Author Offers Ten Tips on Eliminating Profanity from One's Vocabulary

Cheyenne, Wyoming,Tribune-Eagle ^ | 05-11-03 | Olson, Ilene

[AppyPappy]

The author of this article is an effing idiot!!! :=), :-)

French off. :()

[=Intervention=]

Dead wrong. Words mean things. The devolution of public language stems from inability to think of ideas AND express them.

[Tall_Texan]

Dykeman has strong feelings on the subject.
“My personal belief on that it is not acceptable at any time in an office."

I'm sure if my last name were "Dykeman", I'd be extra sesnitive about cuss words, too.

[Tall_Texan]

French off.

Oh, crepes!

[Fresh Wind]

..-. ..- -.-. -.- -.-- --- ..- .- ... ... .... --- .-.. .

[supercat]

Yeah, but he may be onto something. The art of cussing has become so vulgar that it has lost its effectiveness. Rather than elimination, I would suggest that people be taught to use it sparingly as a precious resource. It is only when held in reserve for an appropriate moment that it truly communicates the intended meaning.

Like the "big big dee" of HMS Pinafore?

[supercat]

Writing "effing" or leaving out key letters is virtually the same as writing them out. What does Mr. Robinson say about this?

Well, if one is creative one can always act as though the abbreviations meant something else. REMF, e.g., is "Rear Eschelon Mommy's Favorite."

[Theodore R.]

I submitted the article from the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle mostly as light-hearted reading. I never thought that it would get any response, much less more than sixty. Either there are too few articles on profanity on our forum, or I have found a subject of much greater interest among the members than I had thought.

I have been trying to highlight WY news for months on this forum, as our smallest state in population seems to get the short shrift in news. But we're making up for that on this Mother's Day.

[MEG33]

Thanks for the post.... bump

[sauropod]

I agree with you.

My own opinon that the verb from which "effing" was derived be uttered as if one were uttering a royal proclamation ;-).

[sauropod]

Then you might as well use "Waxman" in place of nostril. Perhaps this is the birth of another "clymer"?

[sauropod]

Muck Fee?

Yuck Foo!

[andy58-in-nh]

Dead wrong. Words mean things. The devolution of public language stems from inability to think of ideas AND express them.

With all respect, I think you are about half right. Words do mean things - yes, about that you are absolutely correct, and thank God, our Constitution, and Jim Robinson for forums like this one where we may intelligently discuss such things. However, the decline of Western Civilization owes its origin to the deconstruction of meaning, language, context, and manners, the font of which has been the elite academic world, not the "street" where vulgarity has always been the preferred form of expression.

But consider that even relatively uneducated people may (and frequently do) express noble ideas, even while doing so in the language of the gutter. In fact, I would far rather expose my ears to an honest four-letter-laced criticism of the moral character of, say, Bill Clinton, than to an erudite but dishonest defense of it.

I cannot fully explain myself here without venturing too deeply into the realm of "Vanity", so I'll just note that my frequent experience has been that the Left uses profanity wildly, angrily, and stupidly, while the Right (Bill Buckley, P.J. O'Rourke, and Tom Wolfe, to name a few representatives) use it in context and appropriate to the occasion. Some "bad" words are quite useful, powerful, and evocative - and are unfortunately overused in a world long on expression and short on meaning.

[VRWCmember]

Kirk: Spock, where the hell's that power you promised?
Spock: One damn minute, admiral!