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No B.S.

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Topic:	1) No B.S. (1 of 5), Read 153 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Barbara Wallraff ([email protected])
Date:	Wednesday, September 29, 1999 06:05 PM

Marion Greenman, of Riverside, Ill., writes: "I'm a 76-year-old widow, who would like to see some good substitutes for the offensive words now used by the young generation. They would have to be words with the same dramatic strength, impact, and expression. For example, I will on occasion use the initials B.S., but I just don't want to use those words. Then, I may just say that something is a lot of garbage."

A good alternative for b.s. is dreck.

I suggest "frass" for B. S. (which I take not to mean Bachelor of Science). Frass is insect excrement, but carries none of the baggage of the Anglo-Saxon term. Further, it is monosyllabic, satisfyingly sibilant, and unknown to the vast majority. Ten-year-olds will think it naughty when described as "bug poop." There is always the serviceable and likewise monosyllabic and emphatic "scat," again a biological term for animal, particularly mammal and reptile, droppings. Thus "B. S." can be interpreted as "Bear Scat!" or (highly pungent) "Boar Scat!" Or of course, "Bull Scat!"

Topic:	No B. S. (2 of 3), Read 32 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Doyle Hodges ([email protected])
Date:	Thursday, November 04, 1999 05:57 PM

I myself prefer "balderdash" because it is so much fun to say. Of course, it sounds silly enough, that I usually revert to "B.S." (or its non-acronym equivalent) when actually upset about something.

-Doyle Hodges

BS is also known as bovine excrement. So-o-o, my vote for the word is: bovex.

My wife's grandmother, who was born in 1900 and died in 1977 used to say "Bullsh" It raises eyebrows.

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Topic:	b.s. (1 of 1), Read 44 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Rich Rifkin ([email protected])
Date:	Monday, October 11, 1999 11:26 PM

Topic:	No B. S. (1 of 3), Read 72 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Judith Buhrman ([email protected])
Date:	Tuesday, October 12, 1999 04:16 PM

Topic:	BS (1 of 1), Read 39 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Bill Nussbaum ([email protected])
Date:	Thursday, October 21, 1999 09:42 PM

Topic:	No B. S. (1 of 1), Read 16 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Michael Pawlukiewicz ([email protected])
Date:	Friday, November 12, 1999 12:01 PM