F******

[Baker, John]

That possibility had occurred to me, and of course it's supported by the number of asterisks used (though that could easily be an editing error), but I'm inclined to think that the word really was "freaking."  The original story includes another quotation from the same person:
 
 
"And a chain saw -- you need a smoking chain saw," said Branden Hardy.

 
John Baker

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Sam Clements
Sent: Sun 11/8/2009 12:01 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: F******



I assume your question is rhetorical?  They surely were just covering their
ass after the fact.

Sam Clements

----- Original Message -----
From: "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, November 08, 2009 11:55
Subject: F******


An article from The Grand Island Independent,
http://www.theindependent.com/articles/2009/10/20/news/local/10801940.txt
<http://www.theindependent.com/articles/2009/10/20/news/local/10801940.txt>
, includes the following line about a Halloween "Trail of Terror":

"It was dark in there," Hardy said laughing. "F****** strobe lights."

Any theories as to what letters are indicated by the asterisks?  Then you
are not alone.  The newspaper subsequently published this note,
http://theindependent.com/articles/2009/10/23/news/daily_record/doc4ae0fe851c040023247469.txt
<http://theindependent.com/articles/2009/10/23/news/daily_record/doc4ae0fe851c040023247469.txt>
:


Clarification

Missing word was 'freaking'

In a story on Page 3-A of Wednesday's Independent about the Big Brothers Big
Sisters' Trail of Terror haunted house, a reaction to strobe lights should
have included the word "freaking." The word was replaced with asterisks,
perhaps causing confusion about what was actually said. The Independent
apologizes for this confusion and the impression it left.


This was noted on the Regret the Error blog, with the headline "It raised
some f****ing questions."  My own question is, why did the Independent use
the wrong number of asterisks?


John Baker



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