You know, where I come from, folks don’t necessarily have the best opinion of California.
"Land of fruits and nuts," the old saying goes.
California does tend to come off weird, aberrant, plastic surgeried and just plain wacky to the middle of the country.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, I can manage to fight off those accusations.
"I live in Northern California, it's different," I say.
Or, "you only know what you see on TV. That's not real."
Or, "I wouldn't have lived here so long if it was really like that."
And then every once in a while, this crazy state does something even I, a long time apologist, can't manage to explain.
No, I'm not talking about the Guvernator, but yes, that's one example I can't rightly explain.
Today, the one that's got me scratching my head is this recent bit of legislation:
A little thing called "Cuss-Free Week".
What the &*$#!?!?!
No cussing?
This is California for &*$#'s sakes!
No cussing?
Ok, so the idea was brought on by a fourteen year old kid who I'm sure has the best of intentions.
And yes, it's probably a good idea to clean up the ol' language.
But for the love of %$#@, this is California. You know, the state where people like to bring wacky lawsuits?
Ten will get you twenty, SOMEONE is going to allege a first amendment rights violation. This thing will get hung up in court for YEARS costing the taxpayers of an already on the verge-of-bankrupt state millions of dollars to adjudicate the situation.
I might remind you that the whole "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance kerfuffle began in, you guessed it, California.
Our residents seem to know how to tie things up in the courts.
Well %&@$.
P.S. As an aside, a friend of mine brought up the question of: does the curse ban only apply to English colloquialisms? Because she is fluent in another language. I find this to be a very good pinche point. Yeah, cabrons?
P.P.S. To my Spanish speaking readers...I Googled "pinche" to see if any of the letters needed accenting. I was amused to find that one user on Urban Dictionary seems to think pinche means : all the guys who work in the kitchen at a restaurant. If I had been drinking coffee, I would have spewed it all over my screen.
