#!/bin/bash
#
# "venice_beach" - translates English to beach-bunny

function kewl ()        # Makes everything, like, totally rad, dude!
{
     [ -z $1 ] && {
        echo "That was bogus, dude."
        return
     }

     echo "Like, I'm thinkin', dude, gimme a minute..."
     sleep 3
     echo $@', dude!'
     # While the function runs, positional parameters ($1, etc.)
     # refer to those given the function - not the shell script.
}

clear

kewl $(echo "$@"|tr -d "[:punct:]")    # Strip off all punctuation