Pompous People Are Shlimazel's

So this past Tuesday night, concertgoers at the New York Philharmonic had their performance interrupted. By an iPhone. The conductor, Alan Gilbert stopped the performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony when iPhone ringtone sounded, and didn’t stop.

That’s kind of funny. But I read a story on the internet about it that frustrated me.

A blogger at “thousandfold echo” wrote this:

In a way, it’s great that that shlimazel’s iPhone happened to go off at such a sweet spot in Mahler’s Ninth on Tuesday.  All of us—the authors included (here’s our eyewitness account and here’s our review of the actual music)—got to exercise some righteous indignation, schadenfreude, and the adrenaline rush of watching a fight.

Let me give you some definitions:

• Shlimazel - A very unlucky or inept person who fails at everything.
• Indignation - Anger or annoyance provoked by what is perceived as unfair treatment.
• Schadenfreude - Satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else’s misfortune.

Full disclosure, I knew what two of those definitions were (I had to look up shlimazel). But just because I know a word doesn’t mean I have to use it. I do enjoy a symphony every now and then, and I am in fact planning on attending one next month. I’m also a card-carrying member of MENSA. This isn’t an attack on symphony-goers or intelligent people. It’s just expressing an annoyance with people who use supererogatory (unnecessary) words in order to make themselves seem enlightened (smart).

We are making a promise today at Stray Monkey. We’ll never use any supererogatory pompous speech in our articles in order to make us look more intelligent. That’s definitely Not Stray Monkey, Approved. [Source - NY Times]
[Blog - thousandfold echo]