tamarind seeds & bust magazine & soft language

I have to confess that I'm not very familiar with George Carlin's work and I'm not all that big on scatological humor, but I remember reading one particular quote of his awhile back that stuck with me for a long time. And thanks to this wonderful creation, this internets, this series of tubes, with a simple search of "soft language," I've rediscovered the quote:

"I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation."

Entirely unrelated, I bought some tamarind pods yesterday to use in a Thai-ish concoction for dinner and was so taken with the seeds that I decided to plant some and see what happens. I didn't realize that tamarind trees were quite so big, though (eighty feet or more) and am having doubts about the potential for a windowsill-sized bonsai tamarind. But what the hell. If it actually sprouts, I have plenty of friends doing that whole scary crazy adult house-buying thing, some even with yards and perhaps space enough for a tree. A really, really big tree.

Also, Bust magazine discovered the Barnard Library Zine Collection recently.