BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – Who can forget the scene in “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie spills the lug nuts from his father’s flat tire all over the road and inadvertently lets loose with “oh fudge” … only he didn’t say fudge. In the next scene he’s got a bar of soap in his mouth.
Reactions to the inadvertent, or intentional, use of the “queen mother of dirty words” are likely to be quite different these days. Some might even consider vulgar language like that a sign of authenticity. But it depends on where you sit.
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It was eight years ago that President Trump — the first-term version — referred to certain African nations, during a televised cabinet meeting, as “s—hole countries.” Depending on their level of tolerance for such things — or their partisan loyalties — some cackled, some clutched their pearls, some cheered. The media struggled over whether to quote the president. It’s the president! You can always quote the president, right?
The Associated Press decided to report Trump’s language verbatim — without euphemisms or dash-dash-dashes. “The AP is not opening the floodgate to the use of (that word),’ its variations, or other obscenities…