Bleep

Plot
D.W. goes to the crystal shop with Grandma Thora. She overhears a teenage boy arguing with his mother, and when he calls his mother a bad name (censored with a "bleep"), his mother drops the vase she is holding. D.W. wants to ask Grandma Thora (who didn't hear the argument) what the word means, but is afraid she will cause her to drop the expensive bowl she just bought. So instead, she asks Arthur the meaning of the word; he reacts by gasping and dropping the model plane he was working on, confirming D.W.'s belief that the word has the power to make people drop things. Arthur tells D.W. never to say the word around their parents, and D.W., still not clear on the meaning of the word, asks the Tibbles about it the next day at school. To get her in trouble, they tell D.W. that the word turns adults into zombie servants and that that is the reason kids aren't supposed to say it near adults.

Skeptical, D.W. repeats the Tibbles' story to Vicita, and observes through her window what happens when she tells her parents. She is interrupted by her mother calling her down to dinner; when her mother persists, D.W. calls her the name the boy called his mother in the store. Mrs. Read, though initially upset, tells D.W. she is "off the hook" because she didn't understand what she was saying. As her mother is leaving, D.W. asks what swear words mean, and she responds, "I guess they mean 'I want to hurt your feelings.'"