Sex dreams and now this. Lechery, lechery, wars and lechery. Nothing else holds fashion, I kid you not...
Anyway.
To begin with, my parents were of the school of parenting that believed that innocence was bliss.
I think I didn't even
know that there were expressions inadmissible in polite company until high school at the earliest. Even after that my profanity was not convincing until the U.S. Army taught me to swear and then some.
I now have some considerable experience with the subject and have become through experience a thorough believer in the notion that the more you know - and, in many cases, the sooner - the wiser and more judicious you will be in your selection and employment of the rougher forms of the English language.
Because swearing and cursing, like any other form of speech, have a form and a style and an elegance to them when done correctly. And it is well for a person to do things, any thing, with form, style, and elegance.
Even invective.
But.
There is
also an element of discretion involved.
If you are ignorant of the language then oftimes you will be oblivious when it is used, or misused, by others. It has always seemed to me that having someone on staff with a reasonably filthy mind is essential to avoiding errors such as this one:
Wanna bet Cathy got a
whole bunch of smartass remarks after that header appeared on her column? Especially with the little smirky-face picture above it? And all because nobody on the "Examiner"'s editorial staff looked at that and chuckled "Eat out Catherine Cleary, hunh?
I'll bet..."
Derp.
I'm not sayin' you have to
be filthy.
But it doesn't hurt to
know about filthy. All's I'm saying.
(h/t to
Nancy Nall for this little gem)
