Before I joined the military in 1978, I never cursed, cussed, swore or whatever you want to call it. With eight siblings constantly around, I would've surely been smacked when uttering obscenities. After joining the military and before getting married, it was different story.

Between September of 1978 and January of 1985, every other sentence I spoke contained some form of vulgar language. I toned it down a bit after getting married in 1985, but I didn't stop doing it completely until later, as my boys started growing up.

One time in the late eighties (possibly 1988), I took my wife and kids to visit my parents. Whenever I visited, other siblings would somehow manage to be there as well. While I was talking to one of my brothers, I must have said something vulgar because my mother yelled at me, "Watch your language, young man!", and to this day I can't remember what it was that I said.

As time progressed, I learned that using the correct words for all the expletives was much more effective than swearing. Military people were so conditioned to hear the foul language that the correct terminology sounded foul to them. Nowadays, it takes considerable effort to actually use foul language in every day speech and probably more effort to include it in any writings.

When reading other blogs, and I won't dime anyone out, I find it rather annoying to come across those colorful metaphors that really don't belong there. The point can be made with much more eloquent writing or even with the proper terms for such things. This is an open plea for all writers to examine their work and see if something can be written a little less offensively. You do, after all, want me to read your writings, right?