[PW] Plut and Shazbat! - TANJ!

[Laurence, Xan]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: project-wombat-open-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org 
> [mailto:project-wombat-open-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] 
> On Behalf Of Dennis Lien
> Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 9:47 AM
> To: list at project-wombat.org
> Subject: Re: [PW] Plut and Shazbat! - TANJ!
> 
> 
> At 11:00 PM 4/30/2008, you wrote:
> >My favourite made-up expletive is TANJ! - used in Larry 
> Niven and Jerry
> >Pournelle's Ringworld series of Sci-Fi novels. It's an acronym for
> >"There Ain't No Justice!".
> 
> 
> Marvel Comics used to have such tough-guy characters as Luke Cage,
> Hero for Hire "swear" by shouting "Spit!" and describing things
> as "freakin' ."
> 
> My favorite personal expletive substitute is "squid and petunias!"
> Doesn't mean anything in particular, but certainly *sounds* as though
> it ought to do so.
> 
> Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu 
> 

Back in the late 80s, a member of  a creative writing class that I
attended wrote a SF short story (which was later published in an L. Ron
Hubbard "Writers of the Future" anthology) for which he coined the word
"drang". In describing the dedication of a platoon of space soldiers to
their squad leader, the narrator says something like, "When he say
'Drang!' we say, 'How deep?'" Since "drang" sounds like a mash-up of
"dreck" and "dang", it works for me as a substitute swearword, at least
in my internal monologue; I don't think I've ever said it out loud in
anyone's presence, because no one would recognize it and it would just
sound weird. But I'd be happy to start a fashion if other people want to
pick it up...

Xan Laurence
Associate Librarian
Cataloging and Bibliographic Management
Hennepin County Library -- Suburban
xlaurence at hclib.org