Everyday Systems: urbanranger: message 23 of 46

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Hi Deb,

You're not the first person to have complained about
the P word (the first person was poster #2, actually).
I'll remove it, but I feel compelled to give it a
little self-justifying funeral oration.

First off, the W word, is etymologically just as bad,
though not nearly as punchy or flavorful:

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/wuss

Though I guess what no one knows (including myself
until I looked it up) won't offend them. I prefer the
P word because I think it's inherently funny. A little
offensive, yes, but also a little ambiguous, a little
kid-like, but raw, un-bowdlerized. Anti-bowdlerized,
in fact: a euphemism that somehow didn't quite do its
job, you smile and you wince. It's like that place on
the Swiss-German-French border where you can stand in
three countries at once. And in the context of the
site, people don't worry about being a word they have
no problem saying.

Yes, I understand that it is still offensive. Maybe
it's impossible to be funny if you don't risk giving
offense, but funny is only a secondary aim of mine. If
it turns people off who might otherwise derive some
real benefit from the site, then it should go. I'll
consider the requisite offense already given.

I've put up a chaster home page, but I'll keep the old
version for foul mouth purists here:

http://www.urbanranger.com/foul.html

Thanks for speaking up (and welcome to your 4th
everyday systems group!). Give my regards to Richard,
and tell him it's now safe for him to look at the
site.

Reinhard