Watching Your Mouth

I’m feeling pretty good about myself today.  I didn’t swear at all, all day.  I don’t think I did yesterday either.  I don’t know that for sure.  


But I’m still pretty good according to the August, 2010 issue of Psychology Today.  It reports that the average English speaker utters 85 swears per day.  I never come close.  I bet I don’t touch that in 85 days.  Maybe, but I doubt it.  

It also seems that women have raised their percentages among the outbursts of public swearing from 33 percent in 1996 to 45% in 2006.  It’s risen to almost half of public cursing!  (But then, how do they document this?  Who really checks the facts and figures?  Where do the folks with the clipboards stand and is there really a fair cross-section of society represented?  Just wondering, Psychology Today.)

Unfortunately, the “F”-Bomb tops the top ten list of preferred swears with “sucks” rounding out at #10.  I prefer not to list 2 through 9 but I am glad I don’t live in the society that enjoys using these words in this order.  The folks I generally know are those who kinda hang onto “suck”s as first with the “H” and “D” word occasionally thrown in.  I'm lucky that way, I guess.

I’m almost always sorry when I swear. I think when when I do it, it probably offends more people than I think, even when it’s just Carl, who rarely if ever swears himself.  

I am trying to stop, even under my breath in traffic.  Especially in front of Carl.

A final note that is kinda funny from the PT article is in reference to a deaf boy who has Tourette’s.  Some unfortunate people with Tourette’s Syndrome often curse involuntarily without the ability to control themselves as you probably know, and this poor lad signs his profanities!!  It hardly seems fair, though those offended would be reasonably rare.