Today's Word: Schadenfreude

"Schadenfreude"[n. SHAW-den-froy-duh] Taking malicious satisfaction in another person's troubles is schadenfreude. Even though there may be some guilt involved, this noun comes in handy when someone feels glee or gloats over another person's suffering. Example: "She had a feeling of schadenfreude when the boy who dumped her was unable to find a date for the prom." Sometimes capitalized, schadenfreude is a compound of two German words: schaden (damage) and freude (joy).

In recent days, I've been struggling with Schadenfreude. First, it was watching the MF Yankees lose to Detroit in the baseball playoffs. Somehow, watching a team of All Stars lose to a team that is young, hungry, and on the rise (and who will probably win the World Series) gave me the most satisfaction since 2004 (when we know what happened for the first time in 86 years).

Now, tonight, I am reading story after story (after freakin' STORY) showing the Democrats leading the GOoPers by wide margins:

"A bi-partisan poll of 48 congressional races believed to be competitive shows an even more uphill battle for Republicans in coming weeks than previously thought, RAW STORY has learned.

NPR commissioned the poll from Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and Public Opinion Strategies.

With just three weeks until election day, the survey found Democrats running with a commanding lead in districts currently held by Republicans, and just 44% of voters planning to support the GOP.

In races for 38 seats currently held by Republicans, Democrats held a 4 point edge in named ballots. On a generic ballot, Democrats' lead increased to 11 points. Independents say they plan to vote for Democrats by a 20 point margin."

This news makes me do the happy dance, but I want to be cautious about over-confidence. We felt like this in 2004 also and we know how that turned out, right?

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. ;-)