Mouthwash, Anyone?
Posted at 6:00 AM on March 25, 2010
by Dale Connelly
(61 Comments)
Radio Heartland has tickets to see Habib Koite at the Cedar Cultural Center on Tuesday, March 30th at 7:30 pm.
Enter the drawing.
Obey the rules.
Good luck!
Unfortunately, a remark by Vice President Joe Biden at Tuesday's signing ceremony for health care reform has been picked up and pasted on this historic event with a fervor bordering on glee that may never allow the two to be separated.
Alongside John Paul Jones' "I have not yet begun to fight" and Neil Armstrong's "One small step for man ...", this unfortunate and less-than-elegant public blurting may be used in schoolbooks (though probably not the ones edited in Texas) ages from now to communicate the enormity of the moment in language that will likely be described as "explicative exuberance typical of American speech common for that day and age."
Although I always try to be polite and proper, I recognize that many others talk like our Vice President each and every day without a second thought.
I mentioned the situation to my friend and mentor Billy Bovid Capra, the only actual goat to hold tenure at an institution of higher learning (the tiny but respected Barth College). He is America's Poet Ungulate, and he tossed off a few lines to acknowledge the power and pettiness of this moment.
It's not what we'd say to the children.
It's no way to speak at a meal.
You'd get slapped by your fussy Aunt Mildren
If you said "Pass the big F*ing deal."
You may think such crude language amazing.
And too coarse for the good commonweal.
The reaction to this standard phrasing
Is a bona fide big F*ing deal.
Though some people disdain standard curses
Many others say just what they feel
We were all babies once. When they burped us
We all belched out the same F*ing deal.
Now our history's lexicon widens
And official-speak tilts towards the real
With one blast of vice president Biden's
Announcing this "big F*ing deal".
How likely are you to let fly with "inappropriate" language?
Comments (61)
When my daughter was four, we were sitting in the car at a busy intersection, just waiting for the light. She pointed to the cars in front of us and said "Are they morons?". Having a kid cleans up your language fast... even words like "moron"! Maybe when my daughter is out of the house, like Joe's kids, I'll have more "f-enheimers" flying!
Great poem Dale! Witty and to the point.
What nobody has pointed out yet, Biden was right. This is not garden variety pottymouth stuff, most of which is based on negative opinions of members of the other party. I think I know of four G W Bush open mike mistakes that reflected hostility toward others who he thought had wronged him.
After all this time, Biden is justified in saying passing this bill IS a big f-cking deal! That, alas is not the worst off the cuff comment he has made.
sherrilee is right, though. When you have kids around, blue language takes on a different character. Children have this awful tendency to repeat what we say, not what we tell them to say.
When my daughter had not yet spoken I was in the kitchen with her and my wife. Kathe said, "I don't believe this, but I think Molly just said 'OH GOD!' That can't be, can it?"
Kathe stuck a spoonful of mush toward Molly's face. Molly whapped it with her chubby fist, sending mush all over the fridge.
"Oh, God!" said a weary Kathe.
"Oh God!" said a grinning Molly.
oh man, Dale - thanks for the good laugh. don't know how in H*ll you keep coming up with delights to entertain us early in the morning.
my Dad, bless his soul, was a carpenter. his language revolved around swear words. every sentence had one or two words we were not supposed to say, but they just flowed from his mouth. maybe because his vocabulary of regular words was not large, but he had a great cursing vocabulary. and he worked with a guy that called his sons "the little f*er and the big F*er."
i usually only curse when i'm upset or do something stupid and not when i'm delighted, except for an occasional FFO.
on that note - Dodger had triplets yesterday afternoon - two bucklings and a doeling. the first was full breech- tail first, legs doubled up. i think i heard "FFO!" coming from Dodger when that was all over. all doing well now.
good Morning to All,
Oh darn!, is the strongest language my mother would use and I don't think I ever heard any bad four letter words from my Dad. I am not a frequent user of "foul" language probably mainly due to my parents dislike of this kind of language.
I think it is strange that we even worry about what kind language people use now. What is the "big F*ing deal" about saying "big f*ing deal"?
Barb -- wow, three more. Guess you don't need any extra working out this week! I checked the blog, no pictures of the newbies yet. Do they have names? Everybody healthy so far? Congrats!!!!
