Petty revenge.

The NYT uncovers the intense interest people have in raining petty revenge on those who've annoyed them in small ways.

Dena Roslan was sick of a co-worker who kept helping himself to her lunch cookies. So Ms. Roslan, 30, a clothing designer who works in Manhattan, bought a bag of dog biscuits that looked like biscotti. "My only remorse was not being able to see his face after he ate the bait," she said.

Go to the link to see the photo of the smugly pleased Ms. Roslan waving a dog biscuit. She seems to think she's perfectly delightful, as do a lot of other people described in the article.

Maybe there are passive aggressive types everywhere who are just waiting for a high profile newpaper to encourage them to indulge their creative side. So let me do my part and say that this behavior is far more vile than what it is designed to protest.

UPDATE: I know someone who -- like many others before him -- quit a job at that UW Survey Center, which conducts important surveys about health care services, because people on the telephone, always ready to tell off telemarketers, were just too mean. They seemed not to hear the introduction that clearly stated the important public purpose of the University survey. How many people walk around in their daily lives with their minds addled by idiotic vengefulness?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Given the email I've received, I need to sledgehammer a point: the UW Survey Center is not a telemarketer! It conducts important, scientific, government research that relies on random sampling. People have free-floating anger about telephone calls that has incapacitated them from understanding or caring about the legitimate research that is conducted by telephone. Email about how much you hate telemarketers and feel justified saying whatever you want to a stranger who calls you is really only proving my point about the pathetic petty aggression people are carrying around in their heads. Maybe some day you or a member of your family will have a health problem and would have benefited from high quality statistical research that became impossible because of the generic hostility of people like you.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Nappy Forty asks some really good questions about the dog biscuit lady.