Dropping Alternatives to the F-Bomb

You may recall that I recently offered a list of "Things People Don't Say Any More" - quaint expressions that are memorable to people of my age or older and (in my opinion) worthy of linguistic resuscitation. Many of you felt the same, judging from the comments I received on the post and on my Facebook page where I shared it.

Soon after that, I received from one of my long-time friends this wonderful list of "Alternative Cuss Words" for use by those who wish to avoid the dropping of the f-bomb and the use of other crude language ...

If you already saw this on my Facebook page, I'm sorry for the repeat ... but I thought it was worth sharing to a larger audience at this juncture in our political history, when crudity has become the standard currency of discourse.

Also worth adding to the list are two Russian words which are perfectly innocent, but can - with the right snarl in the voice - sound like the most foul of curses: chemodan (pronounced chem - uh - DAWN) and ptitsa (pronounced puh -TEET - tsuh). The former means suitcase and the latter, bird.

It's worth noting that my mother - one of the most literate and polite of people - was fond of saying that curse words were for use by people not smart enough to say anything wittier. Although there may be times when things are so bad that only dropping the f-bomb or some other utterly foul curse will do, I think that it's generally better (and far more polite, and much better in the vicinity of small children) to be more creative.

So get with the program, you son/daughter of a motherless goat!

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo