BARACK OBAMA

The F-word.

Stonn scolded me for using the word 'fuck' too much in my writing. He also didn't agree with my politics but if you'll notice, I mostly drop f-bombs in my political rants.

But he's right.

It takes skill as a writer to create the same uh, whatever that simply using the word fuck would accomplish. It also takes skill to write a sex scene without including any actual fucking. I mean...

BTW--I stopped by Lawrence "Stonn" Montaigne's table at the Las Vegas Star Trek convention and gave him one of my cards last year. He remembered me this year and after chastising me for saying that word too much, he heaped upon me great praise for my talent as a writer. It was unexpected and very, very kind of him.

More "Prodigal Soul" this weekend. I swear. Or not.

*Ha! I love when the word verification actually means something. It is apropos of this post : FuMofo*

But What If It's Funny...

James Hannaham rings his hands over at Salon about why there is no outrage at Robert Downey, Jr.'s playing a black man in "Tropic Thunder".

Black folks can take a joke. Seriously, we can. African-Americans have a sense of humor, an ability to think critically--and a vast capacity for forgivness. I'm all down for the cause and everything but I can laugh at a racist joke, if the shit is funny.

It's all about context and delivery and source.

I sat in a theater full of black people watching "Tropic Thunder" and we laughed our asses off every time RDJ opened his mouth. Because he isn't playing a black man. He's a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude.

I just spit out my coffee thinking about "It ain't nuthin' but a thang." For the rest of the year, my friends and I will be waiting for opportuinties to use that as a ridiculous non-sequitur in work meetings.

Critics nervously over-praised the execution of the blackface while black people just shrugged and laughed. We got the joke. We don't need anyone to be outraged on our behalf. Not this time.

Is it confusing for white people what will offend? Maybe. Sometimes you people get it right, mostly you people don't.

"What do you mean by "you people"?"

BAWHAHAHAHA!

It's a black thing. You can't understand.

The Next Time you Think You Can't Do Something...

This.