For what it's worth department: The four letter words that are considered indecent are an anachronism from the days when the French/Normans ruled England, (~1066-1300's). A quick look at the words and their acceptable counterparts will make clear the issue. The four letter word are all of English derivation and the socially acceptable ones are of French (sometimes Latin) derivation. Even the term "four-letter" is a derogatory term for the English language in general, because the French considered English second rate because the words tended to be short, unlike French. Anyone who supports the suppression of these words is merely enforcing the old French repression of the English and the English language from over 500 years ago. Why think for yourself when tradition can do it for you? eg: to piss - to urinate to shit - to deficate to fuck - to copulate cunt - vagina etc. All of them, folks, all of them and easily checked out. ---------------- Bob Bruen MIT Lab for Nuclear Science 77 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge MA 02139 voice: 617.253.6065 fax: 617.258.6591 ----------------------------------------------- On Fri, 9 Feb 1996, David K. Merriman wrote:

A local TV station has asked me for an interview, after I sent a graphic of a mono-digital hand gesture with the phrase "censor this!" to the Prez, Veep, and the area congresscritters (cc'd to 2 TV stations and a radio station), accompanied by a 'confession' and demand for swift prosecution. Anyone got any nifty sound bites I can try to toss in?

Dave Merriman