03 March 2009

allow me to elucidate

Okay, so perhaps I was a "bit" harsh in my condemnation of the No Swearing Week kid. Empirically, I have no quarrel with the guy wanting to clean up his own vocabulary. And if he manages to inspire other people around him to do the same, more power to him. I try (and mostly fail) not to swear in front of kids. Fortunately, I don't know many children, so it doesn't present a problem very often.

My issue is with the media coverage. I swear (pun intended) that if I hear one more bubble-headed news reader singing the kid's praises with a beatific smile on her face, I'll just scream. Probably with lots of extra profanities, just for good measure. It's not going to sweep the nation and force us all to clean our own mouths out with soap. It's not going to cure cancer, or fix the economy. It's not even going to last 2 seconds past the next time the News Saint who's spreading The Word stubs her toe good and hard.

Besides, as an autonomous adult with a sophisticated vocabulary, I refuse to give up the right to lob the occassional eff-bomb, just for effect.

Or an entire stream of them, when I'm stuck in rush-hour traffic as my manager informs me that someone thought I could magically intuit her wish for me to cover her class. I'm just sayin'.

1 comment:

elizabeth said...

You go, girl! LA (or SF) traffic, let alone planning a wedding, brings out the @#$%$&*(#@# in all of us!