Monday, June 23

RIP George Carlin. Profanity to Follow.

I'm so sad he passed away, but so proud of him for going to the doctor when he realized he didn't feel well. So many men ignore problems and "brush it off" or "tough it out." I wish it would've ended positively.

I really liked his sense of humor. I loved him in years ago in The George Carlin Show and more recently in Aristocrats and Jersey Girl. In the latter, as Ben Affleck's father, he really tugged at the heartstrings. I would've probably cried several times if it weren't for all the kiss kiss kissy face I was doing on the sofa pillow pretending Bennyboo was there to keep me company. (I am a big fan of Ben's and tried to have baby on his birthday, but alas, came in a day under target.)

I heard a lot about George at university while studying journalism. FCC vs. Pacifica Foudation, 1978 involved the "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television". He was arrested for disturbing the peace for performing this bit at a club. The next year, he modified the material and it was aired on the radio. That bit of stand-up got Mr. Carlin, and the FCC, into a lot of hot water by a father who was driving in the car with his son. The father called the FCC and complained that his son had to hear such filth.

This brings me to another reason to love George Carlin. He once said something to the effect that it's amazing how someone who drives slower than you is an idiot, and someone driving faster than you is a maniac. This is so true! The radio station, WBAI-FM, which aired the Filthy Words routine by Carlin, uncensored, is in NYC. Are we supposed to believe that the son of that man had never heard those seven filthy words uttered in the car before that moment? I seriously doubt it. If his father wasn't already complaining about the bumper to bumper traffic I can just imagine he was saying minimum five of the seven words everyday, as I heard at least one of them hurled from car windows nearly every minute walking the streets of NYC.

I yell those words all the time. I can't help it. I was raised by a sailor. (He actually never swore, and the only time I heard him say the big one was when our house was robbed.) I will try very hard to stop using these words in the near future for Huddy's sake. One year for Lent, I gave up swearing. I seemingly replaced it with "God bless America." People thought me very patriotic. That ended up being more annoying to me. I still say it sometimes. I'm going to give that up as well, I hope. I think I'll be successful. My mom used to beg me to omit 'totally' from my vocabulary. I think I have. So wish me luck. (Of course, I have noticed I say 'evidently' a lot. It was brought to my attention and now every time I say it I kick a puppy to remind myself that it's not okay.)

George was right. That's exactly what I say when people slow me down or nearly run me off the road. "What are you doing, idiot? Get off the street!" "Freaking maniac. You're going to kill someone."

I drive a 1995 Jeep Cherokee Sport. It is not very sporty. Nor is it very fuel efficient. The only thing that makes me somewhat okay with driving it, is that it's old. And old equals vintage. I like to think of it as recycled. And that makes me green, so shuttup.

I cannot go very fast in this car. I often see people speeding past me, some looking at me as they do. I don't care. Be my Bandit. I'm going to take my sweet old time and leave my Baby On Board sign where it is and wave my cane at them yelling "God bless America, nice person!!" out the window. I honestly have to say, the majority of the crazy drivers out there are women in minivans. I do need to state for the record that some of my very dear friends and relatives drive minivans and they are excellent drivers and would never exhibit road rage, but I'm going with this theory for the sake of this post so let's leave it at that. Women should not drive minivans. The end.

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