Profanity

Waco, Texas. -- If in fact there's truth to a certain obnoxious bumper sticker, there's none in the phrase, ''Profanity happens.''Most profanity is quite conscious, a matter of cultivation, as is learning Latin or loving Shakespeare. You have to be taught how to cuss. Potty mouths are made and nurtured, not born.Consider Michael Moorer, new world heavyweight boxing champ. The other day at his coming-out press conference, with two championship belts draped over him, Mr. Moorer said, ''I'm the [bleep]

Golly gee whillikers! Looks like we'll be minding our mouths at the beach this summer. The Town of Ocean City will be posting signs along the boardwalk this spring asking people to refrain from using foul language.  "We really pride ourselves on being a family resort, a first class resort for families to come to visit," said Ocean City spokeswoman Jessica Waters. So what happens if you drop your soft ice cream and drop an F-bomb too? "There will not be any kind of punishment for those that curse on the boardwalk," said Waters.  The town council approved the signs at its Monday meeting, Waters said.  Councilwoman Mary Knight proposed posting the gentle reminders after spotting similar signs in Viriginia Beach.

Oh, fudge. Holy moly. Dagnabbit. Whether you've been bitten by a crab, or spent six hours snarled in Bay Bridge traffic, Ocean City hopes you'll mind your language. Town officials will soon be posting signs along the boardwalk asking visitors to refrain from cursing. "We just want to remind everyone that even when they're on vacation, they need to be courteous to others," said Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan. The signs, which read "No profanity please," will be posted on every block of the boardwalk before the summer season begins, city officials say. The Town Council approved the measure this week in an effort to preserve Ocean City 's reputation as a destination for families with children.

Oh, fudge. Holy moly. Dagnabbit. Whether you've been bitten by a crab, or spent six hours snarled in Bay Bridge traffic, Ocean City hopes you'll mind your language. Town officials will soon be posting signs along the boardwalk asking visitors to refrain from cursing. "We just want to remind everyone that even when they're on vacation, they need to be courteous to others," said Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan. The signs, which read "No profanity please," will be posted on every block of the boardwalk before the summer season begins, city officials say. The Town Council approved the measure this week in an effort to preserve Ocean City 's reputation as a destination for families with children.

Don Quixote tilted at windmills.The Rev. William Wingo has taken on profanity."You can't be serious!" I exclaimed, for we seem to live in a hopelessly profane world."

"Well, I finally got to see that new movie, 'Posse'," said my friend, Will B. Humble, the other day.Humble and I were cooling out after work at our favorite tavern, the Old Briarpatch. It was Happy Hour, don't you know, and the peanuts were free."Oh yeah," I said, "the new Mario Van Peebles flick about black cowboys. What'd you think?""It was OK, I guess," said Humble thoughtfully. "I just wish it was the kind of movie I could take my nephews to see.""Too violent?""Nah, no more than any other western."

Casual profanity has come to the office and from an unlikely source -- women.Few figured it would evolve this way, especially as women began to surge into the work force in the 1970s. Men would have to clean up their raunchy language, the conventional wisdom dictated, in deference to the women.It hasn't worked that way.Instead, women in the workplace can blister the paint with the gusto of a stevedore in a tavern. It's a transition in the American workplace that suggests that the social and cultural norms of the workplace are still largely set by men despite the legions of women who have entered the work force in the past three decades.

To many, the excision of all the blue words in a play to be performed by 34 middle-schoolers may seem hardly a crack in the cornerstone of freedom of expression.But to my mind -- and I'll wager to a whole lot of teachers in this county -- Harford school Superintendent Ray R. Keech's decision last month to wrench the profanity from the play "Jabberwock" is disturbing.The deletions came after a very small band of parents at North Harford Middle complained about profanity and other elements of the play, which students had chosen to perform.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The football stadium is packed. The home team heads toward a score and then a referee's bad call stops the momentum. Some fans respond in unison with an obscenity.A mother drags her two young children through a grocery store. One keeps lagging behind, picking items from shelves. Finally, the mother yells at the child. Her coarse vocabulary echoes down the aisle.There's a widespread feeling in America that our language is, to put it politely, going to heck.Nowadays, profanity and vulgarity slip out during normal discourse.

The authors of the play "Jabberwock" have agreed to allow North Harford Middle School eighth-graders to perform an edited version withoutany profanity.The production, twice threatened with cancellationover curse words in the script, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the school auditorium. Proceeds from the play will go to the United Way. Tickets are $2The dilemma was resolved last week when the playwrights said their script could be purged of expletives for the performance by the students.

