LanguageHat on PRI

February 28, 2008 1:18 PM

Did anyone else hear LanguageHat on PRI's The World?

He was talking about his swearing book. My only question is where the fuckety-fucking-fuck was the MeFi callout?

posted by SteveTheRed to MetaFilter-Related at 1:18 PM (83 comments total)

I don't know why I capitalized the H. Maybe I'm spending too much time programming at work...
posted by SteveTheRed at 1:20 PM on February 28, 2008

I didn't hear it but am sorry I missed it! Congrats, lh.
posted by Miko at 1:30 PM on February 28, 2008

My only question is where the fuckety-fucking-fuck was the MeFi callout? shoutout?

Callout is a different thing altogether.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:32 PM on February 28, 2008

What? No!

There's no link yet for the broadcast that I can find, but here's the main site - I assume some sort of "listen now!" thing will be posted there at some point...
posted by rtha at 1:33 PM on February 28, 2008

Yes, shoutout.

I will never post again when my blood caffeine level is this low.
posted by SteveTheRed at 1:36 PM on February 28, 2008

Fine and dandy, but I'm kinda busy dealing with the jonmc thing next door...
posted by Dizzy at 1:38 PM on February 28, 2008

I love jonmc to death, but does every thread have to be about him?
posted by SteveTheRed at 1:39 PM on February 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

Wow, that was quick! I just asked Jessamyn if I should post it to Projects, but I guess there's no need now. My segment is about 20 minutes in; they boiled down almost an hour's worth of interview to six or seven minutes, and did it very well. Sorry, no MeFi shoutout; there might have been if a certain MeFite had given me permission to use a certain classic MeFi insult in the book, but no dice. Anyway, I hope you liked it, and maybe this will spur them to put out a %@#$!& U.S. edition already.
posted by languagehat at 1:43 PM on February 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

Congratulations, languagehat!
posted by jamjam at 1:46 PM on February 28, 2008

Wow, awesome. Congrats once again, languagehat. I'll have to find it.
posted by sleepy pete at 1:47 PM on February 28, 2008

I just have to say that I love that little drum fill-in that The World does.
Ta ta ta bum bum BWUM.

If anyone finds a link to the interview, please post up.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 2:08 PM on February 28, 2008

You can use bucket of cocks if you want. Just give me credit.
posted by ND¢ at 2:15 PM on February 28, 2008

Here ya go
posted by milkrate at 2:16 PM on February 28, 2008

Sweet, that will be on when I go out to the train station tonight.
posted by sugarfish at 2:35 PM on February 28, 2008

Awesome.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:48 PM on February 28, 2008

Is there a direct link to download the audio file?
posted by vacapinta at 2:50 PM on February 28, 2008

This, maybe?
posted by puke & cry at 2:53 PM on February 28, 2008

Oh wait, here's the swearing segment, that other link is the whole program.
posted by puke & cry at 2:55 PM on February 28, 2008 [2 favorites]

I've got it starting at a bit before 16 minutes. You sound fantastic, doll. Congratulations! Cursing as poetry -- it must be the goddamn Renaissance around here, then.
posted by melissa may at 2:59 PM on February 28, 2008

yay L-hat! You go girl!
posted by vronsky at 3:03 PM on February 28, 2008 [2 favorites]

Gracias Señor puke y cry!
posted by vacapinta at 3:05 PM on February 28, 2008

What's the MeFi iceburn that you wanted to use? Can ya link to it? Was it gibberish?
posted by klangklangston at 3:07 PM on February 28, 2008

Damn. I listen to that show every day--except for today.

Nice work, l-hat. I'll have to take a listen to the podcast.
posted by slogger at 3:20 PM on February 28, 2008

Cursing as poetry -- it must be the goddamn Renaissance around here, then.

Damn right! The Earl of Rochester should be our guardian spirit.
posted by languagehat at 3:21 PM on February 28, 2008

"loveual harbuttment pervasive in Japan"
posted by 31d1 at 3:28 PM on February 28, 2008

Playing right now - YAY, languagehat!

