and preserved it *here*. I'm not sure what to think of it, and not sure how much of his problems were of his own making, but I'm sure it expresses a growing frustration on the part of many.

He ends with:
The Communist Creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The Capitalist Creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Unfortunately, that's true. The optimistic one doesn't work because people are people, and the cynical one works as advertised because people are people.

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Almost two years ago I wrote about friend NJ's cancer diagnosis, which we all discovered when she hosted a party at her home, wearing a chemo pump. The next day, I called her and left a message offering my services in driving, shopping, whatever assistance she needed. I got no response, not even a "Thanks, but no." Ok, she wants privacy.

A few weeks or months after that, I wrote (at http://thesilkentouch.blogspot.com/2008/09/2010-afternoon-with-police-and.html) about when NJ "went missing", and drunken overreacting friend May's call to the police to break into NJ's house to check on her. I had rushed down to NJ's house to head off the police if possible. Turned out NJ was in the hospital for surgery, followed by a long rehabilitation, and was extremely angry that May had freaked out to such a degree. It was clear to me that NJ wanted privacy, didn't want any of us bothering her, and she said that if May showed up at the hospital she'd have her thrown out.

Weeks later, NJ was back home, and May called me in tears saying that NJ was very angry with her because May'd "had her front door broken in". Implication was that it was destroyed. Um, I was there. There was no breaking of anything. The police entered through an unlatched window (with the assistance of fire department ladders) and opened the door from inside, and relocked it when they left, and I had told NJ that.

Well, this was not the first time that I'd ended up between those two in one of their spats, and somehow I always seem to end up getting smeared with the mud. So at that point I backed off completely. I didn't call NJ to atempt to straighten it out. I figured I'd leave it to NJ to contact me if she wanted to. Otherwise, *shrug*. And in the past year she has not contacted me.

So I was very surprised to get an email from her last week. She sent it to seven of her Mensa friends requesting help moving things out of her White Plains office this past weekend. It seems she lost the job because of her illness.

I don't know how I got on that short list. Apparently Les and I were the only ones to volunteer. Does that word "schadenfreude" fit here?

So yesterday I went with her and Les to White Plains and helped move her out. One of the items was a small refrigerator. Bigger than you'd find in a hotel room, slightly smaller than a dishwasher. Les and I were trying to maneuver it through a side door of a borrowed Ford Explorer (because the rear hatch wouldn't open), and the main joint of my middle finger of my left hand got smashed between the refrigerator and the door. I was yelping OW! OW! OW!, and it stayed stuck for several seconds because Les couldn't see over the freakin' fridge and didn't know what was wrong, so he just stayed still, afraid to do anything.

I was worried for a while because I couldn't bend the finger, and it stayed completely numb for a half hour. Nothing broken, feels ok today, no swelling, but there's dark purple on the sides and red on top, and I'm expecting one heck of a bruise.

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Speaking of schadenfreude, if you drive a Toyota, read this: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/02/19/will-former-toyota-lawyer-be-whistleblower-amid-safety-mess/?mod=rss_WSJBlog. Especially the last two short paragraphs.
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