When did Journalscape start stripping the swear words from entries? I just noticed when I posted the Flowmotion entry. There was a camp of people who named themselves "F*** Yeah!" camp, and I wanted to convey the scene. Apparently not okay. So here goes my little test to see what makes it and what gets mined:

(f***)
piss (pi*s)
asshole (a**hole)
(sh*t)
damn (dam*)
(cu**)
mother (motherf*****)
hell (he**)
slut (sl*t
skank (sk*nk)
whore (wh*re)
sonofabitchinwhore (sonofabitchinwhoref*****; with a tip of the hat to Nighty).

Interesting. Ef-you-see-kay isn't okay, in combination with anything else or on its own. See-you-en-tee also not tolerated. Ess-aitch-eye-tee is right out! The rest are, apparently, just fine to use.

Most of the time I subscribe to the following guidelines when using coarse language: If you are exclaiming, and not name-calling, you can use it. Example: middle school kids where I once worked might call another kid a sh*thead. I pointed out that calling someone a name is hurtful, but I'd be able to tolerate the use of "sh*t!" when they, say, hit their thumb with a hammer in shop class, or accidentally dropped their full lunch tray onto the floor. Curse word as exclamation. Perfectly understandable, and fine if not overused.

Once, in fourth grade, I was told my use of the exclamation "God!" in the dialogue of a story I'd written was "not acceptable". It was good, authentic dialogue. Some people were in a spaceship that had malfunctioned and was going down in flames. You're gonna yell out something when you're gonna crash and burn! (I can thank the early and frequent viewing of all Star Trek original episodes for rich imagination fodder throughout childhood, and who am I kidding, until five seconds ago and into the future.)

I don't appreciate being bleeped. Just like I don' t like being cut off in the middle of my acceptance speech . . .

[cue orchestra]