The High Cost of Swearing

Did you grow up in a family, or know someone who did, with a Swear Jar? The concept was every time a family member cursed he or she had to put a dollar in the jar. The jar served two purposes. It supposedly cut down on swearing in the house and the proceeds usually went toward a weekly family take-out meal like a pizza or such.

Well times have changed. In Pennsylvania, if you swear in public you are ticketed. If proven guilty you can be fined up to $300 (that'd be some pizza party) or jailed. I kid you not. Geez, a small fortune could be made at Philadelphia Flyers games - just ticketing the players!

One woman was given a citation that carries a maximum penalty of $300 and 90 days in jail after she swore at a motorcyclist who cut her off. In another case a man was arrested and jailed for several days after swearing at a policeman giving him a parking ticket. Come on, we've all done that! Well, maybe not to his face.

Virtue, Liberty and Watch Your Mouth!

But fear not profane citizens of Pennsylvania, the American Civil Liberties Union is on your side. The ACLU is suing the Pennsylvania police, arguing that the right to use profanity is protected by the U.S. Constitution. Huh!

And they've been getting clients off because there's a difference between profanity and obscenity. I guess if you drop your pants and moon someone, that might be a different matter. But the ACLU has taken advantage of this crack in the law to get their clients off.

Shit, where was the ACLU when I was a kid?

This post first appeared on The Parody Files

The Polka Dot Door

A long time ago, when I was 22, my first child was born. That kid grew up on a little Canadian kid's show called Polka Dot Door, produced by the TV Ontario network. And Dad, more often than not, sat through those shows with his little one. Nine or so years later when a brother, and a year after that when a sister came along number one son was moving on to Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard. But there was a nice overlap where his siblings picked up where he had left off with Polka Dot Door. And Dad was right there to welcome them. So you're looking at a Polka Dot Door veteran. The show began in 1971 and ran to 1993. I didn't watch the full run but I did get in my fair share. The formula was pretty simple. A young male and female host, which seemed to change every week, sang songs, told stories, made crafts and generally did their best stimulate little brains. The show opened as follows... Imagination Day! Oh boy! ...

My Back Pages - November

I know, I know, I know I should have reported in before now. But sometimes real life just gets in the way. I attempted 5 books in November. I say attempted because I slapped a big DNF (did not finish) on Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I just can't seem to get into this guy. It's the second or third of his I've given up on, Not so the other four, starting with a biography of Stephen Stills called Change Partners. This followed by a hilarious biography of the guy responsible for National Lampoon called A Stupid and Futile Gesture - How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever. I ended the month reading yet another biography, this one of the man behind Rolling Stone magazine,. It was called Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine. A fascinating read. So last month I hit the magic number 50 I'd imagined for myself back in January. If I roll this month into my yearly total I'm at 54 books. And I still hav...

30 Days of Photos III #4 Sour

Check out Ziva's Inferno for the rest of today's photos.

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