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fuck electricity
Sunday, August 8 2004
I spent most of the day running a new 30 amp/240 volt circuit out to a secondary breaker box I'm installing in "the shop," an unfinished room isolated on the other side of the house's cluttered two car garage. I want to wire the shop, finish some of the walls, and trick it out with shop tools, and get it to a point where it would be a suitable location for the completion of projects.
As I worked, I listened to "WGUS," my local FM radio station. I had it playing archived This American Life programs, which are available for streaming. I love to listen to shows like this while doing mindless work with my hands.
My favorite show today was the one called "Propriety," particularly its segment about the supposed detrimental effect of dirty words on children. In response to this "effect," which has never been demonstrated to exist, there's been considerable outrage, panic, and an overall chilling of free speech in the world of broadcast media. Why reasoning does the FCC give for demanding that "fuck" not be said on the radio? According to them, "[Fuck] is one of the most vulgar, graphic and explicit descriptions of sexual activity in the English language. Its use invariably invokes a coarse sexual image." A purple, throbbing penis deep within a sweltering vagina explodes in massive sneeze of pearly goo! Hmm, if you're like me, a coarse sexual image didn't cross your mind until that last sentence, one that didn't contain a single word banned by the FCC. According to an informal poll conducted by the show's producers, a coarse sexual image doesn't cross the minds of children who use the word either.
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