We're not actually gloating over WaMu's travails -- there are too many lives involved likely to be disrupted. But there's no denying the majesty with which its home loan mortgage unit steered into the subprime iceberg. The Seattle Times headline reads: "WaMu posts first quarterly loss in a decade," thanks to a $1.78 billion writedown by the home loaners.

Oddly, the bigger news -- "For the full year, WaMu reported a $67 million loss — its first annual loss since at least 1994" -- was saved for the article.

That story doesn't mention the latest legal woe for WaMu, a suit filed by a real estate appraiser who claims she was blacklisted for pointing out that the California housing market was declining. The appraiser claims she then got a call from a sales manager demanding she characterize the market as "stable." CNNMoney reports:

The WaMu sales manager also demanded Wertz change her appraisal process to produce higher prices for the properties she was evaluating, according to Wertz's lawyer Stephen Danz. The higher an appraisal comes out, the more likely it is a home loan will get approved.

When Wertz refused to comply, she claims the sales manager threatened to block her from doing future appraisal work for the bank. A month later, Wertz's suit says, a third-party appraisal request assigner told her WaMu would no longer accept her work.

Are we crazy or does it sound like he's saying he'll dig WaMu out of its overly mortgaged hole with more mortgages? In other financial news, the end is near. Watch for falling investment professionals in the downtown core.