This morning one of my co-workers wrote: It was a timely message because this morning I reported someone who went a little 'overboard' but more about that later. So I shared this note with my co-workers: The vulgar happens and I was lucky enough to realize it isn't semantics but the thoughts that count. So as I was driving into work today, I remembered a posting to the effect: A lazy poster,"you should go back to masterba... "Marine answer,"I would but your head is in the way."Right answer, hit the "report" key and let our moderators handle the problem. Vulgar doesn't bother me as much as laziness and lack of skill. It takes a deft hand and a bit of wit to turn a phrase. Bob Wilson
i stopped swearing in my early 20's, can't really tell you why, i just didn't like the sound of it anymore. my fiance stopped when she came to the realization that i didn't. and she's a nurse, where it seems to be one of the qualification's for the job. we didn't allow our children to swear around us, even though they grew up in a culture where it was more acceptable than ever. i'm sure they do when we're not around, but i always told them that if they made a habit of it, someday, in a job interview, something would slip out that could cost them the job. i do let one slip now and then when i hit my thumb with the hammer. it just makes you feel better for some reason...
Brings to mind an article I read a while back: Why Swearing Helps Ease Pain: Benefits of Curse Words - TIME
Between attending a junior college and transferring to a 4 year university I worked in electrical construction. Anyone that has worked around construction workers knows that, similar to Bob's Marine experience, the non-swearing vocabulary is also very limited. I started doing it without really realizing that I was doing it. It is amazing how it invades your daily conversations. It took my Mom and my future wife to remind me every time I swore to get me to finally see how much I was doing this and to finally stop altogether. We also did not allow our kids to swear around us. None of our grown and married kids swear around us today.
For some people, the use of profanity is the sign of a limited vocabulary, for others it's the sign of an extended vocabulary.
I'm a Navy Chief, and so I'd obviously be fibbing a juuuuuuuuuust a little bit if I were to state that I don't use words that I would not normally utter in church. Having said that, I try really hard (and sometimes it is really HARD!) not to use profanity in public...especially in a forum. Forums and email have the spontaneity of conversation, but also have the durability of the written word and I always imagine that someday my grandchildren might stumble onto my babblings herein. I’ve probably logged several thousand posts in this forum (some even count!) and I’m thinking that the number that contain words that I would not use in polite conversation are probably fewer than 10. Besides....how much intellectual grunt does it take to drop an F-bomb? What does it add to the discussion??? Back in the day...every ship had a binder of instructions covering everything imaginable, and some things that aren't. Every new Commanding Officer left his or her (and I had some good 'hers') changes to the instructions which generally stayed about the same from activity (ship) to activity. There was always a chapter on profanity, and (paraphrasing) it always stated that there are situations where a muttered and well chosen profanity is appropriate, but the use of gratuitous profanity should be expressly avoided. Naturally? This chapter was rather myopically enforced. I'm not offended by cursing, but rather I tend to presume that the curser is lacking in either education, intelligence (they're not the same!) or both. It's a prejudice...but there you have it. VERY well said! Brevity is the soul of wit. 400 years and change...and Shakespear is still as valid as ever!
LOL! I've never considered the Bard to be particularly 'brief' in his prose. In his defense, he is descriptive to a fault. When I dive into a Shakespear sentence, I have to slow down, touching each word and phrase to reconstruct with mechanical drawing precision what is going on. I've always been a fan of Mark Twain (as I glance at The Complete Essays of Mark Twain.) Twain writes in an easy style, more like a graphic novel whose content is all but instantly understandable: "License of the Press, A talk before the Monday Evening Club, Hartford, 1873", The Complete Essays of Mark Twain, Charles Neider editor, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, NY, 1963, pp. 10. Written in the 'Guilded Age,' a term Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner coined from the book, The Guilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873), it speaks to patterns quite evident today . . . and best discussed in Fred's House of Politics. Bob Wilson
Since I myself have never been accused of being economical with words, I can relate. Funny you should mention Mr. Clemens.....when I was thinking of the quote, I originally thought that he was the author. I'd forgotten about Hamlet. I'm (re) reading Billy Budd as I write this, and I'm (re) reminded of the stark difference between literature today...and that which was written years ago. It's interesting. Billy Budd was/is a novella. 130 something printed pages. And yet......despite its questionable lineage it's a pretty powerful little book for what it is. I've expended more lumens of brain energy working through this book than I have with any number of contemporary works from authors who obviously get paid by the pound. I haven't seen any vulgar words yet....but they just got through with the summary trial. No spoiler alert required.
Twain is a joy to read and treasure, although I give my vote to GBShaw for most outstanding word warrior of English. It is telling that Shaw's contemporary public really could not stand his politics but they flocked to his theatre anyway.
...I'll admit, I can, occasionally, make a sailor blush. I think it comes from having raised 6 teenagers. Oh, and my first spouse was a construction worker. I try to be ladylike... really. Sometimes, though, the best response to something is "F***"
