I read in the news that it's "cuss free" week. The idea is the brainchild of 15 year old McKay Hatch of South Pasadena, CA. It appears he's serious about his project.
I doubt that most of the blogosphere will be.
And no doubt that bastion of sophomoric inanity, Saturday Night Live, will have a send-up ridiculing Hatch's efforts. Maybe their resident stoner Andy Samberg can do a 'digital short' with 47 bleeped words. Funny stuff, I'm sure.
Spending probably more time than I ought to reading other people's blogs, it's frequently surprising how low some of their standards are. In some cases, we're talking Marianas Trench low. One such has posts that typically feature at least one 'f-bomb', sometimes more, per sentence. Or fragment.
Lest anyone think I'm a choirboy, I'm not. I've confessed as much in prior posts. But I've learned that our manner of speech, and writing, is the window through which we are judged by others. "Garbage In - Garbage Out", the old programmers' maxim, certainly applies, if in reverse order. I've cut numerous 'garbage' words from my vocabulary, in hopes that fewer will think there's garbage where it came from.
I wish Mr. Hatch well in his efforts - it's a tall task.
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4 comments:
I too have used a few colorful expletives, though mostly when I'm alone in my car and someone in front of me does something incredibly irritating. I don't use them in blogging and try not to in front of my children. You can find some real immature nasty language on Youtube, especially on political videos, where you can find people whose depth of ignorance is astounding...
A few years back I watched the movie "Phone Booth" in which Colin Farrell spends almost the entire movie in a phone booth spewing expletives. According to Plugged In Online, the 80-minute movie contains variations on the f-word 125 times, along with 60 other expletives. At times you have to wonder if these people could communicate without vulgar or profane language. Seriously, fine a way to express yourself with a bit more creativity!
Besides reading the news article about the kid doing this project, the other impetus was a blog with an embedded video that used "those words" or variants in every phrase. It was neither shocking (sadly), nor funny. As Paul Harvey said, the makers of the video would want us to use their names...
On an additional note, I've noticed that I've stopped forwarding certain jokes or pictures, even though I could've always claimed 'plausible deniability', or the 'views do not necessarily reflect...'. Instead, I ask myself: Would I take credit/blame for this work? I'm not totally there, but I'm working on it.
As Harry Truman said: "The buck stops here."
I think it helps if you say it quietly and jerk your head for emphasis.
Dew
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