I was referring to language usage and acceptance, not to the personal effect of that language, and to general uses and changing attitudes toward usage, particularly regarding art, such as literature and drama. If a character were the type to say such words and saying them served a purpose in the work, that character's saying them might be artistically justified in that work, whether or not socially, personally, or individually justified in some other place. The words could be just as offensive to someone in 1910, 1955, 1970, or whenever as they are to people in 2007, just as can be words related to religion or scatology, but the degree and extent of their use have varied in different periods. People can feel disrespect and contempt in phrases that they believe demean their religion, and therefore those that accept that religion, and in those, scatological or sexual, that intend to demean any person, whatever race or group. More than the literal or figurative meaning (either of which can be ludicrous when imagined), the intent of the words is significant. What is the intent of racial usages in HF? I also meant to note that, in news reporting, not so long ago, if a character said something pertinent to the situation being reported, a reporter might quote what was said but that today the presence of certain words could negate the use of a complete or direct quotation; the reporter might more likely paraphrase, use descriptive words, or say something to the effect that the person used the N-word. I did not comment whether the practice is good, bad, positive, negative, an advancement or otherwise. As a matter of policy, certain words are no longer quoted. Those same words are also often not used or are rarely used by people in media. On the other hand, words (even some that may now seem innocuous) that once were not heard on broadcast, as opposed to cable, tv now frequently occur, on comedies as well as other entertainments, words such as "butt," "pissed off," "screw," "pee," and the G-D word. I remember when the use of, simply, "damn" was rare except sometimes in some "adult" night-time dramatic programs (Kraft Televison Theatre, The U.S. Steel Hour). Surprised as a teenager when a Western character said, "Hang! Hang and be damned!," I was taken aback as an adult the first time I heard "screwed" on television, uttered by John Dean during the Watergate Hearings. Afterward, that word seemed to become acceptable usage on the airways, and its frequency has grown, most having forgotten or altered its origin. Many people are still offended by these usages, especially by electronic media, but I do not and did not intend to equate these words and phrases as holding the same value or sense (or sense of outrage) for everyone. They are all examples of changing usages and levels of acceptance as well as some altered perceptions. Do you recall that Hemingway uses "mucked" over and over at the end of _To Have and Have Not_, whereas he almost certainly had another word in mind? Returning us to the topic of this Forum, I think I recall that Mark Twain substituted "Sheol" in _Connecticut Yankee_ after objections were raised about the more commonly used word for a place in the after-life. John H. Davis, Ph.D. Chowan College Murfreesboro, NC