Betty by Gary Delainey and Gerry Rasmussen for March 03, 2023

Yes, Dear   (kid version)

Grampa said it’s a sign of poor vocabulary, but that may just be masculine bovine excrement.

Well, at least Bub is interested.

‘<Insert placeholder here’>

Teachers talk an awful lot of placeholders at times. Swearing is MUCH more complicated and interesting than that.

Fascinating!!

Like, um, you know, as if!

That’s usually not true. You don’t have to like swear words, or find them pretty, but the idea that people really wanted to say something else is usually not really the case. Sure, instead of “ba****rd” you could say “horrible person”. Instead of “b*tch”, you could say “beldame”. But there’s a reason that “horrible person” and “beldame” haven’t replaced those two swears, and the reason is that sometimes, that air of profanity is exactly what you’re going for.Might as well claim that using words like “big” and “small” are signs of a lazy mind, and a better speaker would say “Brobdingnagian” or “minuscule”, respectively, even though the feel of those words is different from “big” and “small” and is not always the feel one is going for.I usually don’t swear, to be clear, but I realize that when people swear, it’s because that’s what they’re going for at the time.

“Indeed.”“You don’t say.”And my favourite: “Very well.”

Sounds like a bunch of b__________t

Interesting!

I feel the struggle.

In this case interesting is a place holder for %#¥#*!!

“you know, . . . . you know . . . . you know”

Interesting.

Uh, well, um, gee, hmm, you know, like….right?

Interesting. (Uh huh)

Bless that teachers heart.