Attribution: Javier Vieras, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes the sensations to be had by the keeper and Phyllis’s crowd in learning of the misery of others—some sympathy of course, but more feelings that “they” probably deserve it followed by an overall smugness that it is better them than us.
As the woes of a freeze-your-ass winter descend on Wisconsin, the news out of Texas is therefore particularly welcome. That news is that Texas faces the likelihood of catastrophic wildfires and the potential for a mosquito infestation serious enough to suck the blood out of herds of longhorns and Gov. Abbott.
There are of course numerous opportunities to juggle sympathy and satisfaction regarding the misfortune of others. There is even a word for it— “schadenfreude,” which is defied as experiencing pleasure in the misfortunes of others.
This obviously means that as the winter embraces Wisconsin, it makes schadenfreuders out of much of the rest of the country, maybe even some scorched, mosquito chewed Texans.
As Roundy the old State Journal columnist often said, “What more could be fairer!”
