Swearing
I just read Thers at Whiskey Fire for the first time on his home blog. I have read him before, when he posts on Eschaton (i.e., the blog of Atrios, though as far as I know not related to the House of Atreus) -- but it is amazing how much he cleans up his act at Eschaton. I had not particularly noticed the pulling back of punches, but to read him on his home blog is to read a thing of effing beauty, a swearing of a vehemence, literacy, and strength that one rarely finds these days. And it is all too the point as well, not some knuckle-dragging kid swearing who can't speak for saying the F-Word and sometimes the Mother F-Word every other word as if they had no idea of its relevance in their conversation but just have a notion that it is, perhaps, vaguely shocking and daring of them to say it. Makes them tough, you see. Thers comes across as if he knows what the relevance is and is completely pissed off.
That said, this is my favorite anecdote:
Double Toddler Fail
The 3-Year-Old, in the shopping cart at Wal-Mart tonight, in the checkout line, at the top of his lungs:
I'M A WINO! I'M A WINO! I'M A WINO!
He was of course holding his toy triceratops, which he had incorrectly identified as a rhinoceros. He was waving it about and pretending it was announcing "I'm a rhino" to some imaginary audience. Only he was very foolishly mispronouncing "rhino" as "wino."
Everyone thought he was a total dork (or a very small alcoholic). I pretended I didn't know him.
On the other hand, there's the Rude Pundit as well. Liberal/Progressive bloggers have had good reason to swear for the past ... oh, 20 years. Since the right wing nutcases began dominating the discussion, pushing truly insane ideas into the mainstream, and ridiculing the sense and sensible ideas of the progressives ... ridiculing the idea of "empathy" is their latest, but by no means most egregious, ploy.
And why am I not swearing? Saying "effing" and "the F-Word" as if I am a grade-school teacher? Well, though I am enjoying the swearing of others, I do not at the moment feel like swearing myself.
There is a time and a place. Usually after talking to someone from India.
That said, this is my favorite anecdote:
Double Toddler Fail
The 3-Year-Old, in the shopping cart at Wal-Mart tonight, in the checkout line, at the top of his lungs:
I'M A WINO! I'M A WINO! I'M A WINO!
He was of course holding his toy triceratops, which he had incorrectly identified as a rhinoceros. He was waving it about and pretending it was announcing "I'm a rhino" to some imaginary audience. Only he was very foolishly mispronouncing "rhino" as "wino."
Everyone thought he was a total dork (or a very small alcoholic). I pretended I didn't know him.
On the other hand, there's the Rude Pundit as well. Liberal/Progressive bloggers have had good reason to swear for the past ... oh, 20 years. Since the right wing nutcases began dominating the discussion, pushing truly insane ideas into the mainstream, and ridiculing the sense and sensible ideas of the progressives ... ridiculing the idea of "empathy" is their latest, but by no means most egregious, ploy.
And why am I not swearing? Saying "effing" and "the F-Word" as if I am a grade-school teacher? Well, though I am enjoying the swearing of others, I do not at the moment feel like swearing myself.
There is a time and a place. Usually after talking to someone from India.