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Wed 26 Jul, 2006 10:12 am
Boston's Channel Four political commentator recently said, "H - E- Double Hockey Stick," on television.
How ridiculous! It would have taken longer to substitute another word for hell than to spell it with the stupid double hockey stick.
Which raises the question, what is the 'swear,' the theological construct of hell or the doubling of the letter L? Do we avoid saying the Welsh name Lloyd and make Double Hockey Stick-O-Y-D?
How silly are our language fetishes?
Region -- According to a piece on CBS' Sunday Morning show, Jiminy Crckett was once a swear word derived from Jesus Christ.
"cheese and crackers" is another variation... a delicious one at that
I had an English teacher in high school who used the term "bunny shoes" in place of "bull sh*t." It took us a while to figure out that "bunny shoes" was a euphemism. The first few times we heard her exclaim this, we just assumed she was making some obscure and impressive literary reference.
Bunny shoes is funny. I think you can all guess that I hate double-hockey stick. My daughter banned that expression in her 7th grade homeroom.
During the late 60s, all the sorority girls said, "sugar," which I found as irritatingly childish as the speakers of the word.
When I get irritated, I say "GOD BLESS AMERICA!" People probably think I'm nuts. But it's more polite than Goddamn.
Bella -- As much as I prefer to not resort to euphemisms, I have actually found myself spontaneously saying GodBlessAmerica as well. I don't know where it came from!
I've always thought these substitutions are totally ridiculous. As if we're not supposed to know what they're really saying. Gosh instead of God? Darn or dang instead of damn? Gimme a break!
Some years ago, it struck me that jerk as a word is masculine. A woman may act like a jerk but she can not be a jerk. It just doesn't work as a feminine description. What is the female equivalent of jerk?
Well, it's one of the seven words your newspaper can not print and rhymes with runt. Too bad. There are far too many women who deserve this appelation.
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