The Evil League of Evil is an elite group of super villains in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog written by Joss Whedon. The plot revolves around Doctor Horrible’s desperate attempts to get accepted into the League.
When Dr. Horrible’s not busy breaking the law or trying to get close to his secret crush, Penny, he’s boasting about his exploits via his Internet video blog and dreaming of defeating his nemesis, Captain Hammer.
It’s an innovative twist on the super-hero genre. I couldn’t help but root for the evil Dr. Horrible, played by Neil Patrick Harris, and wait for the self-absorbed Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillion, to get clobbered.
I’m not much into musicals, but the singing worked better than I expected. It was great. I so enjoyed it that when my wife and I were called evil, I felt there was nothing else to do but embrace it, and form our very own Evil League of Evil.
Evil—it’s a word that comes with a lot of baggage—profound immorality, wickedness, depravity, especially in regard to supernatural force. Yeah, that sounds like a lot of commitment. It’s not that I don’t have goals. It’s just that I’m not really sure how to be evil.
It’s a word that’s overused, but one really doesn’t expect to be called evil. You sometimes hear ideologies called evil, but those are based on philosophies. Ideas are peaceful; it’s history that’s violent.
You hear the Nazis referred to as evil, and with the extermination of over six million people, and with new evidence surfacing of the atrocities of the Nazi’s crimes against humanity, I believe it’s an appropriate usage.
Still, in my forty-five years, I haven’t really seen evil, at least not personally. So, when I was called evil, I really didn’t know what to do, except laugh at it. I simply am not ambitious enough to be evil, nor self-righteous enough to consider myself a saint. I thought I’d choose the more humanizing, comedic path. It’s not as steep and you get to take naps.
I decided to share the impetus for forming our very own Evil League of Evil … I originally planned to make fun of the author of this letter, but I’ve considered that she may, in fact, be a very troubled woman.
Our friend , a volunteer at the store, received a letter from this disturbed woman. I don’t feel mental illness should be trivialized. Too often, our society throws around the term ‘crazy’ for comedic effect. My own wife is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She really has more of a chemical imbalance and with proper medication, she does quite well.
The compelling letter was sent by the wife of the owner of Pop’s Culture Shoppe here in Wellsboro. They are currently our co-tenant at 25 Main St. Julian Stam, the owner, used to rent space from us when we had the store at 87 Main St. He needed retail space to display certain products, or the wholesaler wouldn’t sell to him.
When we moved to 25 Main St, we offered to share space with Julian. We had a good business relationship with Julian, but didn’t know his wife well at all. She didn’t come into the basement store, even to game night. She told us she had problems with enclosed spaces and anxiety, and it appears those problems go a little further. Here is the letter she sent our friend.
"I've been hoping to be able to talk with you sometime, but there always seem to be customers in the store when you walk through. I suspect you feel that Kevin and Kasey's actions are justified because I took a picture of you in our store the other day. It was nothing against you personally, but you need to understand that because of months of evil harrassment [sic] on the part of your employers and friends, we have become very defensive and must document every trespass and breach of lease and contract. I have never seen you as naive or stupid, so I must believe that you know exactly what your employers are doing to us. It makes me very sad that they have created such animosity and division in the community, but we simply need to protect ourselves, and despite your desire to remain neutral, you are caught in the middle. As you said to Julian, they are also your friends, so it is very possible that they are using you to find out what products we carry. They are interested not only in running a bookstore, but in undermining our business, and even other businesses in town. I have never been a paranoid person, but in this situation we have come to understand how incredibly unstable, unreasonable and unprofessional your employers are, and we are constantly under stress and in defensive mode when dealing with them. If they were truly your friends, and you theirs, you would not have to be afraid to tell them the truth about their inappropriate actions. I can see how stressful this situation has been for you, but PLEASE look in your heart and recognize the true source of this evil. It takes courage to do the right thing."
--email from Anja Stam to Jen Colson
Our relationship with Julian soured once his wife became directly involved. As this letter shows, Anja has several deep-rooted problems. I’m not a mental health professional, so I won’t attempt to diagnose. In this letter, she freely admits to harassment of our friend Jen. We share a bathroom with Pop’s Culture Shoppe, and have right of way.
Jen has every right to use the bathroom when she is volunteering or visiting the store, and yet Anja took a photo of Jen standing in line to use the bathroom.
Anja also regularly makes claims of ‘harassment and breaches of lease and contract.’ There is no legal proof of these false accusations. It is Anja who is often doing the harassing of our friends, our customers, our business, and it is her husband who breached the lease by trespassing into space leased by From My Shelf Books & Gifts.
I’m not going to throw around the word evil. As I’ve said, it’s overused. I do feel that the Stams need to re-examine their code of ethics. It is the Stams that chose to compete against the bookstore. It is the Stams that chose to fabricate stories to attempt to eliminate a business that had helped them.
Our lease is expiring March 31st, and as many of you know, we will be moving. It’s for the better. Although 25 Main Street was a great location for a bookstore, the owners of Pop’s Culture Shoppe did not make the time here a pleasant one.
The owners of Pop’s Culture Shoppe refused to do anything about the noise level, as did the landlord David G. Zavetsky. In fact, the landlord and the owners of Pop’s Culture Shoppe even conspired to evict the bookstore, but failed. There was no breach of the lease and none of their false allegations of harassment came to anything. This was even decided and verified in Pennsylvania Superior Court.
Pop’s Culture wanted the retail space that the bookstore currently occupies at 25 Main Street, but the owners spent so much time spreading false rumors and trying to destroy the only bookstore in three counties, that their own business suffered.
What is done for love always transcends good and evil. The bookstore will continue on, even though Anja, her husband, and their staff have done their best to hurt the business, and it has cost us thousands of dollars in court costs and stress.
We’ll be moving to 7 East Avenue and have an environment more suited to a bookstore. We’ll have parking for customers of the plaza, be handicap accessible, continue to serve the community we love, and of course keep being evil…
You, too, can join the Wellsboro branch of the Evil League of Evil. Just stop by our new location in March to get your photo taken and your secret decoder ring (supplies limited) and new code name! We don’t require you to kill anyone. In fact, we discourage that kind of behavior. Though we do prefer that you aren’t self-absorbed or sanctimonious…
A New Recruit for the Evil League of Evil
Evil is for Every Age
MU Students Getting their degree in Evil
No comments:
Post a Comment