A member of the University of Maryland's Delta Gamma chapter resigned this week after a profanity-laced tirade she wrote to her sisters about their failure to flirt effectively with the brothers of Sigma Nu, with whom they had been paired for Greek Week, became the laughingstock of the Internet. Whether it was the letter itself, or the dramatic reading by actor Michael Shannon on the website funnyordie.com (an Oscar-worthy exercise in keeping a straight face that racked up nearly 3 million views in four days)

Towson athletic director Mike Waddell said Wednesday that an internal investigation into football coach Rob Ambrose's program revealed no excess in practice areas but did find issues with the coaching staff's use of profane language. “We have standards at Towson, core ideals about how we act and deal with our students,” he said. “We've talked to the entire coaching staff about that.” A letter sent to the Towson's school newspaper, The Towerlight, signed by former player Trevor Walker and 26 others who wished to remain anonymous, accused Ambrose of inaccurately recording practice hours so as to exceed limits set by the NCAA.

Kudos to Michael DeCicco's letter pointing out the fallacy of the Occupy Wall Street protesters and their complaints about police ("Don't blame police raids for movement's failure," Nov. 22). As someone who has lived below the poverty level the past couple of years, I certainly support the idea of curtailing greed in business and government. However, the Occupy movement, with it's assorted demonstrations of profanity, filth, and generally offensive behaviors, do not represent me. George F. Spicka, Baltimore

Better watch what you say if you're planning a night of boozy revelry at the venerable Mount Royal Tavern , which recently installed a "Cuss Bucket" for those getting a little too loud and creative with their profanity. "It's a bar, and I don't mind a 'hell' or a 'damn' — they're allowed to use them — but when people start yelling the other profanities, that's it," said Ron Carback, who has owned the bar in the 1200 block of W. Mount Royal Ave. with his partner, Chris Kozak, since 1985.

Donald Trump unveiled a new strategy recently in a speech in Las Vegas. He's abandoned birtherism and is now embracing profanity-laced stand-up comedy.  During his speech to a Vegas crowd that laughed uproariously at his jokes (or political positions? It's hard to tell when he's being serious) Trump decided that he'd pump up the crowd by dropping some "F Bombs" in the mix.   Some examples:  • "We build a school; we build a road. They blow up the school; they blow up the road.

One of Kevin Anderson's first actions last week as Maryland's athletic director was to author a guest column for the campus newspaper challenging students to be "respectful" to opposing teams during sports events. After several days on the job, Anderson had already received messages from families complaining that Maryland fans' behavior was offensive. Anderson said he had been bothered by profane slogans he saw on T-shirts during recent football and men's soccer games against Duke.

Kathleen Kelly was in an ice cream parlor the other day with her daughter when some boys breezed in on a blue streak. "Everything was f-this and f-that," said Ms. Kelly. "I'm no prude, but I finally turned to them and said, 'Gentlemen, please!' They looked at me as if I had nine heads."Four-letter words are flying everywhere these days -- on the street and at the mall and in the hall at school, in rock and rap music, on television and in the movies, in fancy bars and subway cars."Dirty words used to come in a plain brown wrapper, you know, in private, and now everywhere you go you're assaulted by them," said Ms. Kelly, a Long Island, N.Y., elementary school principal.

DETROIT -- Timothy Boomer insists he usually keeps his language pretty clean, although his profanity is the subject of a criminal inquiry.He says he curses maybe once a day, if that. The 24-year-old Roseville, Mich., man says he's just an average guy who works hard at his engineering job and plans to buy his girlfriend an engagement ring.But in August, on a canoe trip in northern Michigan, Boomer's life took a sharp turn -- all because he said a few choice words when he fell out of a boat in Arenac County, north of Saginaw.

The city will not pursue legal action against Wale, the Washington, D.C.-based hip-hop artist who reportedly used profanity and a racial slur while performing at Artscape, the director of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts said Monday. Organizers were shocked when Wale used offensive language during his performance, said Bill Gilmore, BOPA 's executive director. "He is not known to do that kind of performance," said Gilmore. "We were pretty much caught off-guard. " Wale, the son of Nigerian immigrants who settled in Washington, performs rap influenced by go-go music.

Go see Doug Stanhope at the Ottobar on Friday night, and chances are you'll be angered, outraged, maybe even ticked off beyond all sense of reason. With luck, you'll laugh, too. He is, after all, the comic whose profile in a 2006 issue of British GQ was headlined, "Is This America's Most Depraved Man?" As a comic, he's following in the footsteps of such angry young men as Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks and Lewis Black, ignoring conventions of good taste, cracking jokes about things both hallowed and profane, never meeting a sacred cow he didn't want to gore.