Dirt Sucks

I don't much like rolling around in the dirt and getting all grimy, but sometimes you have to. I alluded the other day to some psychopathic Internet lunacy that had taken place, and I suppose it's only fair that I clue you in a little on what happened -- not that I understand it to any great extent myself. It would probably make a good Halloween horror story, presupposing anyone could begin to comprehend all the nuances and ramifications. I know I can't. It's certainly apropos to the Season of the Witch, though.

So, attempting to make a long story short, it went something like this.

Let's say A, a girl, befriended X, also a girl, being helpful and making herself useful and offering to help with work that was being done. B, a boy, also befriended X. A lot of other people, whom we'll call C through V, were also friends with A, B, and X. And apparently nobody realized how chummy A and B actually were -- or that any bad blood was brewing. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

So, B ultimately turned out to be a bit of a player and ruffled a lot of feathers hither and yon. It got him into a lot of trouble, for which he apparently blamed X, never mind that X didn't have a thing to do with what happened to B. X went along her merry way, totally unaware of what B thought -- until a series of fake blogs started showing up. A, meanwhile, was plotting some vicarious revenge for the perceived injustice she thought X had done to B. Time passes, and suddenly there is an onslaught of nasty, prurient e-mails which were sent en masse to scores of people. The e-mails were weasel-worded so as to point the finger at several people as being the possible sender(s). This scenario happened several times over the course of the next two years. Every time, fingers were pointed and incorrect (often imbecilic) guesses made about their origin.
Ultimately, X was able to trace the e-mails to the person who actually sent them and put the word out. Normal, reasonable people believed it; others didn't. The e-mails stopped for quite a while. It appeared that A had changed her name and was firmly entrenched with B. Everything and everyone was moving along, minding their own business, and memories of the old debacle faded. Until last week, when another series of e-mails went out. And these were even worse than the previous trash-o-grams. They were malicious and destructive beyond belief. As a red herring, A even went so far as to interject one of her own names into it and disparage it. Once again, X traced them to their source (straight back to A), and it became apparent what had happened.

It looked very much like B had cheated on A, and A was furious. A consequently proceeded to devise e-mails designed to thoroughly destroy any reputation that B had left and, at the same time (and this is diabolical), point the finger at other people as being the authors of the horrible e-mails. X and another person (whom we'll call Y) were named in one of them as putative hackers of A's and B's Web site. It's doubtful that A and B's site was hacked at it all. A may well have spread that rumor simply as a prelude to setting up the subsequent e-mail campaign. It was probably A's intention that people of low intelligence (and those are legion) reading the e-mails would jump to the conclusion that X and/or Y authored the e-mails as well. And A knew that X and Y would not confer on the matter because X and Y can't stand each other.

What A probably wasn't counting on was the fact that (a) nobody even remembered all the previous nonsense after all this time; (b) nobody gave a tinker's damn about it; (c) that X immediately traced it to the source and was ready, willing, and able to publicly out A; and (d) when all else fails and much is at stake, X and Y can reach a meeting of the minds. I'm sure that whatever happened mattered to A, but A made a huge mistake in not handling the matter herself, privately between her and B, and dragging other people into it in an attempt to shield her own involvement. It's hard to even predict what A might do next, but A (hi, A!) needs to rein it in before the process servers show up. Nobody has any more patience for this nonsense. In fact, it's passed the point of nonsense now and has become tortious. And if she doesn't know what that means, she can consult a dictionary (I recommend Black's Law Dictionary). If I were B, I'd for damn sure be consulting an attorney.

And that's all I have to say about the matter, other than if A, a total piece of trash, has any sense at all, she'll check herself into the nearest psycho ward for some much needed help. Bottom line, this jig is up. If there is a next time, look out, A. You'll be flying solo in the catbird seat and you might not like it.

Now let's all go wash our hands and rinse out our eyes and play with some Words Gone Wild that TWISTED LINGUISTICS rounded up.

perferrring - What a female cat does for the diamond solitaire.

Alot of countries are to pour to have good rading material - If such countries would improve their GNP, they could afford to pay an Army to read up on how to conduct their raids for them.

through it out there - Where Alice went after she messed with the looking glass.

perimiter - Hanging around watching guys cut fancy corners.

whitch edditing option - I'll bet I can guess which one.

I am an new author - Heh. I never would have guessed.

sudjestions - Obscene gestures, jailable offense in certain countries.

I wish you big sells - Perhaps, but there's something to be said for small as well.

Butterfinger

They call you sticky fingers for a reason!

What Kind of Candy Are You?