Dickhead

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Tue, Sep 23, 2003 at 10:31:37AM -0400, Laurence Horn wrote:
> At 9:35 AM -0400 9/23/03, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
> >
> >In passing, can I just ask that in situations like this we spell
> >out the words in question? We're all adults here, and I think we
> >can all handle seeing "motherfucker" spelled in full. But if I
> >need to search the archives, I don't want to have to try to
> >concoct every typographically euphemized variant of an offensive
> >word.
>
> Not to speak for others, but at one point even I was driven to spell
> perfectly good words like "motherfucker" with an asterisk.  It was
> during an interval when I had to borrow a computer whose installed
> version of Eudora (5.something, I think) insisted on asking me every
> time I typed what it considered an off-color word whether I wanted my
> keyboard washed out with soap.  In the end, I just put in the
> asterisks (or used deliberate misspellings that I elaborated in my
> ads-l postings--of course I don't send such messages to anyone
> else!).  Now I'm back to my good old first-amendment-respecting
> Eudora 4.3.2.  Some of the "motherf*ckin" offenders (or
> non-offenders) on the list may just be afflicted with one of the
> Ashcroftian versions of Eudora.

I think we should all make an effort to not use such programs,
or at least to figure out how to defeat their nannyisms. It
really does interfere with our ability to have proper discussions
about these topics.

Jesse Sheidlower
Oxford English Dictionary