Finally, some good news out of this bad economy: The more the Dow and 401(k)s and the economy go down, the more cussing goes up.
That's according to Los Angeles psychotherapist Nancy Irwin in a recent MSNBC.com story by Diane Mapes.
Cussing is a quick, effective way to relieve stress and vent anger, say both Irwin and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts psychology professor Timothy Jay. The prof should know. He wrote the book on cussing, literally -- it's titled "Cursing in America: A Psycholinguistic Study of Dirty Language in the Courts, in the Movies, in the Schoolyards and on the Streets."
But, alas, there is bad news amid this upswing in cussing.
Jay's new study, "The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words," deploys such phrases as "Type A hostility," "emotion information" and "neuro-psycho-social framework." But buried beneath the psycho-speak is this bummer: "A set of 10 words that has remained stable over the past 20 years accounts for 80% of public swearing."
That is, while swearing is up, the creative use of cuss words is stagnant. George Carlin is &#@@*¢ in his @&*&# grave.
That's according to Los Angeles psychotherapist Nancy Irwin in a recent MSNBC.com story by Diane Mapes.
Cussing is a quick, effective way to relieve stress and vent anger, say both Irwin and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts psychology professor Timothy Jay. The prof should know. He wrote the book on cussing, literally -- it's titled "Cursing in America: A Psycholinguistic Study of Dirty Language in the Courts, in the Movies, in the Schoolyards and on the Streets."
But, alas, there is bad news amid this upswing in cussing.
Jay's new study, "The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words," deploys such phrases as "Type A hostility," "emotion information" and "neuro-psycho-social framework." But buried beneath the psycho-speak is this bummer: "A set of 10 words that has remained stable over the past 20 years accounts for 80% of public swearing."
That is, while swearing is up, the creative use of cuss words is stagnant. George Carlin is &#@@*¢ in his @&*&# grave.
Before anyone questions my neuro-psycho-social framework for
championing cussing, I wholeheartedly endorse the Carlin Rule: Thou
shalt not use filthy words in front of children or the minister's wife.
But if you're a cusser (and if you are, Mapes reports, then studies indicate you likely drop 80 to 90 naughty words per day), then be aware of Rick's Rule of Tart Tongues: You damn well better be Bard-like in your bawdiness.
Ever since Carlin, the Beethoven of blue language, checked out of this planet last summer, the art of cussing has gone as rudderless as a %#@& without a *&¢*%.
"But wait!" you say. "You can hear 'son of a b.' or rhymes-with-witch or rhymes-with-plastered almost any night on network television!"
As Carlin said about a certain four-letter word that rhymes with curd: "Yeah, but who wants to say that?"
Network TV gets away with the lesser tier of cuss words only because it employs them so blandly. Let a Desperate Housewife accuse a neighbor of pursuing a married man like a rhymes-with-witch in a place with an elevated temperature, and the switchboard will short out with complaining calls.
Only rarely does a show such as "Ugly Betty" creatively drop a "C" word. (No, not that "C" word -- rather, the one in Spanish).
The current @$¢##& state of cussing is epitomized in Chris Rock's latest HBO special, "Kill the Messenger." Now, I believe Rock is, as the cover of Rolling Stone magazine proclaimed last year, the "funniest *#%¢@$@&#¢#* in the USA." But Rock confuses quantity for quality as he unleashes one boring, unimaginative F-bomb after another.
I am not, of course, the first connoisseur of cussing to lament its demise. Consider the work "Lars Porsena, or the Future of Swearing and Improper Language." English novelist and poet Robert Graves penned that lament about the decline of swearing in 1926.
Graves died in 1985 at the age of 100 -- so he had the chance to hear such masters as George Carlin and Richard Pryor.
But if Graves were alive now, he'd be cussing today's cussers.
But if you're a cusser (and if you are, Mapes reports, then studies indicate you likely drop 80 to 90 naughty words per day), then be aware of Rick's Rule of Tart Tongues: You damn well better be Bard-like in your bawdiness.
Ever since Carlin, the Beethoven of blue language, checked out of this planet last summer, the art of cussing has gone as rudderless as a %#@& without a *&¢*%.
"But wait!" you say. "You can hear 'son of a b.' or rhymes-with-witch or rhymes-with-plastered almost any night on network television!"
As Carlin said about a certain four-letter word that rhymes with curd: "Yeah, but who wants to say that?"
Network TV gets away with the lesser tier of cuss words only because it employs them so blandly. Let a Desperate Housewife accuse a neighbor of pursuing a married man like a rhymes-with-witch in a place with an elevated temperature, and the switchboard will short out with complaining calls.
Only rarely does a show such as "Ugly Betty" creatively drop a "C" word. (No, not that "C" word -- rather, the one in Spanish).
The current @$¢##& state of cussing is epitomized in Chris Rock's latest HBO special, "Kill the Messenger." Now, I believe Rock is, as the cover of Rolling Stone magazine proclaimed last year, the "funniest *#%¢@$@&#¢#* in the USA." But Rock confuses quantity for quality as he unleashes one boring, unimaginative F-bomb after another.
I am not, of course, the first connoisseur of cussing to lament its demise. Consider the work "Lars Porsena, or the Future of Swearing and Improper Language." English novelist and poet Robert Graves penned that lament about the decline of swearing in 1926.
Graves died in 1985 at the age of 100 -- so he had the chance to hear such masters as George Carlin and Richard Pryor.
But if Graves were alive now, he'd be cussing today's cussers.
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