By Tim Richardson
Following on from my last blog about
pain-related swearing I’m embarrassed to report that I have had some
feedback from my peers.
It seems stubbing my own toes and seeing whether uttering
‘tranche’ and then an Anglo Saxon expletive to help dampen the pain is not
scientific enough. My peers have reminded me that I need to redo the test
multiple times to see if swearing really does help mitigate pain. Otherwise, it’s just hokum science.
Silly me. Of course, they’re right. D’oh! Maybe using
toe-stubbing isn’t the best part of my body on which to experiment. Or perhaps
‘tranche’ is too Gallic to count as a placebo swear word. F***!! What was I
thinking?
Right. So now, I have my implements laid out in front of me.
A hammer. Two thumbs. A card saying ‘Winston Churchill’ (they can’t hurl that
Gallic abuse at me for that) and another saying ‘C***’.
Right, here goes on my left thumb. Thwack!
“WinstonChurchillWinstonChurchillWinstonChurchillWinstonChurchill…
Do you know what, he may be one of the greatest figures in
British history of the twentieth century but I have to say, it still really
f***ing hurts…
Now the right thumb…
C***C***C***C***C***C***C***C***oh f***ingc***c***
Nope. You know what…it still f***ing hurts.
