Frazz by Jef Mallett for November 21, 2020

Watching Dad “fix” something is always and education, of one sort or another.

If the kid isn’t there to “help,” how can Dad assign the blame?

One thing that is sure to make a task harder is somebody standing there making snarky remarks. I’d boot the kid out, too.

I know for sure that you cannot get a standard stainless kitchen sink mounted without cussing it. Those fasteners have to KNOW you mean business.

Fowl language involves a lot of cluck clucks!

Because you want to go swimming with Frazz.

I can’t guarantee it will work for everyone, but it’s been my experience that the application of a few extemporaneous Anglo-Saxon incantations occasionally eases the frustration of some difficult but not impossible assembly. They also provide descriptive commentary concerning the legitimacy of the births of some writers of instructions. And of course, there’s always politics as an alternate outlet.

Define “language.” Communicating through sound and gesture isn’t exclusive to homo sapiens. Or homo habilus.

Good question. Why are you outside, why is Frazz outside, and why are you outside together?

Stone tools date back in East Africa to around 2.4 million years ago, in association with Home habilis, that precedes Homo ergaster / erectus.

Origins of language are more difficult to pin down, but almost certainly language as we know it came far later. Possibly as late as 200,000 to 50,000 years ago.

This strip is false as the kid isn’t holding the flashlight for his dad.

The true measure of a man, whether or not he can install the X’Mas lights or do handy work without cursing.

Check out today’s Dilbert… a friggen riot!

Growing up I thought every driver in front of my father was a woman as he would occasionally yell “Come on, Mother, move” It wasn’t until I started teaching high school that I was enlightened.

Yep. When Dad was fixing things around the house, he was always in a bad mood. Probably because of his shift work. I used to make myself scarce. I regret staying away because he knew enough to build and wire houses. I eventually acquired a few skills but I could have learned more from him.

Someone told me that Icelandic language doesn’t have any profanities. The bears still do it in the woods, but none of it raises an eyebrow.

Given that many “so called” speechless species use tools, I would think they came first. That spurred the development of language, especially the foul variety.

Ralphie: In the heat of battle, my father wove a tapestry of obscenity that as far as we know, is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan.

From “A Christmas Story”

Now that i think about it i don’t think i ever heard my dad swear, ever! But i seem to have picked it up somewhere else along the way.

I have found when doing some work on a car or pickup or such, there is always at least one bolt that no matter how much oil, heat or whatever, won’t come loose until I swear at it. ;)

One of the greatest comedy routines of all time was George Carlin’s discourse on “dirty words”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyBH5oNQOS0

What if MOM is doing some home repair? just sayin… ;)

Jef Mallett’s Blog Posts

Frazz17 hrs · I don’t know that man is inherently evil — that seems a bit extreme — but if language is anything to go by, man might be initially foul. I see a lot more euphemisms that smooth the edges off rough language than I see coarsening something more innocent.

With general vocabulary, that is. Nicknames are a whole ‘nother matter.

I always loved the “Calvin & Hobbes” strip where Dad was preparing to work on something. The instructions said, “Check the following list of handy expletives, and see that you know how to use them.”