Rainy Tuesday

Here is something I do not understand: why do people 'hide' strong words behind punctuation in print, f**k, sh!t, c--- and the like? The standard answer seems to be 'so that everyone knows what word you want to use without you having to use it'. Even if that made sense (think hard) I can't see any good in doing so.

If you dont have the conviction to use or quote a strong word [like vagina :-) ] then why prove as much? I think this mostly done to 'tone down' a quotation and make it 'fit to print'. But... to use a quote without the full color and implication of what was said can only be misleading.

Or, if a writer is 'above' using a perfectly good curse word in front of readers then that's just priggishness. And priggish is a very special kind of stupid. If this is self censorship for the sake of the readers then that implies they are the prigs, which is insulting.

Perhaps I should be $%^&ing the things I write? Does anyone actually think it's more polite?

Someone please email me and put me out of my confusion. It'll help make the universe make sense.

F--- it.

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Gratitous mixing of metaphors:
Is meaning better softened or sharp?
Do we make something bland in good taste?
If we tone down something colorful, are we aiming at grey?

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Another afterthought, there are several good reasons to dress words up for publication on the internet. Such as to circumvent censorship by chat-mod bots, family (ie, Christian) search engines and net nanny software. But these days most bots and even some morons know what you mean by 'pr0n' and (_o_). And I am convinced big brother has the best bots of all. Spiders that watch for talk of terror1sts b0mbing aerlyners, so you won't keep big secrets that way.

This reminds me, I must go flood a chat room I got kicked from by its bot once for swearing. It was a quiet night just like this about two years ago and I didnt know too much about IRC back then. How sweet is revenge :-) ...ciao