John : Good stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed the piece. I'm still laughing. I guess words like these are so much a part of contemporary urban American culture that they are considered only to be borderline profanity. Also, I suppose there is often more sarcasm than offence intented with some of these words - especially words like bit$% and bast@$#. But yes, those are certainly words that you don't use in polite company. As for a bunch of loud mouth New Yorkers of the type you describe, I don't think they could be, or would want to be considered "polite company". LOL PS: Accoring to Google the French for FU is (A) va te faire foutre and (B) encule ...he he (don't mind hai, couldn't resist!) And I wonder if the French say pardon my English when they use these words :) Have a good one and keep writing!