Fascinating bit about the brain.
posted by Feisty at 3:29 PM on February 28, 2008

Fantastic! Congrats, lh.

But now I have that damn drum/piano noise from that show in my head, and I haven't heard it in probably 2 years.
posted by ibmcginty at 3:36 PM on February 28, 2008

Is there any particular reason why the next subject was "men scratching their privates in public"?
posted by Cranberry at 3:38 PM on February 28, 2008

I knew the bit about swearing and aphasia (my grandfather operates thus), but surely that language to brain mapping has a lot to do with Tourette's too. Interesting, you old dumpsterhumper!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 3:44 PM on February 28, 2008

Is it just a glitch on my end, or do those speaker links on the PRI site do nothing?

puke & cry's direct link worked though.
posted by CKmtl at 3:58 PM on February 28, 2008

Not yet, but thanks for the tip! Way to go LH! Yee Hoo!
posted by snsranch at 4:11 PM on February 28, 2008

Hey! You got language in my hat!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:17 PM on February 28, 2008

It just came on the radio now, very cool! Congrats!
posted by zoinks at 4:26 PM on February 28, 2008

The European Gluteal-Fecal Belt sounds very picturesque.

And to the publisher for not making it available in the US or Canada yet: sacré colisse d'ostie de gang de cons.
posted by CKmtl at 4:49 PM on February 28, 2008

I'm loving this; the interviewer is so wholesomely earnest, and LH is managing to talk about it all without actually swearing much.
posted by Abiezer at 4:50 PM on February 28, 2008

Cool! Great interview too, interesting and funny.
posted by gemmy at 4:55 PM on February 28, 2008

$&*(&%, I missed this! Thanks for audio links.
posted by casarkos at 5:18 PM on February 28, 2008

languagehat sounds nothing like he did in my head. Previously I heard something midway between Ed Asner and Pete Seeger.

Worlds are colliding here.
posted by middleclasstool at 5:31 PM on February 28, 2008 [3 favorites]

Here's the book at Amazon UK
posted by doctor_negative at 5:31 PM on February 28, 2008

Wait, that was you? I'm usually not around to hear The World, but I was home sick and actually listened. And I thought, hey, that book sounds interesting, and I never knew in Eastern Europe swearing centers around the genitals....

Congrats!
posted by dw at 5:40 PM on February 28, 2008

And here they seem to actually have it in stock
posted by doctor_negative at 5:41 PM on February 28, 2008

I just heard this on my way home from work. Good stuff. I was waiting to hear about the popular "languageFAT lol" curse.
posted by ludwig_van at 5:57 PM on February 28, 2008

Good job languagehat!

And good job to your sockpuppet dirtylanguagehat as well!
posted by The Deej at 6:17 PM on February 28, 2008

The fucknugget UK edition doesn't have my whoremongering name on the cover. If you can get the Aussie edition, get that, unless you're willing to wait for the US one.

Incidentally, check out the latest comment on my post about the book:

Those who know Biblical Hebrew are aware that this language (the first language of the Bible) contains no "swear words." Words for body parts? Yes. Words for body excretions? Yes. A vocabulary to describe carnal knowledge? Yes. It is possible for any modern man to speculate what G-d meant when he told the Children of Israel 3200 years ago, "Do not take the name of the L-rd, your G-d, in vain." However, unless one has studied Biblical Hebrew and ancient Jewish culture, his speculation would be worthless. It has been said, "If you have not read the Bible in Hebrew, you have not read the Bible." Now, go and study!
Posted by: Dr Bert Miller at February 28, 2008 08:30 PM

Isn't that sweet? I don't have the heart to tell him Moses swore like a motherfucker in between writing Torah chapters.
posted by languagehat at 6:45 PM on February 28, 2008

I sure did! It was one of those "driveway moments" that they're always talking about during pledge drives, for sure.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 6:59 PM on February 28, 2008

Tabernacle!
posted by turing_test at 7:12 PM on February 28, 2008

I wish they had used your theme song l-hat (and yes that is him at 1:45 for those that don't know what he looks like)
posted by vronsky at 7:14 PM on February 28, 2008

