When I read in my local newspaper that, during a speech in Western Pennsylvania on October 19, Donald Trump called Kamala Harris “a s— vice president,” I had one question and one question only:
Did he use a “y”?
“Couch-fucker”
To be fair, the original joke, published on X (formerly Twitter) on July 15, 2024, did not label U.S. Senator and vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, Republican of Ohio, a “couch-fucker.” That came later.
What kind of “fuckery” is this?
If there’s one place you’ll find fuckery, it’s in a fuckery. In fact, you’d probably find all sorts of fuckery in a fuckery, including:
—treachery, ill treatment or behaviour
—nonsense, foolishness, bullshit
—something causing frustration
—sexual activity.
That’s some polysemous fuckery. And the fuckery you’ll find it in, if you’re still with me, is a brothel.
Pope Francis said a rude thing
I, for one, didn’t think we’d ever be writing about Pope Francis on Strong Language, but the world is full of wonders. Readers of The New York Times have been informed today that “Pope Apologizes After Reports That He Used an Anti-Gay Slur.” The Gray Lady (specifically Elisabetta Povelodo, reporting from Rome) has even deigned to repeat what the slur was… in Italian. Not to worry; they have… not translated it, just given a sort of description:
Francis had been taking questions from the bishops at their annual assembly when the question of whether to admit openly gay men into seminaries, or priesthood colleges, came up.
According to several people present at the meeting, who spoke anonymously to Italian news outlets, Francis stated a firm no, saying that seminaries were already too full of “frociaggine,” an offensive Italian slang term referring to gay men.
Not sure exactly how the term would be translated? The Daily Mirror is here to help, with its headline blaring “Pope Francis shocks bishops by allegedly saying gay men should not be admitted to church seminaries because ‘there’s already too much f*****ry’.” Elena Salvoni’s article explains,
Continue readingItalian news agency Adnkronos, citing sources, reported that the Pope said in the speech: ‘Look: there is already an air of f*****ry around that is not good. There is today’s culture of homosexuality with respect to those who have a homosexual orientation [who] are better off not being accepted [into the seminary].’
The remark was met with ‘incredulous laughter’, bishops told newspaper Corriere della Sera. Some suggested that it was an honest mistake by the Pope, for whom Italian is a second language, and that he ‘did not know’ how offensive the word was.
Sick fuckin’ bag, dude
My friend Ander Opmeer, who lives near Rotterdam, happened to see a bag for sale in the train station and, knowing I like strong language, bought it for me:
It says, in the colours of Rotterdam, SJOUW ME DE TERING. That’s a turn of phrase particular to Rotterdam; it translates idiomatically to something like “Fuck, this is heavy” or “Working my ass off.” But that’s not what it means literally.
To find out what it means literally, you have to translate it word by word, because if you just drop it into Google Translate you’ll get “Screw me,” which, again, is not literal. My Dutch is a bit uneven, and I at first thought it literally meant “Show me tuberculosis.” But no. I made two mistakes.
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