In the IT environment, bad language is pretty common, maybe prevalent. While I can swear like the boys around me, I'm occasionally mocked when I come out with expletives such as "Oh, crappers" when something goes wrong.
Nice nice work Dale, Nice. I had a college writing jerk (I will never call him a teacher) who would go around the bend over the use of the word "enormity." If you used it in its older supposedly purer sense (monstrous wickedness), you made a conservative comment on the law. I am guessing you meant it by the meaning it more commonly has today--enormousness.
It is amazing we three children of my father never swore in school at some point (nor do we much today in any situation) because of my father's dark blue language. One of his favorite words for really angry moments was morphidike. Took me years to figure that out.
Bill Bryson in his Australian book tells of the little four year old girl who gets adopted by a house construction crew next door to their house. One day they give her a "pay packet" with a dollar in it. So her parents decide to have her open a savings account. So at the local bank, the woman as she is opening the account asks the little girl what she did to earn the money. The girl says "we are building a house." So the lady asks her if she will be working next week. The girls calmly (We will if we get the f-ing bricks."
See you in the office in an hour or so.
i learned blue language in college...along with other useful skills. I still remember an acquaintance, also a Minnesotan going to school in Colorado, saying to me, "...you understand about these f...g mountians" Perhaps unfortunately I took from that comment his telling me the "proper" use of the f word...my language has been peppered blue ever since.
Barb...three more? NOW you have a herd!
Elinor - ha, ha! i love "oh, crappers!" i like "oh, poopy" also.
Sherrilee - it was a long F*ing afternoon for everyone. it took about 8 hours of pretty hard labor and a lot of assistance this time for Dodger. after Steve recovers from his intense midwifing yesterday, no lunch and a very late supper, i'm sure he'll post photos up by tomorrow. one of her bucklings, "Mischief,"was sold prenatally, and the woman picked him up right away because she likes to bottle feed her goats. (i don't - i want them to learn to be goats). i made sure he had enough colostrum for the next 24 hours and some Alba-milk until this woman gets him on her own routine. so we're down to two. and Dodger looks good today.
thanks for asking.
Back in the days when my children were young and innocent, I was offended by that word. But as they grew and matured, so did their vocabulary. Hence, I have them to thank for helping me realize what a useful and perfect word it can be -- used reservedly and in the appropriate venue to express one's unrestrained emotions.
OK Barb -- I'm going to confess that I don't know what FFO stands for, but I'm guessing it's neither "forced family outing" or "free food opportunity." Would you mind spelling it out for me on my f*ing facebook wall!! When you get a break from the kids, that is
Clyde- I used to toss around the word nymphomaniac until I learned what it meant. In my thirties.
hey, I don't know what FFO is either...perhaps a hint here?
I'm going to take a guess at FFO....is it finally f*ing over?
Just a wild guess.....
When I was in labor with Darling Daughter (and waiting for the epidural before the unexpected c-section), I let fly with some pretty loud f-words to get through one particularly nasty contraction. The nurses were in full support. (I think one of the nurses even said something along the lines of "you go girl.")
I am most guilty, though, of a good, loud, "d*mmit" when the situation calls. Between having a kid of my own, and working for several summers with teenagers, I have found some easily remembered substitutes. Dang nabbit is often uttered instead (when I'm not too upset or ticked to forget my tongue).
Thinking on the f-word - I had a friend who convinced her son, after letting a "f**ker" fly at a squirrel who was digging up her recently planted bulbs, that "f**ker" was the squirrel's name. All seemed well until a couple of days later when she found her son outside calling for his friend "f**ker" the squirrel.
My best guess for FFO is "far f*ing out". Is that it, Barb?
I'm not a fan of swearing when every other word out of someone's mouth is a swear word. I can understand swearing in the heat of the moment, good or bad, but it's not necessary in normal conversation. I used to absolutely hate it, but working with mostly men, in the construction industry, has inured me to it. There's a line in The Boondock Saints where nearly every word is the F-word. One of my favorite lines of all time is the response to that: Well, that certainly illustrates the diversity of the word.
dale this was an exceptional offering. thank you for your timely observation and political statement this morning.
