Also, a Scot I know here called his neighbor a cunt to her face, thinking he was using a bad word, but not THAT bad.

The internet does not live in the US.

Do you think I was being snarky?

No, I thought you were being regional. You're in the US when you type, but once you hit post, you're talking to the whole world. It's your call if you don't mind being offensive to non Americans when you post--it's entirely your call.

But your phrasing implied there was a divide of time on the word, if you were drawing a hysterical parallel. I wanted to stress that it's no such thing. Tiger Woods just got called on it pretty recently. It's a divide of culture. Prioritise as you will.

The internet does not live in the US.

Did Al Gore consider this when he invented it?

But your phrasing implied there was a divide of time on the word, if you were drawing a hysterical parallel.

No, but I could see the clinical term of "spastic" being the origin of the "spazz" used by U.S. kids and the over decades of use, the U.S. kids would be completely unaware as to its origin. I don't think the average person has any awareness of the implications of "hysteria" just as the average person has none of "spazz".

And of course I can only speak for my region.

Twice yesterday at the airport, airline personnel pulled April Fool's jokes. One said, "Sorry, the flight's cancelled. April Fool's!" and then the attendant said, as we landed, "Welcome to Seattle!"

That's just plain mean!

erinaceous's column for tomorrow's Globe sort of speaks to this issue, although it's about other stuff: [link]

I'm not aware of spaz ever having a clinical association in the US that didn't leak over from the UK. Not a cerebral palsy related one, anyway. So I don't think of it as something diluted by the passage of time.

What we need are more insults from sf shows.

Why is the only team the Nationals can beat is the Braves? Also, hail delay?

The excitement here over the last few days has been the appearance of a young dog who looks a lot like a Shiba Inu. He jumped effortlessly over the 4-foot chain link fence into my neighbors' yard, bonded with the two dogs there, and settled in. He's also jumped the fence into my yard at least once. Mr Peabody is hysterical about having a strange dog next door. He has no collar and doesn't seem to have anyone looking for him. Unfortunately, he's going to have to go to a shelter.

Well, I'm at my mom's now.

Guess who did not need an extender seat belt on the plane? And guess who was able to pull down the tray and not have to negotiate around her stomach? I was doing a sitting-down version of my Happy Dance before I remembered where I was.

Awesome, Kathy! I'm so pleased for you!

I have determined the ultimate time suck: Drench PLUS HGTV. I'd swear I just sat down.