The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

The S- Word

More from Tim:

We should probably share with XX readers Slate’s rough consensus that the censored word in “Joey doesn't want me. S- this campaign, I'm quitting” was Screw. Why the Journal would omit the word screw here I can’t explain. On the very same day, the Journal quoted Dylan Lauren, daughter of Ralph Lauren and founder and CEO of Dylan’s Candy Bar on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, describing her daily carb intake this way: “"I have to have breakfast otherwise it screws up my whole day. ...” Six days earlier, in a Journal excerpt of Donald Ray Pollock’s book, Knockemstiff, the author’s father was quoted expressing the following opinion of motion pictures: “Screw a bunch of make-believe.” Indeed, it’s hard to see how anyone could publish a newspaper or magazine about the world of business without printing the verb screw on a fairly regular basis. But for some reason the editors omitted screw from Solis Doyle’s quote. Unless it was a different word. Other candidates suggested by Slate staffers included stuff, shove, stop, sauté, shore up, and sod.