when i was a kid my dad would never make a slip and let a swear word fly. i do remember getting the bar of soap in the mouth for the sh*t word at about age 7. (i heard the neighbor kid say it) then about the same age i got to begin hunting with my dad and found out that this is how guys talk when its just guys. jokes and conversations were peppered with very colorful and fun expressions that would make me laugh and feel honored to be allowed into the secret society. then off to the catholic school playground and the dictionary of definitions of all the blue words of older brothers and sisters of the classmates i went to school with.
today i remind myself of the dad in the christmas story who goes down the basement to fix the furnace. i have a fully developed arsonal of tools at my disposal. the kids knew better than ever to talk like that when they were little, then they started getting bigger and when the oldest son and daughter turned about 16 and 14 it started to come back to haunt me. the other half of that was that when the oldest son was 16 the younger son was 10. so the 10 year old not only heard me he heard his brother. this got him started at about age 10 1/2. when he was 10 my younger daughters were 3 and 1 so they had a different model altogether. now all those little bastar*s swear like sectionhands. they know not to do it at school or in public but i would guess it will come back to whack them somewhere along the line.
i love the fact that joe biden knows when to use an exclaimation mark in his commentary. it was the perfect application of the word.
Now I am de bleu from the morphedike ride in. Sometimes it is colder than the temp and wind tell you it wll be. I am bleu.I wonder where my father picked up his mispronunication of morphedite and why he thought it was a swear word. Not the kind of question you asked him.
I basically was offended by Biden having to say that; poor self-control. I am tired of hearing the word all of the time everywhere.
I like most pastors had a sweet little old lady have a stroke and then swears foul as can be. Her kids of course were surprised she knew the words. But what happens is that swear words are in a different place in the brain. So when the mind wants words but cannot find them because of where the stroke hit, it goes and finds other words, the swear words. This leads me to believe that the swear words serve a real purpose. The common every day use of them cheapens them to me and lessens their impact for when they count, and their are moments when they do count.
What is wrong with most swearing is that it is a screen for sloppy thinking and speaking. The cusser gets the cheap laugh and shock effect of the bad language, which makes it easy (too easy) to talk emphatically. Good comedians often express disdain for dirty word comedians who get laughs the cheap and easy way.
That said, there is an art to swearing well. You rarely encounter this, but someone with the gift can turn loose a torrent of creatively assembled bad words that just stuns all listeners into awe. Norm Van Brocklin, the first coach of the MN Vikings, had this ability.
Steve--dead on. That is exactly how I think of it. Mark Twain's wife was offended by his language. So she decided if she used the words that would shame him into stopping. So she let lose a streakk, to which he said something like "You have words, dear, but none of the music."
There are certainly places where it's wise to be careful of speech (in front of children , strangers, and video cameras are 3 common ones). I've found "wretched" to substiute nicely in front of children, for example "the wretched car won't start!"
It seems a common issue with VPs, whether they prove more liability than asset. Think twice before taking such a post and watch your mouth!
Well, I still think what the f is the big deal about swearing?
clyde, i agree in spirit but if this isn't a big f*ing deal i don't know what is
renee
i am waiting
Dale, you probably would have played if it's in the library, but Michael Cooney sings Peter and Lou Berrymans' F-word song, with this chorus:
We sit down to have a chat
It's f-word this and f-word that
I can't control how you young people
talk with one another
But I don't want to hear you
Use that f-word with your mother.
The 3 or 4 scenarios in the verses are hilarious:
http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiFWORD;ttFWORD.html
tim and Jim--on this one we will just be in diagreement, kind of rare for the three of us. We are so in sync on so many things. As I said here once before I have not had a group with which I was in such accord and bond of sympathy--in its broader, older sense--sine the 60's in Chicago. Part of that bond is the varying points of view treated with respect.
barb--are you feeding your goats fertility pills. Two sets of triples??
It must be that people who work with tools acquire the language with the toolbox.
I once took a lawn mower in to be repaired, and the mechanic talked to me while replacing a part. He was securing it with a small ring that looks like a washer, only it has an opening in one side, so you force it on the post horizontally, rather than sliding it over vertically. The drawback is that these rings have an unfortunate tendency to sproing away and get lost if you don't have them perfectly positioned when forcing them into place. The mechanic told me they're called jesus rings, because when they do that, you say, "Jesus! There goes antoher one!"
I apologize if this offends anyone, but I thought it was funny.
I found out later the rings are more properly called retaining rings, but I still call them jesus rings.
