Sixty years ago in Indiana, a worker in a glove factory was fired for swearing. Her offense consisted of "disrespectful references to the ancestry of an inanimate piece of machinery," the Chicago Tribune reported.

My guess is a lot of us have stubbed our toes on machinery from similarly illegitimate stock.

But a trial examiner for the National Labor Relations Board reinstated her because such cussing, he said, was a lost art. "Time was when even the use of such 'swear words' devoid of blasphemous intent or meaning had a proper and respected place in our language," he said. But by 1949, alas, "the words are remembered but the music has been lost."

Somewhere between then and now, we got rhythm.

Or consider this item, also from the Chicago Tribune but from 1951, about a code of ethics to which performers were told to abide while appearing on WGN-TV. "If you cannot be funny without routines with sexual connotations, you cannot be funny on WGN-TV," it said in part.

Today, most comedians would have to do mime acts to comply. But even that would present problems, as the code also forbade "visual innuendos" such as "hand curving" and "indications of body conformation."

We smile at the innocence of that age, of course. It is interesting, however, to ponder how these days, the only time language seems to make news is when it is clean. Which is why young McKay Hatch has become such a sensation.

A 15-year-old high school student in South Pasadena, Calif., Hatch rocked his world when he formed a "No Cussing Club" and started handing out T-shirts promoting the cause. If you've been anywhere near a middle school or high school lately, you'll understand how this was like putting a giant "beat me up" sign around his neck. Yes, the club now boasts 30,000 members worldwide. Yes, Hatch has been on the Jay Leno show and many other television programs, including Dr. Phil. Yes, he got his city council to declare the city a "no cursing zone." And yes, he has written a book and started a Web site to promote the cause.

But he also has received death threats and was cussed at "50 to 100 times" during a sign-up event at his school. Which turned out to be an eloquent answer to questions about why all of this matters.

Words become taboo because they turn goodness on its head. They take something intimate and sacred and make it profane, or they are hurled in an effort to denigrate or belittle. In their most mindless and nonsensical uses, they stand in the way of clear thinking or simply minimize the person who uses them. But they never uplift. Virtually every language has developed such words and placed social restrictions on them. The danger comes when a culture begins to remove those restrictions.