Just ran across this wonderful bit on p. 317 of The Book of Ebenezer Le Page (a wonderful novel):

I was scared he would get onto the subject of the ancient monument; but it was our patois he was interested in now. Its roots. He had discovered it was really the language of the religion of the witches of old, and all the dirty words in it was holy words. He said 'Baise mon tchou!' ['Kiss my ass'] was a royal salute. I had never thought of it that way, me.

posted by languagehat at 7:27 PM on February 28, 2008

Hats off to the hat!! This is profoundly awesome.
posted by scody at 7:34 PM on February 28, 2008

just ignore the disturbing subtext.

"The moment that he touched the hat the room began to glow
And as he put it down and ran the hat began to grow, and grow,
And grow, and grow, and grow, and grow, and grow, and grow,
And grow, and grow

He was stunned and he was fascinated, still he had to see
There was something deep inside the hat
What could that something be?
Then cautiously each step he took, he climbed up on the brim to look,
And all at once the hat began to shake, and rock, lookout!!"
posted by vronsky at 7:36 PM on February 28, 2008

Trust vronsky to send this thread to Lidsville.

And congrats to the hat for the best MetaFiltering piece of BlueSky I've ever heard on the GoodDog radio, you CubScouting SillyOldBear...
posted by wendell at 8:18 PM on February 28, 2008

That was great, although a little disappointing in not being supplemented with a string of spoken Russian cursing. The 'emotional shock' languaghat mentions works much better when you hear it I think.
posted by peacay at 8:26 PM on February 28, 2008

"My friends in 1830 would have done almost anything to get me out of a serious danger, but if I had gone out in a new set of clothes, they would have given twenty francs for someone to throw a glass of dirty water over me. Apart from Barral and Bigillion, I've only ever had, throughout my life, that sort of friend."
–Stendhal
posted by vronsky at 8:27 PM on February 28, 2008

I hope this comes across as the complement I intend it to be: your voice would sound great on a muppet, languagehat. Great interview and I can't wait to read the book.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:49 PM on February 28, 2008

Wonderful, congrats lh!

I actually noticed this first when I moved here from Saudi Arabia. Over there, most of the kids in school would throw around the word "Fuck You and Motherfucker" quite freely. These were kids who'd grown up on American Television and were more used to that kind of a lifestyle.

After moving here, to India, and using the word Motherfucker for the first time, I realized how serious a slur it is to insult someone's mother like that. It's not taken as a joke--at all--which is what I thought of it. So someone said Mothefucker--so what. But no--you say it, and you've got to pay the consequences, which usually involves the other guy getting in your face and asking you--what did you say--what did you say about my mother.

Scary stuff.
posted by hadjiboy at 9:06 PM on February 28, 2008

...which is why I prefer to use "muppetfucker"...
posted by wendell at 9:14 PM on February 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

The content is fantastic, but of course we're all totally blase about having access to the languagehat brilliance on a regular basis. What I'm enjoying is how modulated/animated languagehat's voice is - you sound really interested and interesting, which is so notable contrasted with the measured public-radio drone-tone.

Your interviewer asked good questions!
posted by Miko at 9:42 PM on February 28, 2008

Call me when you get on As It Happens.

I keed; actually, get Barbara *sigh* Budd to call me. Bravo, M. Chapeau de Lange!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:54 PM on February 28, 2008

Well, saying 'tabernacle' on the air ought to get a person noticed on the CBC, Alvy.

I agree, though; -- on As It Happens or FutureTense, that interview would've been twice as long. So go for the Canadianski media ops, lh!
posted by Miko at 9:56 PM on February 28, 2008

In a strange coincidence, I heard an interview on the radio this morning with a different man entirely on the subject of cursing.
posted by Tube at 10:54 PM on February 28, 2008

Well played, Mr. Dodson.

