“Language Log” meets “Talk of the Nation,” wherein the subject is words that are taboo … and which we cannot, therefore, actually say, even to talk about how they are taboo.
So they prattled about two different N-words, two different F-words, two different C-words, and a K-word (yes, K; try to guess it). At one point John had to ask which F-word he was being asked to talk about. Neil Conan made the ridiculous suggestion that they distinguish between “the F-word” and “the F bomb”, but couldn’t (of course) say which he meant by which. Off went John, and it soon became clear that he was talking about fuck. Neil stopped him, and explained that he meant the other one, you know,
about gay men; so they decided they could draw a distinction between the one ending in k and the one ending in t. John backed up and started out again, this time apparently talking about faggot.
As George Carlin says; “They must be Bad words! Why, they must be AWFUL!!!” Bad words seem to serve as a proxy for bad intentions (to which in my experience, they are actually unrelated). As CS Lewis said, “confusion of refinement with virtue.”
And what the heck, here’s Paul Gram’s essay about taboo ideas: “What you can’t say“, which is one of my favorites.
Then there’s the other unspeakable F word: feminist. 🙂