Where is Thomas Bowdler when you really need him. "Nigger" was in common usage in the 19th Century, and it was not necessarily an expletive. Since the red flag nature of the word is a fairly modern development, I do not see how it "accurately describe[s] the indignation suffered by a group of people." Strangely the word is still commonly used in its 19th Century sense today, as non-pejorative slang, but only by black people (or people of color or African Americans or Blacks or whatever the approved jargon is this week). It is the only word I can think of that is proscribed not because it is offensive in itself but rather according to who the speaker is. You will not hear Jews referring to one another as "kikes" nor Hispanics as "Spics", and I respect their genuine sensitivity to such ethnic epithets. The violent opposition to the use of "nigger" by white people while it remains common parlance among Blacks is hypocritical. While I do not advocate reintroducing it into our daily conversations, I think this hipersensitivity to MT's use is overwrought. Should we also go through all of our literature and remove every instance where a character gyps someone or welshes on a debt? And what are we to do with that Garrison Keillor, adulated by the same wine and cheese crowd who want to bowdlerize MT, who spends two hours on public radio every week telling Norwegian jokes? Duane Campbell