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Asshole.

In her most recent column, Miss Manners comes through with useful advice for the harried 21st century human. Quel surprise! a reader shares this little discovery:

"A friend revealed that ... after being in a one-hour loop of voice-recognition commands for customer service of a major airline, he shouted an obscenity into the phone.

To his surprise, he was immediately connected with a supervisor, who solved his problem.

Last week, after a bout with an answering service that didn't recognize the words help, operator, live body and the like, I, too, cursed into the phone.

To my shock, the phrase worked with my health insurer..."

Wow, who knew that a timely use of expletives could get you immediate service? In my own personal experience it's more likely to get you arrested, but we're in a brave new world here, people, a world where even my skills may finally be appreciated.

As for what the two words were, I'm assuming the PhoneBot 2000 recognizes the sadly unimaginative Fuck You, but I wonder if it could also recognize the more colorful colloquies of an Al Guthrie or Ray Banks.

As I am always looking for ways to make your lives better, let's put together a list of Tourette's-like expletives we can test.

Here's one: George Bush!

And is there a combination of curses that will make my clients stop acting like dicks? I'd pay good money for that.