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everyone should from time to time subject himself to a sharp self-check. Still worse than overworking certain words and phrases is the peppering of our talk with epithets and expletives. One time, confined with three others in a hospital ward, engaged chiefly upon pinochle, one fellow used the expletive Jimminy so often that I simply could not stand it any longer. I begged him to please alternate with flagstone or pumpernickel for variety. Over and above the ethics involved in profanity, it is well to remark that any frequent use of epithets and expletives is an artistic blemish on our conversation. The person who keeps saying gee is conversationally not much better than the one who keeps saying damn or hell. Someone, incidentally, has listed at least eleven euphemisms for damn, such as drat, dang, darn, and another fourteen for damned, such as dashed, deuced, blasted, and confounded. Other profanity has similar euphemisms. |
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