Collateral damage is a phrase that doesn't come up in my day to day very often. I produce TV shows, not save lives, so the collateral damage of my work life includes things like "I ate all the cookies at craft services before the cast got there and now they're bitching that there aren't any sweet treats to the poor caterer." Or "If we make this cut the guy who made the butter sculpture of the monkey scene won't get to see his work on screen."
In my personal life any collateral damage seems to land squarely on my long suffering husband: "She was screaming, we both were crying, I just couldn't face it, so we stopped for pizza and now you're on your own for dinner." and "There was poop everywhere! And it just kept coming like a battlefield - I thought I was in Beruit! So now you have to take my car in to be detailed tomorrow."
Sure it ain't pretty but no one's lost a limb.
I don't talk much here about the Photo Album anymore - mostly because the FBI has asked me not to - but it seems that while no one suffered major collateral damage - no one who shouldn't have lost their job, no one who shouldn't have lost friends or relationships, no one who shouldn't have had to buy themselves a new phone - there were definitely some feelings hurt. And that is a true regret.
I can't change what happened. I'm not sure that I would want to because in the long run a lot of good came out of it - not just for me, but many, many other people. But if I could change anything it would be to go back and minimize the collateral damage to the people who were not at fault.
Handling things with inappropriate humor is a long suffering Irish tradition and just as long there have been people who's feelings have gotten hurt because of it. For that, me and my people are sorry. Really.
But we did give you an annual world-wide drinking day so hopefully that makes up for some of it.
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