HNY to all... Interesting thread! Would love to see many of you in Philly, however my internist told me I've developed a strong allergy for MLA. Wolfgang: given the fact I got basically strip searched at security at LAX the other day, I think we may have bigger issues these days than email filters; though in principle I feel your pain. All others: I think we better keep using the original text, folks. And on the day before assigning the novel: we better cue the readers (our students) to the use of that famous term, well over 200 times in the book. If you name the beast and prep the students, it will diminish potential problems. That said, there is another monster term lurking here: "racist." This term can mean almost anything on campus, these days. It was deployed widely, in our late election cycle, to the detriment of all, I fear... I'm curious: when several of you state categorically that MT, or even Lincoln, were not "racists," I'm a bit baffled. What can you possibly mean by saying that?? All due respect, but outside of a very few (usually religious fanatics), just about everyone in C19 was tainted in one way or another with what almost anyone today would consider racist ideologies. It was just in the water, I'm afraid: things like, Anglo-Saxon superiority. Maybe we are thinking about the many ways people like MT and Lincoln worked for progressive causes--like supporting a student at Yale. I have no doubt that both men changed dramatically in their lives, with regard to these things. But if you have determined beyond doubt that they were liberated 100% from such ideas, then you are way smarter than me. I just thought I would register my confusion about the way this other term -- "racist"--is being construed, both on this LIST and in our culture generally, nowadays. I'm do not wish to start another civil war over whether Twain was a "racist" or not -- maybe just point out that we can agree to disagree, since the word itself is fraught with danger, to put it mildly. --Hal B. On Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 3:44 PM, Wolfgang Hochbruck < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > Does anybody else here find the idea of email filters > snagging certain terms vaguely disconcerting? > > Happy New Year to all > > Wolfgang > > -- Prof. Harold K. Bush Professor of English 3800 Lindell Saint Louis University St. Louis, MO 63108 314-977-3616 <%28314%29%20977-3616> (w); 314-771-6795 <%28314%29%20771-6795> (h) <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>