Blog 3429 – 03.24.2025

Diamonds In The Rough

We are, each and all of us, diamonds in the rough, and chips off the ole block as it were. The English language, especially as spoken in “the colonies” is full and overflowing with colloquialisms. The dictionary defines colloquial as:

A fancy way to say “plain speech.” The Bible, a book or collection of books written by many individuals over a long period of time most if not all of which began as oral traditions passed down for generations before being written down long after the facts they attempt to depict uses a lot of colloquial terms. One of earliest translations from the original Hebrew and Greek into Latin was called The Vulgate because it was the common tongue. Vulgate is from the same Latin word that comes down to us in English as vulgar. Vulgar is a word we most often use associated with “gutter talk” or “locker room talk” but its original meaning is just plain or common speech as contrasted with formal or educated language ,“big words”, “S.AT. words.

My college degree, which I never finished except for a bogus distance learning one through the sham Kennedy-Western University one that like a diploma from Trump University was not worth the paper it was printed on, was a Bachelor of Science degree (appropriately abbreviated B.S. degree.)The difference between a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Arts degree is that the B.S. degree did not require a minor (four semesters worth of completed course work) in a foreign language. I did however have a minor in Latin in high school and also a minor in Journalism. I also had French classes for two years in Elementary school.

As an aside, people often use the phrase or used to, “Pardon my French” when they use one or more of the once seven “dirty” words you were not allowed to use on TV. All seven were thought to be course, vulgar, gutter or locker room talk. Today the only place you might not hear those words and often is perhaps Sunday School and I guarantee you that P.K.’s (Preacher’s Kids) are quite fluent in all seven.

Diamonds in the rough indeed. Rough talk may be offensive to “snowflakes” and some Republicans but even they have become quite devoted fans of a President that makes even long time most vulgar talking President Harry Truman seem like a choir boy in comparison.

We had an expression when I was a boy, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” As important as choosing the right words is, being understood and recognized for Who and Whose we are is even more so.

Your friend, fellow traveler, and fellow diamond in the rough,

David James White