At one point, Stafford recognized a landmark crater, Censorinus A. He was momentarily distracted by the dramatic shadows and giant boulders surrounding the crater. “I’ve got Censorinus A right here,” he said out loud to the world, “bigger than shit!” A shocked reporter listening to the transmission in mission control turned to astronaut Jack Schmitt. “What did Colonel Stafford just say?” Thinking quickly, Schmitt covered for his colleague and replied “He said, ‘Oh, there’s Censorinus… bigger than Schmitt!’”
How not to swear on the moon, and other fun facts from
Vintage Space.
posted by Horace Rumpole
on Jan 6, 2012 -
21 comments
The current FCC case [
PDF] before the U.S. Supreme Court presents a fascinating dilemma for the judges:
how do you respectfully discuss the legality of profane words in the nation's highest court? And for reporters: how do you report on the specifics of the case? It seems decisions vary across publications:
NYT,
Washington Post (reg req),
LA Times,
Wall Street Journal,
Slate,
The Atlantic,
Bloomberg,
AP,
McClatchy. As for the judges themselves,
they opted to allow only substitute terms.
PDF transcript with word count at bottom.
Background.
posted by Tehanu
on Nov 6, 2008 -
26 comments
How to do things with four-letter words. Why do we swear? Or, more importantly, why are swear words "bad" and other words are fine? Angus Kidman's thesus on the semantics of swearing in Australia - and most other English speaking places as well - tries to shed some light.
Possibly NSFW.
posted by Fat Elvis
on Apr 6, 2003 -
21 comments
The Big Book of Sign Language (from rotten.com). Have you ever wondered how to sign phrases such as "I shovel shit all day long", "I want to pull the shrieking voices from my head and smoosh them", and "Unlock my legs and get it over with"? The Big Book shows you how. Inappropriate? Yes. Hysterical? Yes. (Portions may not be safe for work. Link via
Magnetbox. Thanks, ben.)
posted by moz
on Jul 9, 2002 -
29 comments
"Movie Mask Player is software that gives you the choice to watch any movie at your comfort level. If you don't want to hear profanity, view graphic violence, or see nudity or sexual content in the movies you watch, then mask (remove) those scenes with Movie Mask. You are now in control over the movies you choose to watch." I can't wait to see what it does to the first 20 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan."
posted by KLAX
on Nov 27, 2001 -
33 comments
When I got tired of saying the word
Fuck all the time, I switched over to the word
Fuckity. When my friends pointed out that perhaps
Fuckity was a bit twee, I was in a deep funk, until one day, when I discovered
Roger's Profanisaurus - the definitive thesaurus of all things Scatalogical, Sexual and Rude. Zuffled lately? Gone whitewater wristing? Expand your vocabulary!
Link via
Scott
posted by kristin
on Oct 24, 2001 -
26 comments
