February 4, 2005

Expletives Deleted

By THOMAS BARTLETT

Timothy B. Jay is an expert on cursing. Mr. Jay, a professor of psycholinguistics and cognition at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, has written four books on the topic, including Why We Curse: A Neuro-Psycho-Social Theory of Speech. He is working on a book about cursing's evolution.

Q. So last weekend I was installing one of those under-the-sink water filters in my kitchen. In the process of doing this, I had to drill a couple of holes. The end of the drill gets really hot