I hope you'll now turn your attention to swearing at baseball umpires... I look forward to an in-depth analysis of Weaver, Guillen, et al. in the future!
posted by F Mackenzie at 11:31 PM on February 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

there might have been if a certain MeFite had given me permission to use a certain classic MeFi insult in the book, but no dice

Are you saying shitcock is not in the book? Hmph. I won't buy it then.
posted by grouse at 11:39 PM on February 28, 2008

That was fucking great.

And I give you big props for mentioning Québécois, I mean, Colisse! I grew up not saying that!

! your voice would sound great on a muppet ! I gotta tell my wife that one. "Baby, your voice would sound great coming out of a muppet. No, but in a nice - OW - way - OWWww! What? Hey, put that down - Ouch! It's a compliment - seriously! Yowch! Hey, stop ow ow ow ow "
posted by From Bklyn at 12:57 AM on February 29, 2008

"Oh ... haven't you ever seen a monkey?"
He-he.

Congrats, LH - this is so cool. You sound great - just the right combination of erudite scholar and all round nice, fun guy! What a neat interview, I look forward to more!
posted by madamjujujive at 2:11 AM on February 29, 2008

Your interviewer asked good questions!

Yeah, I'm afraid I've been spoiled for future interviews (if they happen). I've heard enough dull, stupid interviews to know that even the most interesting interviewee can be made boring by a boring host, and with my tendency to babble and ramble I could easily have stunk up the airwaves. She asked great questions, and they did a great job boiling it down—the one thing I was really hoping would stay in was the bit about how swearing is inherently anti-authoritarian, and it did!

The 'emotional shock' languagehat mentions works much better when you hear it I think.

Yeah, but (as you might expect) the ground rules involved no cursing in English. I think I actually did curse a little in Russian (I know I did in Greek), but that was in the 80% that got cut from the final product.
posted by languagehat at 6:32 AM on February 29, 2008

My only question is where the fuckety-fucking-fuck was the MeFi callout? shoutout?

lanquagehat was followed by a segment about men scratching their genitals, so it was an overt reference.
posted by Heatwole at 6:40 AM on February 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

Most xlnt, word up, lh!
posted by Lynsey at 10:42 AM on February 29, 2008

your voice would sound great on a muppet, languagehat

That was my first thought as well. LH sounds nothing like I imagined, but the koskesh does sound very Kermitesque (and I love Kermit). Great interview and a very interesting topic. Well done, sir.
posted by Devils Slide at 11:25 AM on February 29, 2008

And in case you were wondering (LH already knows this, I'm sure), from the Urban Dictionary:

[kos= pussy + kesh=to pull or stretch, can also mean rubber band. So literally, pussy puller)

"It's Persian (Farsi) for pimp but it has taken another tone in a common vocabulary. It can be used to replace fucker, asshole, buddy, bro. It all depends of how you use it. It can be a friendly word or a very nasty one depending to the way it is used. It's as powerful as the word fucker.

example 1 :
hey koskesh, you were supposed to call me what happened?
example 2:
that koskesh will get what he deserves
example 3:
Don't do business with that koskesh, he would sell his own mom for a buck."
posted by Devils Slide at 11:35 AM on February 29, 2008

Very enjoyable interview.

In all my years of studying languages, what I remember is that our Italian teacher was willing to teach us swear words, but we really had to work to get our Russian teacher to tell us any.
posted by mogget at 11:48 AM on February 29, 2008

That's because Russians (the kind of educated, kulturny Russians who become teachers) think swearing is nekulturny, like drinking vodka and eating buckwheat groats. Italians, confident in their history, culture, and cuisine, don't have to pretend to an unnatural refinement.
posted by languagehat at 3:06 PM on February 29, 2008

My segment is about 20 minutes in; they boiled down almost an hour's worth of interview to six or seven minutes, and did it very well

It would be nice if The World did what NPR does in some cases -- post the entire uncut interview online; I'd like to to hear the rest of it. Any chance they might do that?
posted by beagle at 4:26 PM on February 29, 2008

Isn't that sweet? I don't have the heart to tell him Moses swore like a motherfucker in between writing Torah chapters.

