WTH? Survey shows Ohioans swear the most in the country

Read enough police blotter reports and there’s enough salt in there to cover a stadium full of bagged peanuts, even with some of the language redacted by scarlet-faced report clerks.

It turns out you don’t have to hang around a police station to hear bad language in Ohio. Just pick up the telephone.

A research company called Marchex Data out of Seattle found recently Ohioans swear more than people from any other state in data collected from more than 600,000 phone calls made in the past year, well past the time famed potty-mouth Bobby Knight left the state to coach basketball, mainly at Indiana.

Marchex, which does research for advertisers, thought it would be a good idea to release its data today, during National Etiquette Week.

An Ohioan might think New York, New Jersey or even Michigan would lead the way in bad language, but Marchex scanned phone conversations for naughty words, and the bad ones appeared once in every 47 conversations in Ohio.

On the other end of the spectrum, those same foul words came once in 300 conversations in Washington state, conveniently where Marchex is located.

The top four states for “colorful” language following Ohio: Maryland, New Jersey, Louisiana and Illinois.

The four cleanest states, following Washington: Massachusetts, Arizona, Texas and Virginia.

Phone calls from consumers to businesses in 30 industries were scanned while looking for all the usual naughty words, plus pleasant words such as “please” and “thank you.”

Ohioans apparently had a tough time saying those.

Could it be because the survey is a bunch of bull?

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