Fandango’s Flashback Friday — December 23rd

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Friday Flashback post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 23rd) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.


This was originally posted on December 23, 2014 on my old blog.

Cleaning Up My Act

WARNING: This post is peppered with a word that some of you might find offensive.

If you are offended by a certain four-letter slang word for sexual intercourse, making love, bumping ugly, hiding the salami, boffing, shagging, the horizontal hula, burying the bone, dipping the wick, the lust and thrust, the bump and grind, threading the needle, feeding the kitty, or the bedroom rodeo, I urge you to stop reading this post now. If you continue to read this post, do so at your own risk.


I have been reading over some of my old posts seeking inspiration for new ones. I’ve noticed that I use the word “fuck” a lot, whether as a standalone word (as in “fuck that”), or as a root word (as in “that guy is really fucked up” or “he’s a fucking idiot”).

Personally, I think fuck is a perfectly good word to express a wide variety of emotions or intents (or activities). But some tight-assed people might take offense at my use of that word. Additionally, my blog can be viewed by anyone of any age at any time. So maybe I should try to clean up my act a little.

For example, instead of writing “fuck you,” maybe I should instead write “screw you” or “bite me.” Same sentiments, right? And there’s nothing wrong with writing “screwed up” instead of “fucked up.”

I have also started to substitute the word “flock” lately. As in “what the flock was I thinking?”

My concern, though, is what the best substitute word for “fuck” should be. And, tangentially, how to handle adding the “ing” ending to the root word. For example, if I want to call someone a “fucking asshole,” should I refer to him as a “frigging” asshole, a “fricking” asshole, or as a “freaking” asshole?

Or maybe just “asshole” would suffice.

And when doing so, I wonder if the proper protocol is to replace the “g” at the end of the word with an apostrophe, so that friggingfricking, and freaking become friggin’frickin’, and freakin’.

Still, there are times when the word “fucking” might appropriately be the word of choice for a particular situation or circumstance. But so as not to offend those fucking assholes who would be offended by my use of the word “fuck,” I am going to make a concerted effort to replace fucking with friggin, fricken’, or freakin’ (or maybe with their counterparts with the “g” instead of the apostrophe at the end).

Here’s my question to my readers — or at least those of you who haven’t stopped reading because I’ve offended you with my crude language: what do you think is the best word choice to substitute for the word “fucking”?

  • Freakin’ or freaking
  • Frickin’ or fricking
  • Friggin’ or frigging

Or maybe I should just stop being a pussy and just use the words fuck and fucking.

In fact, fuck it. Never mind. I don’t give a flying fuck what any of you fucking fuckers fucking think.

Hey, chill out. I’m just fucking with you. Don’t be such fucking tight asses.


I wonder how many followers I will lose as a result of this post.

22 thoughts on “Fandango’s Flashback Friday — December 23rd

  1. Paula Light December 23, 2022 / 6:27 am

    I used to swear on my blog and FB all the time, but now I rarely do. I was trying to be respectful of a few religious people who were reading years ago, but they left anyway…

    Liked by 1 person

  2. newepicauthor December 23, 2022 / 7:05 am

    Native English speakers think there’s a /g/ sound at the end of many words like fucking, but this is a two-syllable word, so you have to separate it that way to pronounce it correctly. Incorporating an “ing” is used as a suffix to make one of the inflected forms of English verbs. You never pronounce the ‘g’ in a word that ends in “ing”, so the apostrophe became a signal a native speaker to “drop the g”, and if you break down the word ‘fuck’ into sounds you get [FUK].

    Liked by 1 person

    • Marleen December 23, 2022 / 2:53 pm

      Actually, “ing” (in standard English/current native English in the United States anyway) is different-sounding from in’ as well as from the way some ethnic groups or non-native English speakers pronounce the fully-spelled-out word (with a true g sound after the ing sound or after an in sound, with an especially strong g sound).

      Liked by 2 people

    • Marleen December 23, 2022 / 8:07 pm

      I’m betting you’ve additionally heard a pronunciation, “een” (long e then n) — for the ing spelling. I haven’t figured out why anyone would do this, unless they are kids and just haven’t figured it out yet [like chesterdrawers for chest of drawers]. Yet there are people who pronounce the i, in some words where the i would be the short sound in the dictionary, as long e (ee) instead [example, hill].

      Liked by 2 people

  3. Taswegian1957 December 23, 2022 / 7:41 am

    I can tell you were just having a bit of fun with this post and I am amused that you were considering how to be grammatically correct while swearing.
    I actually dislike the word myself. I think it is ugly and while I’m not offended by it, unless someone says it to me that is, I do get fed up with hearing it. Some people can’t seem to hold a conversation without using it every other sentence. I even hear radio presenters using it. I think there are times it is OK to use the F-word and times when it’s totally unnecessary.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Fandango December 23, 2022 / 8:49 am

      Yes, I was being tongue-in-cheek when I wrote this post eight years ago. I know some don’t like the word, and I’m sorry if it offends anyone, but it has become a sort of everyday word, at least here in the States. I don’t use it all that often, but when my posts include dialogue, I will use it occasionally to maybe spice things up a bit or give an edge to the dialogue. But I do understand that it’s not something everyone wants to hear or read.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Taswegian1957 December 23, 2022 / 2:24 pm

        Not constantly anyway. I saw it written on a Christmas card the other week and felt that was really going too far.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. donmatthewspoetry December 23, 2022 / 2:10 pm

    Used in it’s right context it’s acceptable to me but just peppered in every sentence for the sake of it I can’t take. It makes no sense………

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Marilyn Armstrong December 23, 2022 / 7:35 pm

    I’m careful about using “curse” words mainly because I’d like to keep my “g” rating and because some people just find coarse language offensive. I don’t mind it — in small doses. In shows where “fuck” is the comma between any other two words, it stops being offensive and becomes funny. Well, no everyone has the same sense of humor. Which I way I’m cautious. Many people from many places have many different things that bother them and I try not to be a bother. Except when I am.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Marleen December 23, 2022 / 9:07 pm

      It’s good to have a “g” rating. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      • Marilyn Armstrong December 28, 2022 / 8:05 pm

        It’s also good to not intentionally offend people unless there’s a very good reason for doing so.

        Liked by 1 person

    • Fandango December 23, 2022 / 10:25 pm

      I don’t use it that often, but often enough, I suppose, that my Bligh would probably earn at least a PG rating. This particular post, penned in 2014, was a little extreme.

      Like

      • Marilyn Armstrong December 25, 2022 / 10:23 pm

        I think the greatest fucker of all was the first “Yellowstone.” This used it twice in every sentence. It really WAS funny, if you have that kind of sense of humor.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Nope, Not Pam December 24, 2022 / 1:35 am

    Fuck, I quite like the word fuck

    Liked by 2 people

  7. Lolsy's Library December 25, 2022 / 11:16 pm

    I say fraking or frak now. I am pretty sure that has something to do with oil. I take it from Frak or frack is a fictional version of “fuck” first used in the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series.

    Liked by 1 person

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