Every weekday, PR Daily associate editor Alan Pearcy highlights the day’s most compelling stories and amusing marginalia on the Web in this, #TheDailySpin.

“_ _ _ _ is a four-letter word.” As a kid, I never understood the meaning behind this phrase. Our language was abound with words of various lengths. What was so special about those with four letters? My name had four letters. Was I special? My mom always said so. In fact, my mom was prone to a few four-letter words that I’d later learn were the ones to which the idiom refers—vulgarity that has since invaded our online communication. But which four-letter words were the most-used in email in 2012? According to a yearlong study from Cue, that honor goes to “sh*t,” which accounted for 41 percent of all emailed swear words. The F-bomb came in second (37 percent), followed by “damn” (15 percent), and “b*tch” (6 percent).

RELATED: Merriam-Webster adds ‘F-bomb,’ ‘sexting’ to the dictionary

Deploying these words in professional correspondence would certainly be inappropriate, though not nearly as inappropriate as the placement of a gun show ad in Thursday’s edition of one Connecticut newspaper. According to BuzzFeed, the ad ran alongside a story in The Stamford Advocate about Sandy Hook students returning to school.

RELATED: Tragedies demand a deft approach to coverage

Speaking of returning, I’m often tempted to return fortune cookies when they’re generalizations on life rather than actual fortunes. That wouldn’t be the case if I got any of these 25 curiously funny fortunes (compiled by List25). In fact, they might even inspire me to eat the crummy excuse for a cookie.

Meanwhile, Funny or Die put together an amusing slideshow of 15 vanity license plates that its claims should not exist, but is glad they do. I am, too.

Any company uncertain of its social media strategy should also be glad. While we’ve already schooled you on why your brand should be on Instagram, Business Insider has provided this helpful guide of six simple steps for marketing your brand like a pro via the photo-sharing platform.

RELATED: Instagram for PR: 4 overlooked ways to use the app

By sharing their most-desired superpowers, men and women surveyed by consulting firm Sense of the Future have given budding entrepreneurs and startups oddly valuable insight into what people actually want to do with new technologies flooding the market. Managing director Bruce Kasanoff explains.

A Subway “sandwich artist” was left to explain his actions after confronting a patron who dared to ask for ketchup on his Philly cheese steak. News of the skirmish quickly went viral with the incident costing the employee his job. WFTV reports:



Also having gone viral was video of Vice President Joe Biden’s swearing-in of the 113th Congress on Thursday. Politico pulled together some of its favorite Twitter musings on the coverage, while The Daily Caller and Business Insider recapped our second-in-command’s best comments and interactions from the event.

Is there something you think we should include in our next edition of #TheDailySpin? Tweet me @iquotesometimes with your suggestions. Thanks in advance.

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