A damn interesting piece (see what I did there?). I swear like a trooper in life, but I am very sparing with cuss words in my writing. I wrote an article about swearing in the cinema, and in it I covered the period in the eary 1970s, when rules on cinematic swearing were relaxed.

Some went at these new freedoms over-zealously, peppering dialogue with cuss words as in the 1974 film, The Taking of Pelham 123, during which one character utters the triple-whammy sh** pi** fu** as one word. It came across as a blatant insertion to demonstrate new linguistic freedoms.

Profanity does have a place, and sometimes a lot is necessary for authenticity. But I tend to keep written swearing down to a minimum, in contrast to my potty-mouthed self away from the keyboard.