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.

Jabberwocky and Beyond For My Scholarly Friends

You may have heard me brag at one time or another that I had memorized the following poem in high school for some insane reason, but you may not have realized how much I truly loved it.

During the viewing of the recent phenomenal Alice in Wonderland with the equally phenomenal Johnny Depp, there was a bit of schoolin' afoot concerning some of the vocabulary in the poem like the "frabjous day" and the like, and I, with my inquiring mind, took it a step further to Wikipedia and found much, much more.  Much.  The link follows the poem and if you know what's good for you, you'll follow it as well.  There's all kinds of fascinating other info included as well.  

I all ready knew that the beast itself was not the Jabberwocky but merely the "Jabberwock".  The name of the poem is "Jabberwocky" for obvious reasons.




JABBERWOCKY
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.


And now, follow the link or pay:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky

Fiddler On The Roof With a Whole New Ending

Here's a jolly confession for ya.  I forgot that Fiddler on the Roof was not a happy, light little musical.

So the other night when we went to see it at Hale Theatre, I was happily tapping my foot through all of the merry tunes like "Tradition," "Matchmaker, Matchmaker Make Me a Match," "Sunrise, Sunset," "If I were a Rich Man",  on and on, . . . then things began to take a nasty turn.

Cossacks?  I didn't remember them exactly.  Pogroms?  What?  Threats?  "Three days and you better be off your land!"  NO!!!  That's not right, is it?

I did see the movie on the big screen in a theatre, so it was along time ago, but hey, I wasn't that stupid, was I?  I didn't miss the whole section on current events and I do remember having to watch Judgement at Nuremburg in high school.  I even had to bring a note from my mother.  I do remember that part.

Maybe the thing that threw me was how accepting they seemed of their fate.  I was young, you know.  I would have been in my sulky stage, perhaps, and would have been stomping around, complaining it wasn't fair, that I know my rights then would have started right in calling people names and kicking and screaming, pinching and scratching until I got my way.

I don't know.   All I know is that the whole second half came as a big surprise to me.  I really got my money's worth, don't you think?

A Find to the South

I know you think that since I've retired I've been sitting around with my finger in my nose, but not entirely.

I lap up culture every now and then, and yesterday, my friend, Karren Ashley and I went to Provo and checked out the Art Museum on the BYU Campus and were more than a little startled here and there.

There was ther expected stuff, Minerva Teichert and other Mormon stuff, but also some rather interesting other things,  goofy things like photos of beach notes like "thanks for making the outhouse a little less visible from the sky", and other better pop art, like Andy Warhol and the like

Then lo,  a Rembrandt!  Yipes.  More than a little stunned was I.  An oil on panel from the 17th century entitled "Head of Christ".  More than a little impressive, I thought.

Who knew?  Not I.  More later on this day.  Can't squander.  I'm no longer the grandmotherly babysitter you thought I was.  I'm a screaming mass of crazy doing.  Aha!!