Winston Churchill: Put down 1.

Sarcasm can be funny if done well. Of, course if not done well it can just be very hurtful. Even worse than that, if you are not good at it, or just not careful with it, it can turn around and bite the giver, as one lady found out when she crossed swords with that master of the short “sound bite’, Sir Winston Churchill.
Of course this story goes back many years but in my humble opinion is worth re-telling.
Apparently they were at a party and Sir Winston had been drinking a little, which I understand was his habit anyway, and this lady apparently got into a heated exchange with him, to which he replied with ”You’re ugly”. Not a nice thing to say even if it was true, and the lady angrily retorted. “And you’re drunk”. To which Sir Winston replied, “Yes but in the morning, I will be sober, but you will still be Ugly.”
Again, not a very nice reply, but one, which to my mind at least, exemplifies the old maximum of never trying to argue with a fool, as people listening will find it hard to know which is which. The lady was probably right, but Winston won the argument, at least in the eyes of the watchers.
What about ourselves? How often have we been involved in a discussion like this that leads to no satisfaction, when it would have been far better to simply disengage and walk away relatively unscathed rather than engage in a battle you just can’t win there and then?
What Winston said was not nice and needed to be corrected for sure, but there and then was quite obviously neither the time nor the place, and intervention then, only exploded further on the lady. Instead of retiring hurt but dignified, for another more private battle latter when Winston sobered, she made herself a permanent laughing stock.
Again how often has that happened to you? How many times have we realized later to our cost, that it just wasn’t worth it, there and then, and that we should have waited for a better, perhaps more private time? So, the next time you are thinking of using sarcasm think it through thoroughly. There may be a better way, or at least a better time and place. What say you? Walter