No one likes feeling stupid.

I was not aware that ‘retarded’ was such an uncouth word in today’s society. I guess I assumed that everyone had accepted the amelioration and spread of this word's usage beyond the sphere of psychology. I would never use the word in reference to another person because that would be rude, however, I have no problem using this adjective when referring to inanimate objects as the word can hardly be misconstrued to be an insult to that objects mental capacities considering it has none.
I was sadly mistaken in this matter, which I unfortunately found out by declaring the ancient Greek word for ‘ship’ retarded. At which point my professor threw a piece of chalk in my general direction (this is a normal occurrence and not notable in and of itself) however, what followed, was a rant that I thought was totally uncalled for. It went something like this:

Professor: What did you say?
Me:(always wanting to be honest) I said the word is retarded
Professor: Did you mean retarded or did you mean gay?

This was very disconcerting to me, since I do not find those words similar at all, so I then repeated that no, indeed, I said and, yes, meant retarded. At which point he rants about stepping up our language above that of the average student… blah, blah, blah...

Professor: Not that I care if you swear or anything like that…
Me: (I love getting permission) Ah Hell. Ya for real? Damn it
Professor: hmm, Hell in the vocative (sometimes my professor is just awesome) but I meant I don't care if you swear outside of the classroom

At which point he said something else insulting in anger, but I can't quite remember what. All I remember is that next I swore vehemently in Arabic (a language he doesn’t know) and he responded with equal vehemence in a language I did not know. All in all it was a bizarre class period. I was kind of pissed that he would imply that I was prejudiced or homophobic, because I am not and did not use ‘retard’ in that manner, so I’m still kind of pissed at him. Seriously, he isn't morally superior because he is so-called 'liberal' any more than I am morally superior for being mormon. I guess we’ll see how it goes today.