I know it's juvenile, but watching the New York Times have to say [bull] repeatedly in order to avoid using a "barnyard expletive" had me laughing during class. Luckily the prof hadn't started lecturing yet. I agreed with Nick when he found norming "shit" to be a questionable solution to the problem of FCC language regulation ("If everyone, all at once, agreed to liberate 'shit' from its stigma, I suppose that'd be nice, but I don't think the FCC has that kind of power"), but for a newspaper to be unable to print a book title because it mentions excrement is a little silly.
My dictionary defines "bullshit": "[slang] foolish, insincere, exaggerated, or boastful talk; nonsense". "Horseshit" is similarly defined. "Shit" by itself has umpteen slang meanings. So "shit" should not be considered as merely a dirty crack. The NYT style book needs an enema. Can the "Charmin" be far behind?
Posted by: Shag from Brookline at February 15, 2005 7:36 AM