July 2009
Why swearing is good for you
When popping a pill doesn’t work, try dropping an F-bomb. Like the music of Celine Dion, swearing is a noisy phenomenon some people enjoy more than others. Military folks and college students have a well-earned reputation for salty language, but even the most mild-mouthed saint might have trouble resisting a “Jesus Christ!” or “Shit!” on occasion. Well, it turns out a potty mouth does more than earn your conversations an R rating: it actually relieves pain, according to a new study by Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston of Keele University in the UK. But that’s not all: you’d never know it from what your mom told you, but there are many positive, beneficial aspects of swearing, including harmless venting and social bonding (not to mention reams of adult comedy). Bad language does a lot of good… continue reading. (via GOOD)
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
—Oscar Wilde
Proust Questionnaire
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Feeling necessary and irreplaceable.
What is your greatest fear?
Losing my mind.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
I am most attracted to men who challenge and inspire me to be grow.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
My naiveté.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Grand daydreams.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Confidence with humility.
What is your greatest regret?
I wish I was a slightly more aggressive youth, particularly about my education and my success.
Which talent would you most like to have?
The ability to communicate in every language and/or flawless intuition in cooking.
What is your current state of mind?
Too self-aware.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
If success in academia were a virtue.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Santiago of the Alchemist.
Who are your heroes in real life?
My sister, Freshica.
What is your favorite occupation?
Finding another someone to fall in love with.
What is it that you most dislike?
Dishonesty and arrogance.
When and where were you happiest?
1. Biking over bridge.
2. That first kiss.
3. Dancing all night to Fela.
What do you dislike most about your appearance?
I think I appear foolish to some.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“like”, “uhm”. When I pay attention, I’m a much more creative speaker.
What is your most marked characteristic?
My smile.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would like to be more articulate, in movement, in thought, in communication.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Creating.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Feeling useless or hopeless.
Who are your favorite writers?
Toni Morrison, Flannery O’Connor, Zadie Smith, Malcolm Gladwell.
If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?
A Buddhist monk.
What is your motto?
“My happiness is my responsibility.”
How would you like to die?
Knowing that my life was an event worth remembering.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
—Aristotle
Listen
kaki king, “night after sidewalk”
from everybody loves you (2003)
“To understand civil rights, you must understand how it feels…to be trapped in someone else’s stereotype.”
—Deval Patrick
“I’m… an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.”
—Octavia Butler
“I don’t want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally.”
—Zelda Fitzgerald
