Apologies — and a Challenge for German Speakers or Those Willing to Fake It

Perhaps you noticed. At least I’d like to think you did. Freud’s Butcher has been out of commission for the past week.

The first problem was caused by a WordPress hack that affected some 90,000 sites. It began with my site loading very sloooowly and ended in my being unable to post anything because, for security reasons, my host prevented everyone, including me, from entering the site.

That problem got fixed and, like a good blogger, I followed all the steps suggested for upgrading my security.

Apparently Headway, my WordPress theme builder, wasn’t on board with the security upgrading program.  As a result, anyone who called up my site got a blank home page.

But with the help of a WordPress guru and my web designer, Laura Kelly, the problem finally got sorted out about an hour ago.

It was Laura who came up with the idea that I have converted into a challenge. She said, “I’m sure there is some great German compound word for the unintended consequences of the fix being worse than the original problem.”

I’m sure there is — and if there isn’t, there should be.  The prime example of such a term is “Schadenfreude,” the joy we feel when others fail. The root words are Schaden, which means harm, and Freude, which means  joy. (I keep wanting to write about Freud and joy, by the way, but since I don’t have anything profound to say, I’ve resisted).

So…does anyone know if a word exists in German for the phenomenon of the fix that makes things worse? If not, all fabrications are welcome. You don’t have to speak German; since we’re in the realm of made-up words, anything that sounds appropriately Teutonic will do.

I can’t think of a prize — yet. Perhaps there’s also a word or phrase too for someone who wants you to come up with clever ideas for nothing. Oh wait, there is, though I know it only in English: Website editor. Not all of them, of course, just the ones who ask professional writers for permission to use their original work for “the exposure.” (Here’s a great piece on the topic, by the brilliant Nate Thayer: A Day In the Life of A Freelance Writer.) A favorite retort: You can die of exposure.

I apologize too for the goofy sad face image — once you start using the “featured image” option of putting something next to your post title, you can never stop — and for this somewhat goofy post; I’m a bit slap happy now that I finally got my tech problems resolved. I hope to return to my scheduled blogging for My Month of (Mostly) Meats very soon.