A DAY IN THE LIFE: 'TIS THE SEASON TO BE...OBNOXIOUS?

The New World Dictionary defines a Scrooge as a hard, miserly misanthrope. A misanthrope as a person who hates or distrusts everyone. Another dictionary defines a Scrooge as a hard, greedy person.

Every school child knows where the term "Scrooge" comes from. We all know that Ebenezer Scrooge, in "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, was an avaricious man visited by Christmas spirits on Christmas Eve and made kindly when they showed him the meaning of consideration and generosity to others.

If those spirits are looking for work, I know a couple people who could use a visit or two.

I encountered one such person the other day on my way to the dentist to have a tooth filled. I was cruising along, minding my own business (like I always do).

I admit my mind was on about a hundred other things instead of what it should have been on -- the road.

I guess I must have cut this guy off; it was an accident, I simply wasn't paying attention. It was a simple failure to communicate. But of course he didn't see it that way.

I even made that face that people make when they cut someone off on accident. You know the one I mean, that "Ooh, sorry" face.

But that mattered naught. This guy forgot that this is Christmas, the season of brotherly love and peace, good will toward men. He yelled an obscenity at me that was more of an insult to my mother than me and then proceeded to flip me off (and we ALL know what that means).

He wasn't even very jolly when he did it, either.

And then just a couple of days ago, I ran into a photographer whose photos I had used in a publication I edited. I smiled to him and said hello, how ya doin'? His greeting was in the form of an accusation that the publication in which his photos ran was "politically biased."

He then informed me that he was a "hard-core" Democrat and that I wouldn't be using his photos anymore.

He stormed away without even wishing me a "Merry Christmas."

Of all the nerve.

Isn't Christmas the time of the year when we're all supposed to try and get along? We're supposed to put aside our differences. Apparently this doesn't apply to ex-girlfriends any more than it does to Democratic photographers.

I walked past my ex-girlfriend on the street, muttered hello, and she IGNORED me. Of course, she DID manage to say hello to the friend I was with.

She acted as if she wasn't the one who ended the relationship with "I've met someone who's actually better looking than you and I've been seeing him for some time now." (Maybe she acted this way because she didn't end it that way, but I want you on MY side.)

Those ghosts of Christmas past, present and future have kind of been falling down on the job. There are still lots of Ebenezer Scrooges out there.

Actually to call these people Scrooges may be a bit harsh. Hopefully, they're not as mean as Scrooge was before the ghosts visited him. I doubt they would deny their employees a lump of coal to warm themselves, even if there were no unions or OSHA.

But there are some people out there who need to get more into the Christmas spirit.

But still, in my case, it's a good thing Christmas only comes around once a year.