It's one of our more questionable rites of passage as we grow into adolescence and early adulthood.

Suddenly it's cool to curse.

I know I'm the only one who went through this rite of passage as a teenager. I admit it. I didn't just sow wild oats. I planted a prairie. And that prairie was planted partly by words that my Appalachian gramma would wash my mouth out with soap for saying.

Those same swear words that as a child caused me to gasp - and when my brothers would use them, I'd get the culprit into big trouble - suddenly are now on yours and your friend's lips. Why is it just as our reading, comprehension, and vocabulary are at their greatest rate of growth, the words we choose to use with most frequency all shrink to four letters?

That said, let me go on to get cranky. Can anyone deny t…