Baithak World Jun 15: Joe Henry, Most Devastating Insults, News & Views, Real News

I dug in. The first things I wrote of my own were fragments. I called them poems because they occupied so little of the page when I typed them up, and I spaced them in imitation of William Carlos Williams, but I always believed that what I was doing was courting songs. If these images weren't yet musical in tone, the impetus behind them certainly was. I wasn't looking to impose a sonic form onto these early sketches as much as I was waiting for one of my characters to one day just . . . sing. Fellini had said, "I create a character and then find out what he has to tell me," and that seemed a religious idea to me, one that acknowledged something inherently mysterious at the heart of the process. Music's literary side - Joe Henry

A responsible traveler won't set foot in another country without knowing how to viciously insult the people in their native language. Odds are, you won't even make it out of the airport before a situation arises that requires obscenities. But "obscenity" is an ever-moving target. It's an amalgamation of cultural taboos, the impact of current events and your mom. Accordingly, every country has developed a uniquely beautiful set of curses and insults that set it apart. While some insults are broadly accessible, like your mom, others will require a little background for the new student. Thus, we offer this helpful guide to the best and most vulgar (and very real) insults from around the world: The 9 Most Devastating Insults From Around the World

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