He Named His Dog What?

My 12-year son Andrew is interested in all things military, and we have recently begun collecting painted metal soldiers and vehicles. These figures are historically accurate down to the smallest details, as I discovered two days ago. I was doing a web search for suppliers and came across an excellent site that I quickly shared with Andrew. The two of us worked our way through the many pages of product marveling over the incredible variety and obvious quality of the items offered. Then, something unexpected happened. Andrew began laughing nervously, and I turned to look at what he was reading on the web page (scroll down to product code #RAF011). At that point, things took an interesting turn.

The word that we stumbled across is frequently, and quite correctly, described as the ugliest word in the English Language. Those six letters join together to form something that is so loaded with meaning that it becomes literally impossible to use, regardless of the context. We are all familiar with the now-ubiquitous euphemism that is summoned to avoid uttering, or putting in print, the offending noun. I realize that the word has been claimed by the very same group against which is was originally directed, but that is for another post.

By now it is probably quite obvious that I find myself unable to use the noun. I simply do not want it to appear on my blog, alongside my name and picture. To adequately explain why that is so would take an enormous amount of effort, not to mention honesty. Instead, I would prefer to concentrate on the incident in question. After the shock of discovery wore off, I proceeded to do a google search and was quickly able to confirm the historical truth of the matter. In fact, the usage of the noun in question was so common and accepted that a 1955 feature film titled The Dam Busters used the word frequently and apparently without much controversy.

But that was in 1955, and what was acceptable then becomes a painful reminder of a history we'd all soon forget. So, you either change the dog's name to trigger or dub it out completely. Of course you end up pleasing no one and find yourself charged with censorship, but what other option exists? I suppose you could attempt to suppress the movie by blocking it's availability, an option that was considerably easier in the age before personal recording devices, but is that really the best way to deal with a problem like this?

There is much more that I have to say on this subject and I will return to it again. Please feel free to leave your comments. It is much easier to keep up with this endeavor if I know that people are reading it.