It’s the holidays again, and that means time for a certain segment of the population to become crankier and more pinheaded than usual. This year I guess it’s a bit less of a surprise, considering the good economic news that just keeps on a-comin’.
That’s part of it, at least. Some of it is because some folks are deeply, bitterly disappointed about the way the recent election turned out. Not everybody can be as gracious in defeat as McCain.
And then there is my favorite group, the people who think, “I love being a jerk during the holidays, because if I offend anybody — or even if I just plain screw with them for my own amusement — they have to forgive me. If they don’t, then they’re nothing but big mean Scrooges with no goodwill toward men. And by men, I mean me. Because the point of the holidays is for other people to be nicer to me, not for me to be nicer to other people.”
So here’s my little heads-up to you. The holidays almost always suck to some degree. This year they are likely to suck just a tad more than normal. More people than you think are apt to be wellsprings of discontent. Goodwill is going to be as hard to come by as a sub-prime mortgage. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
