>Russians can drop the most
>astonishingly profane statements either in deeply heated anger or a
>cheerful aside.

Trivia: many languages have different sorts of modes of speech -- one you'd use while addressing a social superior, a different one for a social equal, different modes depending on your own gender, etc. Russian has one, mat, that is for obscenity. It's so vulgar that its use in public spaces is punishable by law.

"Mathematics brought rigor to economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis."
- Kenneth Boulding