When I wrote yesterday about my Neighbor from Hell, I didn’t intend to start a discussion about how to deal with the nuisance.

I should have realized comments would go that way, though. And I’m glad they did because as always you guys came up with ideas that are interesting, helpful, and delightfully devious (sometimes all three at once!).

In the long run, I’m pretty sure the neighbors will have to deal with Mr. Karaoke on their own, non-violently but decisively. Some of your techniques will surely be put to good use.

As it happens, though, this week we caught an unexpected break. And yes it did involve “people in charge.”

After the week’s third party, I begged Mr. K’s landlady to give him an ultimatum: stop the noise or be evicted. This she would not do. But she talked with him, then called me back with a story that, at first, didn’t make much sense. Mr. K was quite indignant because he claimed that he now had the city government’s approval for all this racket!

He had gone to the chief of police and the city council and gotten specific permission to hold musical events (by invitation) around the city in honor of what landlady called “Mexican Mardi Gras” — Carnival, the extended pre-Lenten festivities celebrated down south.

Nobody is going to be so churlish as to begrudge a neighbor an occasional loud holiday celebration.

But Mr. K. — who frankly shows more signs of arrogant cluelessness than malice — decided that the city had given him carte blanche — for parties, for rehearsals, for pretty much anything. The government approved of him. He had Followed Procedures. So how could the neighbors possibly have any legitimate objection?

I went to city hall and explained our dilemma to the mayor. He gave me a fair hearing, talked with the police chief, and by the end of the day the chief had sent a sergeant out to Mr. K’s place with the message that the city had not endorsed anything beyond by-request holiday performances during Carnival.

With luck, this will keep Mr. K. quiet until seriously nice weather sets in. Then we’ll see. I’ll be very, very surprised if this buys us long-term peace.

Am I happy that I went to “officials”? Nope. But this time, in all innocence, those very officials had triggered the problem and they decently took responsibility.

And as I wrote yesterday, when you’re facing a dilemma that increasingly looks as if it can’t be solved politely, it’s easier to live with yourself if you can say, “I tried everything else before I resorted to guerrilla warfare.”

I’d say we’ve now tried everything else.

Do me a favor, if you would. Go back to yesterday’s post and take another look at the second part — the part about mindset and hesitancy to act. Because I really do think that the way everybody’s handled (or failed to handle) this mini-mess bears on our current situation as lovers of freedom in an unfree world.

That’s what I’d like to talk about in part III.

—-

But first … you want a LOL? I wrote the above Thursday afternoon and scheduled it for later posting. As it turns out, I’d rather not post it at all, except that I promised part II. I’m adding this coda at 6:30 Thursday evening — while listening to the sounds of Mr. K’s latest “performance.”

The best I can say is that he is keeping the volume down this time.

But yes, we’ll have to solve this problem ourselves.

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