George Carlin dead at 71

Thanks, Yahoo main page, for the cheery late night news. Christ...the good times just continue to roll, don't they? I greatly admired this man. He was a visionary -- incredibly sharp, very funny, cursed like a sailor...what's not to like? This man loved LANGUAGE...as do I. He appreciated its absurdity...and more so the absurdity of the human race who so often mangle it. Holy Christ, what a loss. Let you forget his classic Seven Dirty Words, here they are...SHIT, PISS, FUCK, CUNT, COCKSUCKER, MOTHERFUCKER and TITS. All my favorites! They ARE interesting, aren't they? Piss and tits? Really?

I have a special personal connection to these famous words. Back during the start of my storied college radio DJ career, during one of the always deadly serious DJ meetings, our draconian Program Director (who was actually a good friend, and in "real life" a profane pistol of a girl) handed out a list of these Seven Dirty Words...I believe partly inspired by some "lesser" offensive ones slipping on MY show, like ASS, HELL and DAMN. I think the Lord's name in vain was also a lightning rod. And, of course, it was also about "repetition" of these words. Once "every now and then" it'd be OK to say HELL or DAMN, but not regularly. As soon as I got back to my dorm room, I taped this delightful paper up for all visitors to see. Oh, the JOY of the word CUNT blaring up at unsuspecting eyes. I still have this handout in one of my Special College Mementos envelopes. All thanks to George Carlin...a brilliant, challenging, contrarian mind gone far too soon.