It's Not Enough to Get My Blood Boiling, So I Am Embarrassed That I'm Doing an Entry on This Subject
January 29^th, 2004
2:35 A. M.

I've just read this AOL article (I realized after I posted that you'll have to log on to AOL to read this, so here's a similar artcle on Yahoo), and a thought occurred to me.
...I'm so very glad we've solved all of life's greatest challenges to the point where we can once again start cleaning up bad language from Capital Hill.

If you've noticed, I don't use very much "offensive" language (or what I consider "directly offensive" language) on this blog. That's not because my mother used to slap me in the mouth when I used it as a child (that really happened, which angered my father when he caught her doing it), but it's simply because this "offensive" language isn't quite as commonplace as people make it out to be.

At least, it isn't down here on our level. I've never had a television show and I'm not a radio personality. I've never been in, nor written for, a movie. The only real complaint I have about people who use these expletives so often is that they are robbing these words of their intended emotional impact.

But, then again, for those of us who've done our research (Like George Carlin did for the "Queen Mother" of all dirty words), we know that quite a few of the "bad" words in this language stem from the Norman invasion of England.

The Normans, who of course spoke French, decided to make French the official language of England. For at least a generation, the people of the new power structure did everything they could to replace the English language all together ... they considered everything English to be "dirty." So, technically at one point in history (namely the late 11^th century), every single word you're reading would have been considered "dirty."

If you don't believe me, check out this google search I've done on a book called "The Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things." There is a chapter in that book dedicated to the origin of offensive language. The "F" word is in the book. Anyone who has ever seen the George Carlin routine about the "F" word will recognize the passage devoted to it. Turns out that George really did do his homework about that word.

If you get a chance to get your hands on a copy of this book, I recommend it. There are a lot of other things in it that my fellow non-categorized geeks will find interesting.

By the way, I bet you now understand why people say "pardon my French" after they use a curse word.

Hmm ... Final thoughts on this subject (and you've noticed I don't directly jab at this group very much but ...) American conservatives siding with the French on an issue in this day and age ...?

...And ...

Does anyone else see this move as more of a possible revenue booster?