Central New York Is Big On 'Safe Profanity'

My high school basketball coach, Jim Smith, used to shout out "Son of a biscuit" when he was mad at the team. Most of us do something similar, maybe to protect a child's ears or, in our case, to ensure we don't incur a fine by the FCC on Beth & Dave for blurting out a profanity on the air.

We put it out there on Facebook and got a TON of responses to this question: What's your favorite "safe profanity" or "kiddie cuss"? It turns out that folks in Central New York and beyond have a lot of go-to words and phrases. Here's a sampling, and in the interest of exclamation point overload, you can just imagine the loud punctuation at the end of each of these:

-Beth: "Peanut butter and jelly" and "Shut the front door."

-Sharon Striegler: "God Bless America."

-Megan Coleman: "Fuzzlesticks."

-Scott McNamara (Oneida County D.A.): "Fiddlesticks."

-Jay Dickenson: "Cheese and rice."

-Don McPherson (former star Syracuse QB): Coach Mac used to say "God Bless America and all the ships at sea."

-Coleen Pepe: "Sugar jets." (Coleen, who is a great chef, probably uses that in the kitchen while making desserts.)

-Gary Johnson: "Mother Father Chinese Dentist." (The Sylvan Beach musician explains that one with a clip of a great sketch from The Mr. Show.)

-Emily Dain: "Rooster lollipop." (This one requires a little thought and it's pretty naughty.)

-Joe Marino (the Utica common councilman): "Jesus Christmas."

-Bruce Schaffner: "Perry Russelhunter." (Huh?)

If you have any other suggestions, fire a-freakin'-way.