E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I have a long history of cursing, swearing, and good old-fashion "dirty words". As a kid in Brooklyn, I develop quite a street vocabulary. My grandmother threatened and then finally wash my mouth out with soap- to no avail. I must have developed a taste for soap- Palmolive was one of my favourites. Otcagon laundry soap, however, was tantamount to capital punishment! I had a terminal case of "toilet mouth". The Army did not help! I just learned new variations and new configurations of the old words.

My high school principal used to complain that I spoke like a drunken sailor with Tourettes Syndrom. When I became upset or angry, I was even totally grossed out by what came out of my mouth. I realized that I needed to break these habits. My lovely wife did not appreciate my Anglo-Saxon colloquiums so I began cussing in French Spanish, and Yiddish. French-Canadians specialize in blasfomy as opeds to sex and excrement. Yiddish courses are mainly about horrible illnesses and death. Spanish is very much like English but is sady directed at the target's mother.

Then I began to realize that my potty mouth was losing its impact. Now they say all the usual "bad" words on TV, in just about all the movies and even on cartoon shows. Book too! So, in order to retain the advantage and element of surprise and impact, I refrain from cussing most of the time and reserve it for special and auspicious occasions. A well-placed F-bomb works more effectively if it is strategically and precisely placed in the conversation and timing is important!

Problem is, over the years, a few of my bad habits rubbed off on my ordinarily very polite and patient wife. The other day, while watching TV, one of her least favourite politicians was on the air and they were talking about the tragedy in Ukraine and my sweet little lady sounded off like a longshoreman who just dropped a crate of anvils in his foot.

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burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

When used very sparingly, the "seven deadly epithets" George Carlin noted we can't say on TV have great impact. When used every third word, they are annoyingly meaningless and show the speaker to be uninformed or uneducated.

My pet peeves are not "swear words." They are 'like', 'um', 'you know', and other filler phrases people say just to be sure they maintain control over a conversation. Listening to my kids rattle on with, "And, like, she said, um, you know..." I just want to yell, "Learn the power of the pregnant pause! It's okay to shut up until you have some fully formed thought to reveal." But that would be just another rude parent butting in on a teen conversation.

The last words uttered by pilots on cockpit recorders found at crash scenes are often, "Oh, SHI(plat)." That sounds perfectly acceptable, under the circumstances!