Speaking of language, and my mother as I was yesterday: I keep hearing my mother's name used in a derogatory fashion on a TV ad "add a line for as little as $10." I always hear it out of the corner of my ear. My mother Adeline, who used a swear about ten times in my presence and always at the right moment, would have loved that.
The problem with swearing now is that it has lost its ability to powerfully express what couldn't otherwise be adequately expressed. When I taught school, the high school students swore all the time. How can commonly used words pack a real punch?
Jim - you got it. from the 70s, so the rest of you are either too young (Donna) or too old :-)
it's cold this morning and the two kidlets were shivering and not eating. sweater on doeling. sweater won't work for buckling d/t where their little wee-wers are (on the tummy)
tried milking Dodger to bottle feed them since they weren't interested in eating (last night were doing great) and they wouldn't have it. so. milked a lot and tube fed them both. (to their great indignation, but i figure even the struggle helped warm them a bit). uffda. who ever figured.
out again
hope it's a great f*ing morning for All
(meaning great feeding morning)
Clyde, I love it! "add a line"....I think I know what TV add you are referring to and now whenever I see or hear it I will think of your poem from yesterday and imagine an image of your mother and her washing stick.
My sister once had her mouth washed out with soap for telling me to SHUT UP! My lesson? Excerise my one voice with clarity, and be prepared to pay for it. Given that I pretty much match the circumstances with my language, having thus far avouded the mouth soap!
It seems to me too many people don't think for themselves and just follow the beliefs of their parents or their peers. To me swearing is just a sort of a mild form of doing something that might be offensive to some, but I personally don't think is offensive. However, I usually avoid swearing because I would rather not offend any one, even if I think swearing shouldn't really be considered offensive.
A side light on swearing, which really is not told to change anyone's point of view, just a memory evoked:
My wife, who turns 70 on Saturday, would be beaten by her father and as he did so he would shout the swear words. So for her they are words of terror. That is not uncommon for abused children to have that association.
Steve -- my father agreed w/ you completely about sloppy language. He felt exactly the same way. Of course, he went a little too far - at one point he decided that "get" and "got" were also very lazy and that we (his 2 daughters) should use better words. He would actually stop you mid-sentence and say "What?". My younger sister, after at least a year of this torture, simply started to insert the word "obtain", whether it was appropriate or not. "Do you think we'll obtain any rain this afternoon?" or "That's a weird joke, I don't obtain it." Those types of things. It was very very funny. After about 3 years, my dad finally gave up! But to this day, I sometimes try to replace get/got with something else.
sherrilee: a very commone conversation I and other English teachers whould have.
Stranger: What do you do?
Me: Teach.
S: What do you teach?
M: high school students.
S: No, what subject?
M: Reading, literature, riting and speaking.
S: Oh, you are an English teacher so I better watch my language.
i agree with steve, and add that to me, the worst the thing about listening to others swear often and much is that it is BORING to listen to!
some of my nieces/nephews let fly so often that i began to really find it offensive, disrespectful....and as steve said, evidence of sloppy thinking (or complete lack of thinking and really just reacting...)
loved the kids' pictures on the blog, barb, and look forward to seeing more--hope the newest ones come around to proper eating soon...
barb so do you keep the whole gang together (with the exception of the one thats gone)? adding 5 more is a pretty substantial tweaking of the herd.
clyde i agree to disagree respectfully. love the bill bryson story . i had heard that one before but didn't know thats was the origin.
alana in mi. your movie boondocks reminds me of the christmas vacation movie with my kids this year. my daughter (the 21 year old) said she though we would enjoy the movie the hangover and said she thought it would be ok for the kids to watch. i asked what the objectionable parts might be and she said the was a naked oriental guy that popped out of the trunk at one point and with that i said ok we would watch it. well the movie starts and there is the opening conversation with more swearing than andrew dice clay stand up bit and i ask her what she was thinking about and she said well that is certainly nothing they haven't heard before. and she was right we laughed our butts off and i just had to deal with the girls hearing that from the movie rather than from the surroundings.
i don't enjoy it in everyday conversation and i feel sorry for the people who don't realize what a pigeon hole that puts them in when they choose to talk like that but i do enjoy a funny movie. i think it was pulp fiction that i went to with my mom and the opening monalog made her get up and walk out of the film. it turned out to be a great movie but if you couldn't get past the language you didn;t have a chance with the other stuff in the movie. that is the problem with offensive language . it keeps you form getting to the audience you want to get to sometimes. if it doesn't because tyou are aware of you intended audiences tolleration level then it is like a spice to cooking. use a little or a lot depending on the reciepe of the day.
renee
i am waiting
clyde, i will think of you mom when i want to add a line for 9.95.
