20 Jul 2008
Mary Jackson
Well, I don't know which word you mean, but if you mean the f-ll-tr-x word, you used it first.
What's the difference, in your first paragraph between the FCC and the FFC?
20 Jul 2008
John M. J.
Observing Verbal Decorum (OVD)
It is of some small interest that OVD also stands for Old Vatted Demerara - a wonderfully sweet rum. It also stands for Optically Variable Device, which, of course, is what some of us might just consider such rum to be if consumed in some quantity!
OVD dark rum is blended from the very finest demerara rums in the world which have been matured in oak casks. This maturation process gives OVD its smoothness, flavour and character. OVD has the distinctive aroma of all oak matured spirits and is blended from some of the finest Demarera rums, which must have matured for up to seven years, or longer, in oak barrels.
OVD, at its best, is a smooth, almost creamy rum, with complex soft set sugar toffee overtones and a hint, just a hint, of ripe sweet mango fruitiness on the palate. There is a really mellow, English Autumn, finish to it, as well. Good OVD Rum should be sipped neat before bed. If you're feeling extravagant, it makes the finest Rum Punch - especially on Christmas Eve when such a Punch is the perfect drink with rich, fresh from the oven, Mince Pies!
However, OVD as an injunction, a command - Observe Verbal Decorum here - seems slightly insipid, slightly, just ever so, banal. Billy Wobbledagger didn't OVD. The early Restoration comedies certainly didn't. Chaucer most certainly didn't. There is a richness, an earthiness, to English which cannot be denied or obfuscated.
The 'f' word. the 'b' word. the 'd' word and the 'G' word are all woven into the great language which we all speak. It is senseless to deny their existence or to modify our speech in order to please the mealy-mouthed who see offence in every sentence and who exercise their prudery ahead of their common sense.
Of course, gratuitous use of such words cheapens the language and lessens their impact. However, I believe that certain, and judicious, use of these words - openly and with no complex puns or circumlocutory language involved - can be correct and needed in some circumstances.
Oh, and sometimes, just sometimes, one must be coarse and humorous about sex - that most risible of human pre-occupations - and all its associated words and euphemisms, no matter who might be offended by your so doing. Sex, after all, is what one carries coal in - leastways, in Morningside and Kelvingrove.
Innuendo anyone? No, it's not some type of Italian suppository - get your mind out of the gutter, or lie there and gaze at the stars!
21 Jul 2008
Artemis
Without wanting to walk into a buzz saw, or two opposing buzz saws, and therefore setting aside the particulars of the case at hand, whatever it may or may not be...
It seems to me that some level of adecorum (yes, I made that up) is one of the things we're fighting for. Just as the musical and cinematic interludes containing un-niqabbed and unescorted females and the kufirs who love them stand as a reminder of our values and freedoms, so does the occasional reference to debatably naughty words.
Not that this is advocating for blatant and coarse vulgarity; not that that is an accurate description for this case; and I'm going to stop now.