So Alex set up a pity group for me on Facebook. How kind! How sincere. Only now am I realizing that making our little event more public has given Alex something he has never had before: a stage. Some of us can handle a small amount of public attention, and we deal with it maturely and soberly, and some of us deal with it slightly differently.

It's becoming clear that what was once an amusing exercise in futility has mutated into a grimly Sysyphean task that will be played out against a backdrop of jeering, abusive faces.