Curses!

Last night, I had a dream where I was using a computer, and, when I started it up, there was some weird quiz based on the contents of the hard drive. There was also a dream about getting lost in an area I should have known well, and one where bethje told me about HER dream, where her dog Dewey made friends with himself as a puppy.

Anyway, I mentioned that I might go into more detail on some of the issues that were addressed on Bullshit!, so I might as well start now, with the one on curse words. They talked to a few people who thought cursing was bad. One lady, who was a drivers' education teacher, advised using OTHER words in place of curses, which struck me as kind of silly, if you're using them in the same way you'd use curse words. A man thought that people who cursed were insulting his intelligence. Now, I've heard the argument that people who curse a lot are uncreative, and I guess I can see that in SOME situations. For instance, if someone says "fuck" for every other word, the word loses all effect, and the person probably does come off as sounding less intelligent, or at least less creative, than if they'd show a wider vocabulary. On the other hand, this is true if a person overuses ANY word, not just one that's been determined to be "bad." And there are times when a curse word is more appropriate and effective than a clever substitute.

I certainly think there are situations where certain words should be avoided out of consideration and politeness, but just saying, "These are words you should never say, because they're BAD" is kind of dumb. Personally, I tend to curse out loud quite a bit when I'm angry, but I rarely curse in writing, unless I'm quoting someone, or I really find it necessary. What I'll never really understand is when someone blanks out letters from a curse word. You know, like "f**k." What, they think people who might be offended aren't going to be able to mentally fill in the blanks?

Penn and Teller also brought up the FCC, but that's another subject entirely. I do have to say that they often come across as bullies, though.

I've started reading Harry Mongold's Button-Bright of Oz. It's been pretty good so far. I'll probably write a review on it soon, which I'm sure no one will read.

I'm listening to XTC's Skylarking, because I thought I should listen to it before the summer ended. I always associate that album with summer, not only because of songs like "Summer's Cauldron," but because I first bought it when I was taking summer classes. I was just getting into XTC at that point, and I quoted "The Ugly Underneath" (which is from Nonsuch, not Skylarking, by the way) in a paper. It turned out that my Research Writing professor was a fan. Who would have known?