Perfect Ending to a Perfect Day
Posted on January 1, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 18 Comments
I just registered the domain name “Schadenfreude.us.” Because, and maybe it’s just me, I think the word “Schadenfreude” might become useful in 2006.
Posted on January 1, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 18 Comments
I just registered the domain name “Schadenfreude.us.” Because, and maybe it’s just me, I think the word “Schadenfreude” might become useful in 2006.
Category: Uncategorized
Taunting the tauntable since 1998
John Scalzi, proprietor – JS
Athena Scalzi, editor – AMS
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Gosh, ya think?
Suggestion: Find ten people, give them pencil and paper (or the equivalent) and ask them to spell schadenfreude correctly. Collect all the wrong answers and register the domain names of all the wrong answers you get.
If they can’t spell it correctly, they can’t come visit.
I can spell it, but God help me if you ask me to pronounce it correctly.
“SHA-den-Froy-duh”. (The capital F representing the secondary accent.) The last vowel is shorter than the “uh” makes it look, more of a schwa really.
Learning the spelling is easy if you get the cast album for Avenue Q.
So is this going to be, like, a BDSM swingers site or something?
No, the point is not that they can’t visit, John.
The point for registering all those mispelled domain names is BECAUSE they can’t spell it. At least when they type in the wrongly spelled word, they’ll still be directed to the schadenfreude.us site.
Delight in their misery, you must. Heheheheheh.
What compelled you to register the domain name though? I’m curious. I mean, what kind of schadenfreude do you forecast for this year?
Aw, shucks. It’s useful NOW. We jes’ gettin’ warmed UP.
I thought John Scalzi’s point was that if they couldn’t spell “schadenfreude” correctly, he didn’t want them to visit.
(This sort of reminds me of how, for a while, sheet music editors mispunctuated the first line of the Weill/Nash song “Speak Low” as “Speak low, if you speak, love” rather than “Speak low, if you speak love.” This transforms a declaration of love which echoes Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing into a rather odd bit of direction on elocution. Not even Ogden Nash would start a Broadway love ballad like that.)
My solution for “schadenfreude”, as already mentioned, is that everyone should get the Avenue Q cast album. As a bonus, you get the best ballad written for Broadway that season (as well as for a season or two in either direction of time), “There’s a Fine, Fine Line”
My guess as for why this year as opposed to any other is that this may be the year when W finally has to face the consequences of his actions. Life will be horrible for the rest of us but W’s comeuppance, if it happens, may still be emotionally satisfying nonetheless.
Register the misspellings. Have those sites point out the fact that they misspelled it before bringing them to your site.
As a man once said, “Woop. There it is.”
I always pictured some German wordsmith laughing gleefully at our feeble attempts at pronouncing his word. I prefer the term “epicaricacy”. English won the war…damn those kraut fuddle-bugs and their infernal tongue killers.
Alright, Codwater, you just stumped both dictionary.com and the one that ships on Mac OS X.
If this has anything to do with W, then Schadenfreude has nothing to do with it; I’ll just be relieved not to have to face all four major guv’ment’l bodies being red.
Though that would come at the end of the year; until then, anticipation.
*covet*
According to comedian Sarah Silverman, “Schadenfreude” is German for “Hey look, that Jew fell down”.
(apologies if I misquoted, it’s pretty close)
Sarah Silverman, she’s a card, she is.