Sweary links #12

Does the heat make people extra-sweary? Whatever the cause, we’ve been seeing — and hearing — a lot of swears recently, some of them issuing from unexpected sources.

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Conan O’Brien brought out a swear jar so that actress Jennifer Lawrence could employ her “potty mouth” for a good cause. “I’m doing it for the fucking kids!” said she. Listen to the unbleeped version here. (For more on swear jars, see John Kelly’s “Till the swear jar’s full.”)

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“The word motherfucker was discussed, but was not part of the assignment because the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary only goes up to eight-letter words.” — John R. Williams, former executive director of the National Scrabble Association, on the “impossible, sh**ty task” of taking swear words out of the Scrabble dictionary.

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“This month, Louisiana State University fired—outright fired—a tenured professor of education, Teresa Buchanan, ostensibly for creating a ‘hostile work environment’ via sexual harassment. Her infraction? Allowing profanities to pass from her tenured lips, and unleashing a single ill-advised bon mot about sexual intercourse.” – Rebecca Shuman on how “academia’s P.C. brigade has started policing the F-word.”

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Fuck That: A guided meditation.

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Where in the world are people tweeting the F-bomb? Now there’s a map to tell you.

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For fuck’s sake! Wee kids swear up a storm in this ad by BBDO Berlin for the Smart fourfour, BMW’s miniature car.

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“It’s just basic fuckonomics.” (Via @TheLingSpace.) For more on countable fuck, see Stephen Chrisomalis’s post, “How many fucks can we give?”

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Iceland has legalized blasphemy, and thank Jeebus for that.

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In Welsh, “most swearwords or phrases are about livestock and their various bits and bobs.”

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“If you’re not an Indonesian speaker, you might be interested to learn that the Indonesian phrase that corresponds to our euphemism ‘take a dump’ is buang air besar [= throw out big water].” — Jakarta Governor’s Shitty Metaphor

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“I was this close to turning around and asking: ‘Have you noticed that you use the f***ing f-word in every f***ing sentence? Because I f***ing have. And it’s becoming a bit f***ing wearing now’.” — Frank McNally on the importance of swearing with care and feeling.

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And while we’re in Ireland:

 

This sounds like a fun place to swim. pic.twitter.com/D4iJKxJgI8

— Helen Riddell (@helenriddell) July 8, 2015

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Meanwhile, there’ll always be a fucking England:

Notoriously straight-shootin’ Prince Philip to photographer: “Just take the fucking picture.” http://t.co/Xrg6cPf8Hw

— Amy Guth (@amyguth) July 10, 2015