Frazz by Jef Mallett for October 10, 2022

There are no words you can’t say on the radio, but there are a few you can only say once.

Kids pick up stuff from EVERYBODY. I once got sent to principal-gaol for calling my 6th grade teacher “Mr. three eyes”… which I had been called, since I, too, wear (and did then) glasses. Surprised me a lot!

I got tattled on for, “Mind your own beeswax.” Got off scot-free.

When I tried to clean up my language, it was frustrating because I discovered I didn’t have the vocabulary to express myself.

That happened to me when I was a kid. I was mortified. But I honestly had no idea that the word I was using was offensive; I’d heard it all my life from everyone around me.

I don’t remember when or who said it

But I picked it up in a hurry.

Mom was shocked and Dad said

He’ll forget it. Don’t worry.

But you know? I never did.

Some things stick with a child beyond all others.

I was in my 30’s before I learned the correct name for a Brazil nut – which I bet they call it something else in Brazil.

At least he’s sorry about it, rather than being offended at other people being offended.

There is one word I literally can’t say- physically, psychologically, can’t say. I did say it once, when I was a preschooler, and my Mother, in the 1940’s, went ballistic. She assured me that if I ever said that word again, God would strike me with lightning, and it he didn’t strike me, she should as he11 would!!!! I can say “no” and I can say “trigger”, so I know the sounds are in there somewhere, but they absolutely won’t come out of my mouth.

I called my dad something that I thought was just a funny word when I was 17. He was embarrassing me.. everyone near us at the fair heard it!