Roderick Fraser Calls [Barnyard Epithet]

We understand why newspapers don’t use profanity in their stories. In theory, kids may separate themselves from Facebook long enough to read a story, and would read all sorts of unsavory language they certainly never learned from watching late-night FX programing.

But in today’s story about bodybuilding “disabled” firefighter Albert Arroyo, the Globe used a euphemism that even escaped our pre-caffeinated brains.

[Boston fire commissioner Roderick] Fraser said Arroyo told him that his bodybuilding helps ease his back pain – a claim that Fraser dismissed with a barnyard epithet.

“Barnyard epithet”? All we could imagine were the northeastern cousins of those annoyingly chipper cows in the California cheese commercials, who wouldn’t hesitate to curse another cow out for cutting him off in the stampede to the troth.

But, after a moment, we realized Fraser was calling bullshit on Arroyo’s claim that bodybuilding helped his injured back, which his disability report said, “totally and permanently disabled” him. When the department found out about his physically demanding hobby, it took him off tax-free injury leave and moved him to taxable sick leave.

Which is a shame for Arroyo. Now he’ll have to buy all his banana hammocks on clearance.

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