Bad Buds

The wife and I were out car shopping today, 'cause we're about due an upgrade, and on the way home from the dealership we stop in Target to grab a few things.

Walking up and down the aisles we begin to smell a peculiar odor, not a good one. We quickly determine it is the building that smells like a seafood restaurant, the WHOLE building. That place needed giant moth balls.

Anyway, we go down one aisle after another until it seems like the smell starts to fade and then out of left field, better known as aisle nine, a new funk hit us. I start, 'cause I felt pimp-slapped (open hand, palm forward) by the new stealth funk. Turns out it wasn't the building this time, it was a dude shopping w/a couple of other adults - a woman and another man. Don't know if they were relatives, friends, neighbors, etc., but whatever their "formal" titles the three of them were obviously friendly.

So, here's my question: Assuming the guy bearing the funk did not have a disease that caused him to smell - in which case, his smell would have been excusable, what kind of friends were the other two for not giving him a heads up? They were standing there yucking it up as though they smelled nothing but roses.

Being a good friend isn't just about saying sweet things all the time, no pun intended. Sometimes you gotta say the harsh stuff too, for the other person's own good. If I stink like goat cheese, I want my friends to pull me aside and tell me to handle it, the same way I expect their intervention if my fly is open or I'm dragging tissue on the back of my shoe.

I have always had a little suspicion/paranoia for a "friend" who won't tell a friend that something is wrong/off kilter, etc., when they're in public. Makes me think the "friend" might really be an undercover hater.