Sweet, sweet schadenfreude

As I sat, catching up with the latest goings-on at Clive's World Order, I heard the entertaining sound of crunching metal, followed shortly after by an irate car horn and raised voices. Naturally, I rushed to the balcony in hopes of catching sight of an altercation. It turned out that one of the larger street-cleaning vans had scraped alongside a badly parked car, probably detaching its wing mirror, and had braked suddenly, causing the SUV behind it to come to a sudden halt -- and sliding gently into the back of the van. The street cleaner showed little remorse or inclination to apologize, but irritatingly the matter seemed to be resolved without resorting to fisticuffs. Perhaps this is because the Dutch don't appear to care about damage done to their front and rear car bumpers; many's the time I've watched someone attempt to reverse into a far too small parking space, using their bumpers to gain an extra inch by crushing a bike underwheel or nudging the car ahead. Either that or the car drivers will hunt the street cleaner down and, when he's least expecting it, exact a bloody revenge using the damaged wing mirror. Let's hope so.