Rip Van Winkle

I was listening to a fascinating radio discussion yesterday on KQED. It was an interview with a guy named Robert Macneil who just wrote a book called "Do You Speak American?" The book is basically the hard-cover version of the original TV documentary and web-site he made for PBS. I didn't see the TV series but the web-site there has a lot of interesting stuff on it, including a list of "Beastly Mispronunciations." Be sure to read his commentary on how not to say the word "nuclear".

Anyway, what really caught my ear, and what terrifies me on so many levels, was an off-hand comment about Dick Cheney using the f-word on the floor of the Senate. I almost ran the car off the road - he said what!??! The Vice-President of the United States of America? Using the f word in the Senate? Where am I? I feel like I fell asleep and woke up in another world or something - swearing in the Senate?! Every debate I've listened to from the Senate has always been overly polite and courteous, to the point of being annoying. Anyways, I looked it up, and sure enough it did happen last year, although, according to this web-site,

"According to Senate rules, profanity is not permitted in the chamber. But when the exchange occurred between Leahy and Cheney, the Senate was not in session so there was technically no foul."

So, I guess he got off on a technicality. But still, that's nuts. I know everyone has a bad day, and everybody says things now and then that they later regret. But I found myself wondering what would have happened if a senior Democrat had been the one to use the f word. I imagine the moral outrage from the Right would have been overwhelming. But because it was Republican it was just a small blip in the news. Bizarre.

Now, what else have I missed?