Spring Break Edition: Dave Shepherd does not have a linguistic topic, nor a Rude Word, nor a song–but he does respond to your emails and voicemails, and announces a new feature to the website.
The Virginia Tech shooting touched us–but not directly. (2:20)
We have a new feature on our blog site, a MyChingo button. Leave us a high-quality audio comment. (4:15)
The Word Nerds studio is being remodeled. The next couple of shows will come from another place! (5:51)
We received a voicemail on the Nerd Number, 206-600-6373 (206-600-NERD), from Darren at the Hak5 video podcast. (7:09)
We received email from Michael Buchko and Christian Scholze, among many others. (7:48)
Check out these threads on the Word Nerds Forum: (10:29)
- Communicative Competence
- Your favorite audiobooks?
- Question about probable slang
- Hey you guys!
- Expletives (87)
We will be back with a full show within the next three weeks. (15:40)
Music courtesy of The Podsafe Music Network
Theme music by Kick the Cat
Closing music from “Grapes” by Evan Stone
time: 18:36
size: 17.1 Mb
rating: PG (I bleeped out one rude word in a voicemail.)
Hi. Love your podcast. RE Expletives Thanks for the clarification. I work in a small town in Alaska where people like to talk about their church-going virtues. On alternate days they use expletives, with the favorite being: ‘This sucks’ which I’ve always found shocking and confusing. I thought that they were commenting on the evils of non baby-producing sex, or gay lifestyles. I’m embarrassed to ask anyone except my husband. I think you’re right that it’s ignorance of meaning. I’ve always found the F-word shocking and confusing as to intent; likewise, the finger. I differ from you in that I don’t want to hear religious cursing or sexual cursing as I believe both are sacred. One of my teachers said favored curse words refer to societal prohibitions. On the cable show DEADWOOD, the F-word is over-used. Some say it is accurate. I say not likely, and probably lazy writing. Any thoughts on that? Thanks. Audrey in Alaska.
“the evils of non baby-producing sex”
I hope you didn’t mean that as I understood it. At least I hope the comma wants to tell me that the “evil” doesn’t refer to the gay lifestyles.
Hi, guys. The mention of Va Tech and Kick the Cat in the same blog entry reminds me of an April Fool’s Day edition of the student paper (at VPI) where the headline was Kick a Cat for Those Who Can’t. Even in the days before Political Incorrectness this was beyond the pale, and so, of course, very extremely funny.