Use of the word does not signfy approval of the word. Am I too old or the rest of you too young? It doesn't seem so very many years ago that the word was more common, typically for dramatic or illustrative purposes, than it is now. It was not welcome in good society, but its use was not verboten either. It resided with words such as "spic," "kike," and perhaps even some religiously tainted words such as "G- damn" (as it sometimes looked when it appeared), which calls to mind "f-k." Now the latter two words are more common on film and tv than the "N word" as it is so often called in these days. I recall the latter's infrequent but unapologetic use on television dramas and in films, usually to bolster dramatic effect and realism, and I don't refer to "All in the Family," which may have broken ground with the use of "God damn" in an 8:00 time slot but wasn't the first to utter that phrase on television. Its use, similar to "nigger," was seldom, therefore stronger when it was heard. The word was not approved, but it was said, for instance, in a quotation rather than substituting "the N- word" in reporting the utterance as is now done. It has attained the status of "sh-t" from publications of the past (recalling the ending of Faulkner's "Old Man") and from lists of words not said in most circles, especially television, news and programming, and newspapers. Like the Confederate Battle Flag, its position has sunk lower in the last couple of decades. Perhaps Livy did not object (and we don't know that she didn't) to its usage not because she accepted or approved the word but because she realized its dramatic and realistic neccessity in HF. John H. Davis, Ph.D. Chowan College Murfreesboro, NC