Guest columns
Bombs away
Remember Mrs. Kintner? Very few people do. In case you forgot or do not recognize this nondescript name, she was the mother in the movie “Jaws” whose child was devoured by the “star” of Stephen Spielberg’s 1975 classic. After a shark had been spotted at a beach and all the bathers scampered back to the shoreline, it was her son who didn’t return unscathed. Later she would publicly slap Chief Brodie (Roy Schneider) across the face for not having the conviction to prohibit swimming when a previous death was attributed to a great white.
Kinter’s role, as an Everywoman mother, was portrayed by Lee Fierro, a professional actress who left New York wanting to raise her children in a somewhat bucolic setting such as Martha’s Vineyard, where the movie was filmed and where she resided.
When first approached for the role, she bristled at the obscenities she was expected to articulate. The powers-that-be on the movie set caved in, and she bespoke of her primal anger amidst terrible sorrow against the police chief without cussing. She stuck to her guns and still earned the role.
I mention this here because the new episodes of “Ted Lasso” contain more F-bombs than ever before, thus making these otherwise enjoyable episodes off-limits (by most adult standards) for their children. Too bad the actors / actresses did not have the courage to speak up to the foul-mouthed writers.
Larry David’s miniseries “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness,” streaming on HBO, with its comedic, historic twists depicting scenes in American history, would be a delight for high-school American history teachers to use in their classrooms, had the language been cleaned up of its occasional profanities. I’m not sure if even any of the 15-minute long sketches are devoid of obscenities.
Shocking, as in totally shocking, was the interrogative directed at the august Dr. Anthony Fauci in the hallowed senate chambers on July 29 by Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of my wife’s home state of Ohio: “Who the f--- do you think you are?” My wife’s analysis of this was the best: Tony Fauci should have merely replied, “Would your mother approve of such language?”
I’m told by those well-versed in religion and theology that there’s nothing inherently wrong with obscenities per se, but their usage invariably leads to disrespect for the Creator’s name, which in no uncertain terms is referenced in the Old and New Testaments as offensive. The slippery slope from profanities about bodily functions inevitably leads to usage of His/Her name, as they say, “in vain.”
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