(From Flickr.com, photo of a barefoot woman on salt flats)
A person I respect in the Hawthorne Neighborhood Association asked me not to cuss so much on this blog, so he could refer Johnny Northside Dot Com to other people working to make stuff better in the neighborhood.
As per his reasonable request, from this day forward...
...I will make an effort not to cuss on this blog. Readers will understand, hopefully, how the confrontation with the angry crack head was told in a visceral manner, not long after it happened.
I did, in fact, already remove one pointless cuss word in the headline for that blog.
However, I will not give up the two cuss words in my new motto at the bottom of the previous entry, "(Expletive) the crack heads, board the (expletive) up." Too much salt is bad, but I'm a colorful character and a vet. I can't live on a completely "salt free" diet. Those words underline that whole episode and represent my angry refusal to back down in the face of hostile crack heads. Those words stay in that small spot.
But like Scarlet said in Gone With The Wind, "Tomorrow...is another day."
Another exception: If public officials such as police are going to use cuss words, and I'm quoting those public officials, I will not engage in censorship. So a police officer saying something like "I've been working (expletive) North Side for 15 years" will not be redacted in the original quote, though I've redacted it here because it is merely used as an example.
So, from now on, if I absolutely need an expletive because of context, I will either use dash marks, asterisks, or the word "expletive" within parenthesis. Except when quoting public officials, who I will not redact. This is actually very close to the rules of "AP Style" I used to teach when I was a TA at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
LOL, I kinda like the cursing - but I guess...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I gather from both the comments and your own commentary that you have realized you're not alone.
One thing I've noticed about the northside is that in spite (or perhaps because of?) the craziness, there are some really incredible people living there. (Including my sister-in-law, who just bought her first home in your new 'hood - on Lyndale!)
BTW - you need a blog email address, for realz. :-)
If you want to touch base with me by email, tell me in a comment submitted but not-for-publication, and I'll touch base with you.
ReplyDeleteIf I put my email address right on here, I'll have to spend hours digging through all the spam.
Oh, I hate spam. Not like I hate crack houses just wide open to trespass, but I still have some special negative feelings reserved especially for spam.