Please don't swear.
Saying for the day: "Swearing was invented as a compromise between running away and fighting." Finley Peter Dunne.
Ralph sent me a list of things people used to say and this was included in that list.
“Hush your mouth! I don't want to hear words like that. I will wash your mouth out with soap again! “
Having heard that when I was a kid and having had my mouth washed out with soap I wondered if parents still fight the language battle.
If they do it must be harder. Growing up I heard a few cuss words but not many. Cussing was for lumber jacks, soldiers, and people who went to taverns . Of course from time to time my father joined that group but with a very limited vocabulary. So I didn’t hear much cussing. I learned quickly not to say the few words I knew. It wasn’t until I went to work on the ore boats that I heard real cussing.
Today, however, the internet is loaded with cuss words. Every fourth or fifth blog is loaded with them. I know because I screen the links for this blog. My granddaughter might read the
link of the day. There are some really good blogs out there that would be just as good or even better if they killed the cuss words. But they don’t have to so they cuss away.On television they keep trying to push the limit as to what words can be used and on cable anything goes. You can’t keep a kid from hearing or seeing the words.
I have theory that all kinds of kids who grew up not being allowed to cuss are now exercising their cussed rights.
In doing so they have ruined the words. They no longer have any shock value. They are hardly worth washing a mouth out with soap any more. Besides in today’s climate washing the kids mouth out with soap might be considered child abuse.
@@@@ News from Pigeon Falls-The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and the cold continues.– It is three degrees colder in Pigeon Falls today than yesterday. There was another light dusting of snow last night so everything is a pretty white. The pigeons, rabbits, deer, and wolves are all gone. If this keeps up the snow plowing budget will be busted by late October.
Petrovich’s driblets (62 and 77) have people thinking of who are the power ladies that might sing and end this. They have come up with the following list:
Hillary Clinton– Senator and Presidential candidate
Jennifer Granholm.- Governor of Michigan
Mrs. Trumble– Mayor of Pigeon Falls
Joan Castle– Pastor of Last Lutheran
Angharrett Howell– Head of the local Eastern Star
Vicki East– Vice President Liar’s Club and song writer
Gwen James-Head of the woman’s group at Last Lutheran
If this continues one feels sure the list will grow longer.
But life in Pigeon Falls goes on.
Nancy is back. The saffron buns and coffee are back up to her high standards. She had a great honeymoon marred only by the episode with the shark. Her new husband is all refreshed and healing nicely . He is ready to write the great novel “Murder in a small town”. If he is typical is sure takes a long time to write a novel.
Mrs. Elanor Peabody who heads up the local electric cooperative sent out the bills today. They are a slight bit higher because the dam on the Crayon River doesn’t produce enough electricity for the town and the Gridd raised its prices. If this cold snap continues they will get even worse.
Kivi & Maki are selling lots of salt. With all the ice forming salt is a necessity . You don’t want people falling and breaking a leg. So its shovel, shovel, shovel and salt, salt,salt. It’s winter in Pigeon Falls.
*******
Today's Link- In the World Where I Live- An interesting poem.
This morning Betty went and got a hair cut. I played on the computer. In the afternoon ,after the soaps,we worked downstairs. Then I visited some links. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA
posted by Dr.John at 5:14 AM
10 Comments:
Just yesterday while taking Squirt to school she shouted from the back seat, "Your car just said a bad word."
I realized my radio was down low on a morning talk show - I didn't hear the offending word but I'm sure she did.
I shut the radio off.
We still fight the fight, but I'm under no delusions that we're winning. We're an island in a sea of profanity and the kids hear it more than they don't. Their friends swear, their friends parents swear, their teachers swear, their favorite singers swear, their sports heros swear and as you said, EVERYONE on television and in the movies swears. I cringe at the stuff I hear on the bus. I tell them about the worst of it,but there isn't much I can do as the schools don't punish the kids for it.
I've stopped reading a few sites because the cussing was so gratuitous that it actually detracted from the meaning of the posts. I am not a prude by any stretch and believe a well placed expletive can work wonders but I also believe if you can't express yourself without them, you can't express yourself. I don't like being verbally slapped in the face constantly.
My mother always said that people who cuss all the time have a limited vocabulary. My father worked as a technical director in a papermill when I was little. He frequently was awakened in the middle of the night by someone calling about a problem. Though I heard him on the phone saying some curse words there were some he never used. I hear those a lot these days. Too bad.
So what is keeping the women who are already in Pigeon Falls from singing? Gregnicov says at the end of dribble 77 that he needs a warm drink. So the women of Pigeon Falls need to start singing and Nancy needs to stand by with some of her coffee.
Sorry I missed Leave A Comment Monday!
You are right about the shock value of curse words being gone. It is sad. I am trying to watch my language for Binker. I am doing a bit better but it is hard. What amazes me is teh public places adults will still loudly say those words right in front of all the kids.
Cussing or swearing lost its charm long ago (supposing it ever had charm).
Yes it was what grown ups, navvies coal miners or lumberjacks might do
Yes it was something that could be used to irritate parents - oh how they hated kids swearing or using 'bad' words. Some parents were never fit to be parentsin the first place and some would never have passed and will never pass a parenting test
But now it just sounds bland, even boring - heard it all before - so to speak. Ecept of course for the next generation it is still new, and they even dream up some sillier words. And of course some of the older generation never grew up, some of the older generation never grows up ...
But you'd think schools (and homes) would have 'swear' boxes.
We don't fight it too much...although Joy soap has played a part in that..
Four degrees? I thought I was doing good just getting one...do you have the loans to back it up? :)
I absolutely hate swear words..It's not because my mother told me they were bad, but for some reason, I feel it is not proper to say them. It's just something I do not tolerate well.
Somebody tell Stacy that the teacher of MY students most certainly did not swear and neither do any of the other teachers I worked with!
The kids hear it. They say it on the play ground. They try it in the classroom -- and then I tell them that cuss words were invented for people either too dense or too lazy to try and explain why they are upset. Then I ask, "Which are you?" When they exclaim, "Neither!" I challenge them to prove it.
Post a Comment
<< Home