bad mynah bird

we don't use a lot of bad language, but occassionally something slips out. pooka ends up hearing more from tv than we would like, plus we can't control the language she hears when we're out in public.

with pooka's uncanny ability to repeat things after hearing them one time, we're amazingly fortunate that she hasn't taken to using curse words and other bad language. so it was only mildly surprising when she slipped up recently. it was also highly amusing, although we can't let her know that.

item #1
awhile back, gamma, grandpa lou, and kisu were watching the barbaro movie. gamma was expressing much sympathy for the animal with lots of "aww's".

pooka didn't feel any compassion, apparently, and told her, "it's just a horse, gamma".

this went on for several minutes until pooka could take no more. "gamma, it's just a frickin' horse!"

item #2
tonight at dinner, pooka was having some trouble getting the food onto her fork. after several attempts her frustration was mounting and she let out, "what the hell?"

after verifying her exact words, i let her know that they were not appropriate and offered some alternatives: "what the heck?" "what the hey?" and "what the heeby-jeeby?"

this produced gales of laughter and hopefully got the point across without imbuing the bad language with any kind of forbidden appeal.