Am I allowed to say "Coochie?"

I remember an entertainer named Charo whose schtick was to yell "Coochie, Coochie!" and then shimmy. She was much beloved of Johnny Carson and Jay & Dave, but I never understood the allure. Yet, there was something wonderfully flamboyantly outrageous about Charo that I had to admire. So, last night when I went to a Poetry Slam and one of the feature poets entertained us with what she called her "Coochie Poem" I was pretty sure I was in for something a little different. To her credit, she did warn the parents that they might want to leave the room, but I was there with some students and pretty sure I could handle any crazy poem this Poetess could dish out about Vaginas. I think the subtitle to her poem was 1000 ways to say, "Coochie." Who knew? And why would you want to? She said words that made my eyes pop out of my head. (Words that I was brought up thinking should require a bar of soap after you say them.) I suppose some of them were funny and I guess the idea is to take away the stigma that euphemisms and slang carry, but I think I could go through my life just calling it Australia (you know, for Down Under). It made me wonder if I am in a serious generation gap....or a Mormon gap....or something else. What do you think?

People are Funny

I love this picture and I hope you do too. The audacity of people just tickles me and I couldn't pass up this photo op with "Big Hairy Guy from Hawaii." He wasn't complicit in the photo; my sister, Laura, was my accomplice, but I like to think that his bravado in going shirtless was really an invitation for me to pose with him. I am thinking of creating a coffeetable book called People I Think Are Weird.