dirty words in dictionaries

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 11:50:00PM -0400, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
> November 1, 1990, Thursday
> HEADLINE: Titter ye not, O Aves Spinae
> BYLINE: Peter Jones
>
> THE FIRST MAN IN ROME, By Colleen McCullough, Century, Pounds 14.95.
>
>
> ...But filing-cabinets are not literature. The 100-page index that
> accompanies the work, with its glossary of technical terms, maps, and
> guides to pronunciation (pilum: pee-loom) reinforces the point. This,
> she says, is evidence of her ''scholarship''; but who cares about her
> ''scholarship''? She is writing a novel, not a text-book (and she
> thinks that a fellator irrumates and vice-versa, which does not give
> one much confidence in her ''scholarship'' either).

Glorious.

Jesse Sheidlower