The worst person in the world

I was once sat next to someone at a St Patrick's Day dinner in Lusaka (I think in the Irish Embassy). Every table had three bottles of Jameson whiskey on it, and we were pushing on through the third between us when I asked him what he did.

'Oh, import and export mainly,' he replied.

'Where?' I asked. 'Burma, mostly,' was the answer.

'Really? What sort of things?'

'Police equipment in, tear gas and so on, and tropical hardwoods out.'

'Jesus, you're the worst person in the world!'

'Yeah, I get that a lot.'

Until now, that was my benchmark for worst person status. It may, however, have been lowered.

The man known for dressing up in an Elmo costume and harassing New York City tourists with anti-Semitic outbursts was sentenced in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday to a year in jail after admitting he tried to extort $2 million from the Girl Scouts.

Actually reading the story shows that this guy is sadly nuts rather than nasty though, so whoever that bloke was in Zambia still holds the record.