Steven Pinker’s got a new article out in The Atlantic, and I wrote about it.  It’s about cursing, and long-time readers know I love to write about that. 

Me — “A word is a word,” Open Salon
Stephen – ”Freedom’s Curse,” The Atlantic

Maud Newton points out a practical book for cursers who travel – it lists obscenities in 69 languages. 

I have a soft spot in my heart, you may recall, for a well-done curse.  Ellen, now that I think of it, doesn’t curse enough.  I’m going to fix that right now. 

Any article that begins with the word “fucking”, as in — “Fucking became the subject of congressional debate in 2003” — deserves our attention.

The article is, “Why We Curse: What the F*%#?” by Stephen Pinker, The New Republic.

I haven’t read it yet, but I respect a good curse word, I think they’re important. They feel good to say, they diffuse anger. There would be much more violence, I think, without curse words; driving, for instance. Consider if there were no F***! and we were left with “Hey, don’t do that, bad driver!” It’s unfulfilling.

A. and I like to curse, it amuses us. Not just randomly, we like to curse in inappropriate places, like church, or parent-teacher meetings. It makes us giggle and God knows you can’t have too much giggling. Sometimes we just say it a la carte — “fuck” — like we did at Parents Club last week.  Or we whisper things on Sunday during the homily like “Jesus, how f***ing long is he going to go?“  Then we giggle and hold hands and in those moments I feel very fortunate to have A., and also curse words and words to say in vain.  They provide all kinds of relief, plus half the dialogue for The Sopranos, not one word of which is misspent. 

That said, it’s Friday, and if you don’t have time to read Pinker’s article, at least take time to curse. Do it in the elevator, or on the subway; say f*** in your office meetings (s**t is fine, too).  You’ll see, it will make you happy.  It will make you f***ing laugh.

["Why We Curse", The New Republic]