Cleaning up my act

[mousme]

I have installed a Clean Air Jar for myself at work. Every time I swear, I put in 5 cents. Once I've kept my language clean for 30 days straight, I get to keep the proceeds from the jar.

I hope it works. I've developped a mouth like a sewer here at work.

My mother used to use "crumpet" as a swear word. I figure I might use that, and try to come up with some imaginative but clean swears. Before anyone suggests "Frak" or "Gorram," be advised that I've tried those and find they don't suit me. Yes, I find them weirder than "crumpet." Don't ask. It's safer that way. :D

Comments

[miseri.livejournal.com]

I'm rather fond of "oh, bother" though now that I think about it, I don't use it all that much. It makes me think of Winnie the Pooh, and how can you stay upset when you're thinking of Winnie the Pooh?

I suspect the problem with "frak" and "gorram" is that they're too obviously "replacement words", like "crikey". In the case of "gorram", at least, I keep thinking of it as not a replacement at all, but merely a mispronunciation (possibly because the speaker has had his front teeth punched out and can't articulate his D's, or else he's drunk, or possibly both.)

I tend not to swear much, personally. The furthest I've gone, I think, is, uh, s***, and then generally only under my breath and in private. Oh, except for that one time when something went seriously wonky with Stefan's e-mail and it spent over a week spamming me with the same idiotic one-liner, several times daily. I used up my lifetime supply of F's on that one.

Swearing's more effective if people know that you normally don't, in my opinion. As Michael Flanders observed, "...You can say things in public that you would hesitate to say in private. These four letter words and so on. I am very much opposed to this. There are very few of these four letter words left. If they all come into common use, we shall have nothing left for special occasions."

(Speaking of which, have you heard Flanders & Swann's "P** P* B**** B** D******"? Here's a somewhat sped-up version.)