My 87 year old mother never uses bad words-in her German way she even refers to farts as "little noises from behind". In my business its not unusual to work with kids who cuss, even little ones, and it usually indicates problems at home. I am hearing some new things from some of my young clients, though, that I find charming. The elemntary teachers in our commuhnity are using a behavior management strategy called Love and Logic and some of my young clients are using in play therapy the Love and Logic language their teachers use in class. I am often cast as the naughty child in play therapy, and the child takes the role of the teacher. The other day a five year old said to me in a teacher's voice "I wish I could read this book to you, but its's too noisy in here for me to teach". I know she heard that come from her teacher's lips, as well as "that wasn't a very good choice that you made-I'm sure you'd like to be over here with the rest of us instead of in time-out. Maybe you'll make a better choice next time".
Renee--that is the language my daughter uses with her children; I think it is also the fashion of the generation, as each generation has had. Not that I in any way object; it's better behavior language than much of what I have heard and it registers on her children.
Since my mother keeps coming up today, I will quote her here too. She used to say that every generation thinks they invented sex and child-rearing.
One of the complexities of swearing is that we live in a society with many diverse sub-cultures, and each has its own standard for what language is allowable.
Whenever we move into a new group we are at some risk of offending others and embarrassing ourselves if we fail to perceive the language rules for that subculture.
I have stories that would explain this better, but they are too embarrassing to tell!
renee, its nice to know the education system has the ability to find a positive way to deal with change. i really like it
Combining Steve's last point and Renee's reference to her grandmother: it is very hard to swear very well in German because they pretty much have one word for body parts and body functions, not a range of words of various acceptabilities. And they will use the words as metaphors. Thus in the collected Table Talk of Martin Luther, in a true translation, you can read several words which would offend many. But they did not offend his table mates. This is true to some extent in Yiddish. Almost everyone knows the Yiddisah word "putz" but few know that in Yiddish it means penis.
Time-it drives teenagers crazy when you use it on them. It helps to parent without anger and puts the burden of responsibility for behavior on the child without getting caught up in reinforcemnt strategies that often don't work. I woder how we could use Love and Logic on Joe Biden and his bad language?
My last post was for Tim, not Time
Interesting where this discussion has gone. In my childhood, there was NO swearing or colorful language, unless we were visiting relatives. My cousin Sally introduced me to the word "fart" - I honestly didn't know there was a word for it till I was about 12. I do remember trying out "sh*t" on my mother when I was an angry teen. She just stopped and gave me that look, till I couldn't stand it and stomped up the stairs.
I recall a conversation with 4-year-old son where I tried to explain that it wasn't the word that was bad, but what people would think about you if you said it.
Renee - we had the Love and Logic tapes (by Jim Fay and Foster Cline, right?)... they had so much common sense in them, and were very helpful with our teenager. (Another great book was "Get Out of My Life, But First Would You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall.)
I see you did play the Berryman's song, Dale - I guess I never knew the right name. Will try to catch it on the rebroadcast.
I've been confused by what seem to me to me to be almost Victorian prissy attitudes toward earthy words. Was it always true that words for excrement were considered too rude to mention in polite company? What about the word I just used? It refers to a dirty object, but is acceptable in speech.
As an editor, I once allowed the word "bullsh*tters" to appear in my magazine. Some readers wanted me fired for that. I was blindsided by that controversy. The word had two meanings, neither of which I thought was particularly foul. One is a barnyard product and one is a tendency of some people to fool other folks.
Meanwhile, I think modern Americans tolerate expressions that were blasphemous to earlier generations that had more rules about language referring to the deity.
Can you imagine being a teenager and suddenly have your parents start telling you "I love you too much to argue with you" and walk away from you during arguments?
I am more bothered by religious swearing than other forms, but that goes with the territory for me. It is much more acceptable today than other forms. However the OMG mentality bothers me more for the lack of precision and sparkle in language than for the blasphemy.
I swear at objects more than I should... not the f-word so much. Unless it deserves it of course.
