...That guy is just an asshole. Not funny at all. He should just have declined instead of screwing around and wasting everybody's time.

It's possible that he didn't actually do that, and was only blogging the fantasy ("Man, I'd love to troll her with increasingly stupid cat posters until she leaves me alone ..."), but it's also possible that we see the response after being frequently asked to do Free Work as a "favor" for coworkers who either won't accept "No" or don't understand that it's inappropriate to depand such work.

If we take this at face value, she could have asked more nicely, and he could also have followed the "F you, pay me" principle, and just quoted her a figure.

Had he said, "I'd be happy to make you a poster for your cat. I will be able to do it with an hour's work, for which I will bill you $80", he would not have wasted her time, and she could have made something herself in her word processor. (Or, she'd have said, "Awesome, here's eighty bucks".)

I found it a little funny, but not funny enough to justify being that level of asshole.

It's satire. He didn't actually write this and there is no missing cat.

Not so sure about that [1]:

> Q: Are your articles (like Missing Missy), real emails?

> A: The email articles are verbatim ...

Even if his pieces are meant to be satire, IMO it's not particularly good satire. To each his own, I guess.

[1] http://live.washingtonpost.com/david-thorne-internet-is-a-pl...

I'm curious why this was downvoted?

Not sure, but that interview is satirical too...

I don't think so -- what exactly is satirical about that interview?

(Not that I really care to know; this is getting way off-topic.)

Hate to break it to you, but 27b/6 is actually fiction.