Word of the day: Schadenfreude

Some years ago now we were visiting the a German cousin of my wife's; and the conversation somehow got to German words which are used in English. We were struggling for examples and she came up with schadenfreude 

If you want a definition of schadenfreude here's a practical example.

When one day the news tells you

In 2005, the most recent year for which data is available, 1.92 million speeding tickets - up from 712,000 in 1997 (The number of road deaths has fallen by 7% since 1998 to 3,172 in 2006.)

and the very next day it tells you

The former chair of roads policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) has been banned from driving for speeding at 90mph.

What you are feeling is schadenfreude.