My favorite one to use though is "Razzlefratzen" ala Yosemite Sam. Or I just grumble to myself... and I do tend to throw things when I'm in a situation where I can't verbalize my, uh, 'annoyance' at things...
But then it's over too; I don't pout for long!
When I was at the U of Chic a group of us invented swear words and insult words, which were then fun to use, which we did a lot. So to this day I am sometimes not sure what are real put-down terms and which we made up.
The worst thing you could be called by my grandmother was a "Hamburger nothing" which meant you were a no good, low life wastrel from Hamburg.
Sorry, off topic here-
Anybody read today's 'Writers Almanac'?
Wow--- the poem today... very moving... I feel bad for the woman in the story... my wife said it reminds her of her mother and that's just too sad.
I rarely swear, as I think it shows a lack of imagination. Generally the only time I let go, is if I'm wallpapering.
When my daughters were young the "s-word" stood for "stupid." That was one word we didn't use.
The word I am currently pressing on them not to use is "like" , as it seems to pop out unexpectedly once or twice in every sentence. When we're in the car, I make them pay me a nickel for each time I hear it. It has made them realize just how frequently ( and innappropriately) it's used.
One word I've used to replace swear words is "wicked". It's a word used in Maine to say "very" or "difficult" or "nasty". It's so easy to slip in! My favorite is when viewing a cute little baby: "oh, he/she's wicked cunnin'."
Thanks, Ben, indeed.
Two moments at once about my wife. 1) That could be my mother-in-law talking to wife. Exact match.
2) I just glanced up out of the big window in front of this desk and saw the form of a woman walking by being helped by two other women. The shape of her bend body spoke of pain and joints that are very unwilling to move and muscles that are not working right. Then I realized it was my wife (with two friends on their way to a restaurant to celebrate her birthday). There is a poem, but I coulkd not write it.
Ben -- I actually felt sorry for the son. I was thinking what a sad, unhappy life he probably lived with those two parents and then being told how he was conceived. I would never want to hear that from my parent! (I've always assumed that others are reading WA, but it's nice to know who the others are. I check it every morning when I get into the office.)
sherrilee--it was a burden for my wife, constantly thrown up at her by both parents, one of her father's excuses for the abuse. I took the poem to be as much about that as much as about the mother.
Sorry, Ben and I took this to a dark place instead of an intriquing discussion about language. So let me direct it back there and check out for a teleconference.
I regualry read through "Pretty Good Poems." I love Garrison's deliberate understatement (litotes in literary terms). One of the things that most bothers me in language is hyper-inflated language, not hyperbole, which is something else. Look at the ad for Dead Sea Scrolls in the upper right of this page. In what way to the Dead Seas Scrolls change the world? Do they possible need to be described that way to get peopole to go see them?
in for a minute to take my mind off of weak kids.
my Grandma (the fun one) would say "DUNDERVETTER!!)
and call us "Taugenichts" which i heard as "dowganix"
and my Mom instead of swearing at me, would say "i am going to trade you for a yellow dog and then shoot the dog."
that always confused me. :-)
Clyde -- you make me laugh. At my house I like to mute TV commercials (I think whoever invented the Mute button should be canonized.) My daughter thinks that going to the trouble to hit Mute is silly. My response to that is "I don't need to hear all these lies." If ads were true, we'd all be rich, healthy and well-rounded, and all our dogs would be well-behaved!
Barb -- you reminded me a funny children's book I used to ready my daughter. The little boy, Elbert uses a bad word and gets in big trouble for it (they never say the word, but the illustrations are great). Anyway, the family gardener (I think it was the gardener)gives him some better words, which he uses at the next family party: "MY STARS! Thunder and lightning! Rats and blue blazes! Suffering cats! Blistering hoptoads! Zounds and Gadzooks!" I should carry these around w/ me so I remember them.
AND... I just lit a cyber-candle for the little goatlings. Hang in there!
Sherrilee,
I can see that too... I just didn't think we got enough information from the story to know about the son. The mother does say she loves him... But yes, we can certainly deduce that from her descriptions.
Clyde, I have 'Pretty Good Poems' too but I'm pretty apathetic about most poetry-- nothing personal you understand. ;-)
Yes, Ben... we didn't get any of that about the son. But I have a great imagination and can take just a few words to the moon and back without any notice!
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