Writing about advertising guru George Parkers preferred pronominal profanities got me thinking about my own. I have to say Im partial to wanker in the British colloquial sense of the word, which has little to do with a persons propensity for actual genital manipulation, though it can be used to describe socially masturbatory behavior.
The reason I love this word so much is that its use is surprisingly subtle. In the UK, you can call your best friend a wanker and itll be taken as a term of endearment, or you can call your worst enemy one, in which case whats conveyed is entirely different. Its one of those limber words thats transformed by context and tone.
Fortunately, my fellow Brits are innately attuned to the unspoken nuances attached to such verbiage and almost unfailingly understand precisely in which way its been used and, more importantly, whether theyve been insulted or not. Sadly, having realized the hard way that this skill is not encoded in the DNA of many people I encounter on this side of the Atlantic, Ive had to retire the word from my common vernacular to avoid further confused looks, embarrassing silences, and spectacularly awkward moments.
Anyway, just saying. Carry onyou wankers.
The reason I love this word so much is that its use is surprisingly subtle. In the UK, you can call your best friend a wanker and itll be taken as a term of endearment, or you can call your worst enemy one, in which case whats conveyed is entirely different. Its one of those limber words thats transformed by context and tone.
Fortunately, my fellow Brits are innately attuned to the unspoken nuances attached to such verbiage and almost unfailingly understand precisely in which way its been used and, more importantly, whether theyve been insulted or not. Sadly, having realized the hard way that this skill is not encoded in the DNA of many people I encounter on this side of the Atlantic, Ive had to retire the word from my common vernacular to avoid further confused looks, embarrassing silences, and spectacularly awkward moments.
Anyway, just saying. Carry onyou wankers.
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
let's review where I am at in the game here.
Does @beatsbyDre support union efforts in the shops that make his headphones and is his reluctance to use his powerful political voice within overseas marketing an indication of support for the anti-LGBT extremist forces in Africa related to the introduction of North American youth gang violence culture into that continent's political spectrum?
My emergency phone is broken. I have to buy out my full 3 year term because the electrical port malfunctioned before the expiry date but beyond the warranty. Why should I support domestic IT if the pricing on local phones is so unfair?
I am acting in an on-air advisory role for a local wrestling promotion. A competing promotion is using non-union labour from an unlabelled smoking/bong/bath salts supply shop and I might be killed on this one.
Advice?
Let me return the favour by sending you an item from a story I am currently on...
I'm working on the continuance of this story for Nicole Powers, Editor-In-Chief of SuicideGirls.com
Any leads?
The CIA was called in to help investigate the murder of an MI6 spy last night as it emerged he was sent on frequent secret missions to the United States.
American intelligence officers are poring over every detail of Gareth Williams's work and personal life to see if the circumstances of his death endangered U.S. national security.
The Daily Mail can reveal that the 31-year-old codebreaker flew to the National Security Agency, the Pentagon's listening post and the largest intelligence agency in the world, up to four times a year. He returned from his last trip to America only a few weeks before he was found dead.
Questions also remain over why his body lay undiscovered for up to a fortnight at his400,000 flat in a Victorian townhouse in Pimlico, central London, half a mile from MI6 headquarters.
Mr Williams worked at the Government's listening post, GCHQ in Cheltenham, but had been on secondment to MI6 for the past year and was due to return to GCHQ next Friday.
The body of the keen cyclist was found in a sports holdall in the bath on Monday afternoon.
But yesterday his former landlady in Cheltenham insisted he had not been off work, intensifying the mystery surrounding his death.
Security sources could not explain why some one holding such a sensitive post was able to go 'missing' for such a long time before police were called.
Officers were last night examining the hard drive of a laptop computer found
in the flat.
Landlady Jenny Elliott said: 'He definitely wasn't on annual leave as the security services woman who came to see me after they found his body told me that he wasn't on holiday.
'Why did no one notice? It's disgraceful the police weren't alerted earlier that he was missing. His murder is devastating and I just hope the person who did it is caught.
Mrs Elliott, 71, who rented Mr Williams a self-contained flat attached to her home in Cheltenham, said he would often travel to America for weeks at a time three or four times a year either with a male colleague or on his own.
National Security Agency: The largest intelligence agency in the world, bases at Fort Meade, Maryland. It is understood that Gareth Williams visited the facility up to four times a year
His uncle, who lives in Anglesey, North Wales, where Mr Williams grew up, said: 'He'd been making the trips for a couple of years.
'I only found this out very recently and I do not know where in America he was staying or who he was working for out there, but I do know it was in relation to his job.
'His last trip was this summer. He returned from the States just a couple of weeks or so before he died.'
A U.S. intelligence source said there was 'no panic' yet within the National
Security Agency and people who knew Mr Williams were still to be questioned.
The source said: 'The strong implication is that his death is not connected
to his intelligence work, though this could change at any time. They are understandably concerned about what has happened and are keeping a close eye on developments.'
Mr Williams's devastated parents Ian and Ellen have faced speculation over their son's private life.
It has been reported that Mr Williams, who lived alone and did not have a partner,
was a gay cross dresser and may have been killed by a gay lover.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1306549/CIA-probes-British-spy-murder-frequent-missions-Pentagons-high-security-listening-post.html#ixzz1zKSvZQQK