Entry #4 -- Warren swear words

Cursing in the Warren home has always been...a curse. In other words, you can't. The rules have always been if Dad uses the words, we are free to use them, thereby putting all the pressure on him, not on us. However, in his concern for us learning how to express ourselves in times of stress, he taught us a few things.

1) If you hit your thumb with a hammer, stub your toe on a chair, bang your knee on a corner, hit your forehead on a counter, in other words, cause pain to any part of your body, we were taught to say "Interesting." It's very satisfying. Go try hitting your thumb on a hammer, and say "Interesting." You'll feel SO much better.

2) This one is a favorite of ours, because it can be used to express any number of emotions: "Flim flam the doo-dad!" It's versatile (you can use it when you're angry, surprised, scared, etc.), it has four words so you can draw out the exclamation, you can say it softly under your breath (as in "flim flam the doo-dad...") or you can shout it out loud (as in "FLIM---FLAM---THE---DOO-DAD!") This invaluable phrase has kept all of us out of trouble for years. No one knows how the phrase came into being, but we'd all have some soapy mouths without it.

Stay tuned for more entries from the Warren Dictionary!