{blushing}
Why, thank you…
:dubious: 
Miller said:
Didn’t see me where?
hehe
The compliments keep rolling in!
It’s the first time I’ve been called ‘dainty’, but I’m warming to the idea. But while I may be delicate, I am certainly not confused.
I would also guess that the folks who I have crossed paths with me here, particularly in GD, would surmise my backbone is fully intact. But then I’ve never asked them…
But it is fallacious at best to imply that someone who objects to “c*nt” as a staple of someone’s [presumably intelligent] lexicon, is somehow ‘dainty’ or confused. But if that’s what you have to offer, go with it.
I love the pit and spend most of my SDMB time in it. 
I do, however, think they could make it easier for the dainty folk to avoid it (they could allow users to hide it from the main forum page on their screen and exclude it from “New Posts” searches).
Of course, that would violate the board policy of never improving any functionality, so that’s out. :smack:
Shhhh
Don’t upset the hamsters, I think their tummies are already unsettled.
I like that I have the freedom to call someone a fucking tool here if they are being a fucking tool.
Sometimes I am in the mood to be a prick in a debate and I come here. Sometimes it’s fun to see what idiotic justification someone will make for hating someone they don’t know like Paris Hilton.
Also it’s cool that there is Great Debates where if I am feeling more contemplative, I don’t have to listen to the vitriole. All in all it’s a good system.
It’s also a good way to show someone that while the SDMB might contain some of the smartest minds out there, that they simply are not one of them.
Erek
It’s been awhile since I read it, but if I recall correctly, he also didn’t use the words:
aardvark
blastocyte
droll
elephantine
forensics
geriatric
hallowed
impious
juried
kinky
lithe
mellifluous
neonatal
oleaginous
prick
rhododendron
sesquipedalian
torrential
undulating
vestibule
waxy
xenophobe
yurt
zymurgy
Why is “Cant” the only one that you focus on?
Our dear Scylla does not shy away from using the word he needs, whether that word is pustule or cocksucker. Arbitrary delimitations on the speaker hurt only the speaker’s ability to communicate: they don’t show any especial wit.
Daniel
Left Hand of Dorkness said:
(highlight mine)
And here I thought I was the dainty one…
I didn’t offer any commentary on Scylla; simply that post/OP.
For that matter, I didn’t single out anyone else. My point remains and I won’t belabor it by repeating it. Profanity is best delivered discriminately, with precision and sparingly.
That’s not a skill set in plain view here. Quite the contrary.
The notion that the absence of rank profanity----like ‘cunt’—are “arbitrary delimitations” that hurt the speakers ability to communicate, is absurd on it’s face.
Please tell me I’m being whooshed…
I didn’t offer any commentary on Scylla; simply that post/OP.
For that matter, I didn’t single out anyone else. My point remains and I won’t belabor it by repeating it. Profanity is best delivered discriminately, with precision and sparingly.
That’s not a skill set in plain view here. Quite the contrary.
The notion that the absence of rank profanity----like ‘cunt’—are “arbitrary delimitations” that hurt the speakers ability to communicate, is absurd on it’s face.
Please tell me I’m being whooshed…
Shakespeare wasn’t above a cunt joke now and then. If it’s good enough for the bard, it’s good enough for the board.
Choosing not to use certain words, but to use deliberate misspellings of those words so that the reader knows what word is intended, is a limit on the words available to the author. It certainly appears arbitrary to me. Deny that it’s an arbitrary limit looks absurd on its face to me.
There’s nothing high and mighty about refusing to use a class of words. It just means you’ve limited your range of communication.
I’m reminded of the vegetarians I’ve heard who claim that a vegetarian diet is more varied than a meat-eater’s diet, since they are propelled to find more interesting dishes. Bull, to be perfectly fucking crude, sh*t. A meat-eater who loves food is going to eat a greater variety of dishes than the vegetarian who loves food. I don’t eat red meat or poultry, and I love eating interesting foods, and my limits mean that I miss out on a lot of interesting, sumptuous meals. For me to deny that, for me to affect some sort of supercilious superiority and claim that I ate a more varied diet than a meat-eater, would be dishonest and stupid of me.
Daniel
Wow! I didn’t know that…
Perhaps you can quote this Shakespearean cunt joke me…
We can compare it to some Pit Prose. Maybe my tune will change…
In the meantime, are you daring to compare the Pit [qualitatively] with Shakespeare?
Wow! I didn’t know that…
Perhaps you can quote this Shakespearean cunt joke for me…
We can compare it to some Pit Prose. Maybe my tune will change…
In the meantime, are you daring to compare the Pit [qualitatively] with Shakespeare?
Google is your friend. From Wikipedia (the first link on “Shakespeare Cunt,” thank heavens):
Daniel
Hell, he named one of his plays, Much Ado about Nothing. Three guesses what the word “nothing” was slang for, to the Elizabethans.
I think the pit serves a purpose, and I have never thought it should be abolished from the SDMB.
What I have always wondered about is that most of us manage to argue and disagree with others face to face, even vehemently, with some kind of civility. If it is possible to do it when you are in the same room with the person you are arguing with, why can’t we do it here in the pit?
I assume it is because we don’t have to run into the person we argued with in the grocery store the next day…but since the people here are just as real as the ones who live in the same town with us, it seems to me we should attempt to treat them with the same consideration we show our face to face “adversaries.”
If ever a sig line there be…
Well, it all comes down to personal preference. I’m a vegetarian and I do have a more varied diet than most meat eaters I know. But, then again, I live in the Midwest, which is not known for its adventurous eaters. “Oooh, you got the Triscuits with rosemary? Well, I’ll try one but I don’t usually go in for this fancy food!”
But, back to topic, I agree that the Pit is necessary. I don’t think we need to apologize for it. Being impassioned and upset isn’t necessarily ignorant. Sure, the upteenth thread on gas-guzzling SUVs or people talking on the cell phone during a movie probably isn’t winning The War on Ignorance As We Know It, but neither is the upteenth thread on Serenity or the zillionth “why do nice girls hate me” snugglefest. This is a community and not every conversation is going to be epic. Let people express themselves, I say.
Oh, sure, definitely some vegetarians have more varied diets than some meat eaters. The carrot soup with cilantro-pepper garnish that my wife made earlier this week was a half-remembered favorite from several years ago, and we eat lots of dishes like that, made from a sagging shelf of cookbooks and from our own weird ideas.
My wife, however, eats meat. She’s equally interested in good food as I am, and she eats just about all the vegetarian stuff I eat, PLUS she eats gumbos and pulled pork barbecue and hamburgers. Her diet, because she includes these extra things, is going to be more varied than mine.
Similarly, it’s certainly true that some folks who eschew profanity have larger vocabularies than those who embrace profanity. It may even be true that a significant number of cussers have a smaller vocabulary than noncussers. However, it’s by no means a universal rule; and folks who love language who embrace profanity are going to have the richest, most flexible, most powerful vocabulary of all.
Daniel