Monday, August 23, 2010

WTF?

I've always found words interesting; and find their origins to be fascinating.  Strangely enough, it took moving away from my home of 24 years to become aware of how distinctive our local vocabulary is.  For example, a week ago I referred to a neighborhood mongrel as a "cayoodle," and I was given quizzical looks.  Anyway, I've given some examples of New Orleans localisms in an earlier post, and won't bore by repetition.

Maybe in some other way!

Anyway, I've noticed a more troublesome, less genteel element creeping into my vocabulary: words that have rough origins or possible usages.  Like WTF.  Now I'm not some shrinking violet -- I've got a master's degree in psychology -- but expressions like that possibly constitute a coarsening of the language.  And I'm afraid it's universal.  

Sometimes things good badly.  But why must they be described as "sucking"?  Yes, this expression is used even by people who are in no way thinking about oral sex.  And the language is used indiscriminatively in front of people of all ages and stations in life.  

And the terms of endearment that people assign to private parts . . . .   Gross!  And I will say that anyone who refers to my breasts as "tits" or "hooters" has entered into my pantheon of boorishness and will never see or touch those objects so crudely labeled!

But I digress.  Anytime I say WTF or sucks, I will give myself 440 yards around the track.  That means donning running clothes and shoes, and rain or shine (except when it's lightning!) run all out a quarter mile.

At least I'll get fit in the process, even if I'm not quite lady-like.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How is forcing yourself to run going to work?

eViL pOp TaRt said...

Theplan is to provide an immediate aversive contingency to my undesired behavior. This sort of behavior is not deemed good by my, and I want to change it. Therefore, if I apply some mild punisher (I don't like to run and sweat!) whenever I do it, I will be less likely to do so in the future.