Backpfeifengesicht

Have you been desperately trying to keep your cool during a dispute while secretly - or indeed, not so secretly - wanting to punch your enemy in the face? It seems we've all been there, caught up in the middle of an ongoing dispute with a former friend or work colleague. You've been engaged in a subtle passive-aggressive war for weeks, you're all smiles but the claws are out. Disapproving looks have been exchanged and catty remarks made. You would talk it over with them, but deep down you suspect that violence is the only option. Violence, however, is the last refuge of the incompetent, as Isaac Asimov once wrote. All the better, then, to just think "Backpfeifengesicht" - a face badly in need of fist.

Author: Helen Whittle
Editor: Kate Bowen