Dropping the S*Bomb

UNC basketball coach Roy Williams made big news last week after dropping the dreaded f*bomb on live radio. Fortunately, it was after 10 p.m. and my kids were sound asleep. But earlier tonight, I wasn't so lucky.

As the Ravenscroft girls' basketball team played in the state semifinals, LJ and I were following the game on Twitter. I was also texting a friend frequent updates at her request. Late in the game, the Ravens' lead slowly slipped away ... but I kept sending my friend updates.

And as LJ carefully monitored the Twitter feed on my iPhone, I suddenly got buzzed with a new text message, which popped up on my screen in plain view.

It was just one word, but it was a doozy: SH*T.

(And just to be clear, it didn't say SHUT. Or SHOT).

I let out a shriek and quickly covered the text message with my hand. But my reaction piqued LJ's curiosity.

"Mom, what was that buzz? Why did your phone do that and what are you hiding?"

"It's a bad word," I said. "A really bad one I don't want you to see."

He forgot about it momentarily and we went back to following the game on Twitter. But as I switched to text my friend another update, the message thread was still visible ... and so was SH*T.

"Oh, I know that word," said LJ.

"You do? Where did you learn it? That's a pretty bad one," I said.

"I heard it in the movie Marley & Me," he said.

"Yes, I guess it was in there," I said. "I forgot about that."

"Mom, can I just say it once?"

"No."

"Please, I'll just whisper it to you to see if I'm right."

"Okay, whisper it."

And he did -- correct pronunciation and all.

"Now don't ever say that word again. If you ever said that at school, you would get in so much trouble!" I said.

"Don't worry, I won't," he reassured me. "But, Mom, I thought that word was spelled with two Ts."

"No," I said, "It's just one T."

It's ironic because grammarians insist that texting and instant messaging is terrible for our youth from an educational standpoint ... all those abbreviations and misspelled words are causing an erosion of the English language.

Well, that may be true to some extent. But when it comes to teaching kids the correct spelling of SH*T, I for one think texting is the bomb.