It's funny how language changes over the years, how some words go from innocuous to slightly naughty or vice versa.

I'm reminded of the old story from about a hundred years ago, when a father called his son in to talk about language.

<em>"Son, there are two words I want you never to use."</em>

<em>"What are they?"</em>

<em>"They're lousy and swell."</em>

<em>"Fine, what are they?"</em>

When I was a kid, the word "gay" meant happy. As I have aged, it has come to mean a different kind of happy.

[caption id="attachment_352" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Scouts in Bondage"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/slide_6355_84396_large.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-352" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/slide_6355_84396_large-300x218.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="218" /></a>[/caption]

I was reading <a title="Huffington Post" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/26/the-funniest-unintentiona_n_551567.html" target="_self">Huffington Post</a> the other day when I saw a fascinating humor piece about the 11 unintentionally funniest sex titles. Of course nearly all of them are older books, and the one called "Drummer Dick's Discharge" looks like it might be close to a hundred years old.

Another uses the word "boner" in its older meaning as a mistake or a joke, and yet another plays off what used to be a fairly common name for cats.

As for the one pictured here, I have no idea what the meaning of "bondage" was that could have worked in a regular story about boy scouts. All I can say is, during my days as an assistant scoutmaster for my Eagle Scout son, there was never anything remotely resembling bondage.

Hey, I'm a 60-year-old straight white guy, and even though I've got a pretty good sense of humor, it took me a while to catch on to words like "bad" and "phat."

It's like somebody told me back in 1970. Hip expressions usually start in the black community, then move to white college kids. Eventually white high school kids start using them and then they make their final pilgrimage to use by rednecks.

That's why 30 years after I first heard the expression, "Right on," it was huge in the redneck community.

That seems both swell and lousy to me.