“How do you say bone-headed play in Spanish?” asks James Ostrowski.

The unlovely but direct translation is, “Pendejada.”

Pardon those with tender ears. When I was a kid in Mexico, a guy gave me a cardboard thing to hang from my ear at parties: “Perdon, pero no oigo pendejadas.”

["Pardon me, but i don't listen to bone-headed idiots"]

Worked like a charm.