Word Court

Carolyn Simon, of Tucson, Ariz., writes: “I am seeking evidence to present to the activities committee here at my retirement center. Each evening on our closed-circuit TV channel a feature film is broadcast. In the past we’ve had variety. Now we have a new activities director. I suggested Babel, and one of our members said, ‘No, it has the F word!’ I said that the F word is part of today’s accepted vernacular and often simply means ‘Omigosh!’ or ‘Oops!’ or ‘Look what I did!’ Our activities director has been swayed by the puritan wing of our committee. What do you think?”

I think saying the F word, like doing the F thing, is appropriate behavior for consenting adults in private. Newspapers and many magazines are concerned mainly with the public sphere, so they (we) ...