Euphemism of the day

The Wall Street journal has an article on Bernie Madoff that may set a new standard for euphemism. The quote is:

Colleagues of Mr. Madoff said he was fair to those he dealt with and generous to charities including the Special Olympics. Mr. Madoff treated employees well and loved to take friends and colleagues on his 55-foot fishing boat, called Bull, said Frank Christensen, a retired New York Stock Exchange broker. "I really think very highly of him," said Mr. Christensen. "People make mistakes."

The people that Mr. Madoff dealt with have been taken for about $50 billion. That doesn't strike me as particularly fair.

And if somebody gives me $50 for safekeeping and I misplace it, that's a mistake. And people might still think highly of me. But $50 billion? I don't think the word "mistake" is adequate. Mr. Christensen is understanding to a fault.

I think we will learn more about David Friehling in the coming week as well. Friehling's CPA firm, Friehling & Horowitz of New City, New York, had the task of doing a (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) "audit" of Madoff, if you know what I mean. Done without staff, it would seem.

A Google search for "David G. Friehling" shows that Cornell University had listed him on their Honor Roll of donors from the class of 1981. If you check out the URL that Google directs you to, the Cornell site responds with "Sorry, a problem has occurred." Another euphemism. They mean an error 404, but it seems more broadly applicable. Although Cornell has removed the page, you can still find it in Google's cache. Not long ago, Cornell grouped him on a list of honor. They are now maybe having second thoughts about associating him with that word, or for that matter Cornell.