With all respect, Dr. Bert Miller is a crusty, unimaginative git. Biblical Hebrew has a perfectly good curse word: zonah (זונה), meaning "whore." It's used in one of my favorite instances of biblical insult, from the (shockingly filthy) mouth of the inimitable Jeremiah:

Jer 2.20: "Indeed, long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your fetters and you said, 'I will not serve.' Indeed, upon every high hill and beneath each leafy tree, you bent over, a whore."

I'm sure that Dr. Miller can argue that this is simply a descriptive noun, but it's hard to avoid the sense that it's used here (and elsewhere) as an insult...a dirty one at that.
posted by felix betachat at 4:52 PM on February 29, 2008

Huh, interesting! My brother was just telling me a friend had given him a list of Spanish curse words and phrases in anticipation of his trip to Venezuela; I sent him a link to a site with a few more when I talked to him a little while ago.

Also wondering: Is there Yiddish in your book, languagehat?

And this: You sound nothing like I thought you might sound. I second the Muppet comment above!
posted by limeonaire at 6:32 PM on February 29, 2008

your voice would sound great on a muppet, languagehat

See, now, while the Hat has a very fine voice, I was slightly disappointed, because I'd always imagined that he sounded exactly like Tony Randall as the Brain Gremlin from Gremlins 2.
posted by flashboy at 7:11 PM on February 29, 2008

Cool. So, they aren't putting your name on the front but they're having you do promo work?
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:51 PM on February 29, 2008

I always figured languagehat would sound more like a white James Earl Jones.
posted by grouse at 2:43 AM on March 1, 2008

Also wondering: Is there Yiddish in your book, languagehat?

You bet! That chapter is all mine (the Western European section is mostly Vanderplank), and I'm quite proud of it. I even included a four-stage exchange of insults in which each party picks up a word from the other's insult and builds a new and better one on it.

So, they aren't putting your name on the front but they're having you do promo work?

Nobody's "having" me do anything; the book packager who hired me didn't even know about the interview until I told them. The radio host had seen a review of the book, thought it sounded interesting, and left a comment on my post about it ("How do I get in touch with Stephen Dodson? I'm interested in interviewing him about 'Uglier than a Monkey's Armpit'.") I contacted her, and the rest is history. I was surprised that they wanted to interview me about a book that wasn't out in the US until I realized that "The World" covers, duh, the world.

Also, the "they" who aren't putting my name on the front is the UK publisher; the "they" who hired me to write the book is the packager, from whom the publisher bought the right to publish the book in the UK.
posted by languagehat at 5:43 AM on March 1, 2008

that interview was tits, LH. mazel tov, and I hope it comes out on this side of the pond.
'mericans could use a good brushing up on our cursing. Mumping cunni's that we are.
posted by Busithoth at 10:39 AM on March 1, 2008

I even included a four-stage exchange of insults in which each party picks up a word from the other's insult and builds a new and better one on it.

Congratulations, lh. You just sold me a copy of your book.
posted by jason's_planet at 4:51 PM on March 1, 2008

Found a YouTube link to one of the funniest sketches Harry Enfield ever did: the film "Badfellas," "speacially ruined" for TV with all the swearing replaced. Ya muddy funsters!
posted by Abiezer at 10:50 PM on March 1, 2008

Thanks for posting this, SteveTheRed; I surely would have missed it otherwise.

languagehat sounds nothing like he did in my head... your voice would sound great on a muppet, languagehat.

Obviously, lh is wicked smart (as they say in Maine), but it never occurred to me (I swear) that he would sound so smart. Or so much like a muppet.

I always figured languagehat would sound more like a white James Earl Jones.

Funny, I always imagined the exact opposite. I guess I think that New Yorkers are all rushing around so much, trying to earn enough money to pay their ridiculous rents, and not get hit by cabs and such, that they don't have the time to have deep voices.

p.s. I love in the interview when he says, "I speak subject to correction." A terrific rule to live by.
posted by LeLiLo at 11:31 AM on March 3, 2008

MetaFilter: Subject to correction.
(or maybe that should be the tagline to lh's own blog; still I agree with lelilo)
posted by wendell at 11:40 AM on March 3, 2008