Oh, what a night ...

Patrons at the box office of the hit Broadway musical "Jersey Boys'' are greeted with a warning that profanity and "Jersey vocabulary'' are used as special effects in the production. And they definitely are, presumably to add a genuine voice to the story of the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The show would be a crowd-pleaser with or without the naughty words that wouldn't be allowed at the dinner table of that era -- the '60s -- and even now, 40 years later.

But students today aren't affected by warnings about coarse language stuck on CDs they buy or the movies they watch, our prize-winning Student Voices essayists told us for the op-ed page Tuesday. The vast majority of youngsters said the music and story line are what counts. And as one student put it: "The store might as well put a huge 'buy me' sticker on the CD.'' It's clear this younger generation won't let the obscenity or violence get in the way of their enjoyment.

Is this a healthy development? And is "Jersey vocabulary'' another distinction of our beleaguered state?