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Federal Comstock Commission.

“So, can we say ‘suck’?”
That’s what Fresh Air co-executive producer Danny Miller asked attorney Steve Schaffer. Miller was calling because emerging star Nellie McKay uses the word in a song excerpted in the program’s review of her album Get Away From Me.
No, said Schaffer. No “suck.” Though McKay was insulting somebody and not talking about sex, the word’s sexual connections make it a no-no in the new landscape of media regulation. Miller cut out the offending word and spliced it in backwards, leaving alert Fresh Air listeners to wonder why McKay would think something “skcus.”
Schaffer, like many communications lawyers, was wary of the FCC’s rapidly shifting use of indecency and profanity rules, signaled by its March 18 decision on an NBC broadcast of the 2003 Golden Globes.

—“What the #%@& is off-limits now?” Current.org.

If Myra Breckinridge arrived in bookstores in 1968 at a time of cultural and political upheaval in America, Myron came about in 1974 at a time when this upheaval had been muted by a conservative-led malaise. Richard Nixon was president—although soon he would resign in disgrace—and the US Supreme Court had refused to protect the absolute right to publish “obscene” material. Rather, the Court ruled that “community standards” should determine what is obscene. So a book that is perfectly acceptable in one town might be banned in another town.
To combat the Supreme Court’s “mad way with the First Amendment,” Vidal decided to remove the “dirty” words from his book and replace them with “cleaner” ones—the names of the Supreme Court justices who participated in the ruling. Thus “to fuck” becomes “to burger,” after Chief Justice Warren Burger. A “pussy” becomes a “whizzer white,” after Associate Justice Byron White (nicknamed “Whizzer” in college because he was a speedy football star). And a “dick” becomes a “rehnquist,” after William H. Rehnquist, an associate justice in 1974 who became the Courts chief justice in 1986 when Burger retired from the court.
Myron remained in this form for a decade in paperback editions. But in 1985, when Vidal published the two books together as Myra Breckinridge and Myron in a new hardcover edition, he decided that “Myron should conform to Myra.” Thus he removed the “burgers,” “rehnquists” and “whizzer whites” and restored their more graphic anatomical meanings.

—“Myra Breckinridge & Myron: An Introduction,” Harry Kloman.

Plus ça change, I suppose; at least it keeps the printers busy. —We already know what “santorum” is.

So what’s a powell?

—Filed 1892 days ago to ; .

  1. That skcus. I guess that means I'll have to listen to Nellie again in protest or something. So does this mean I should give more or less money to OPB?

    A Powell would seem to be a son of a lapdog.
    — Glenn Peters    Apr 28, 09:15 PM    #
  2. That's really bizarre, because I heard a piece on media censoring "sucks" on either Weekend Edition or All Things Considered last fall. They were discussing the Zits cartoon that got censored and interviewed a lot of people, none of whom could come up with an etymology, and even quoted Bart Simpson as saying that something actually manages to both suck and blow. It was an extremely boring drive through central Kentucky, but even that doesn't excuse the clarity of my memories; I thought it was a fairly inane and overblown piece.

    Still, it's really interesting if the new rules have caused such a drastic shift in the last 6 months.
    — Rose    Apr 29, 04:55 AM    #
  3. Although one should keep in mind the FCC has nothing to do with newspaper strips. —They've basically been driven completely nucking futs by having some commercials for four-hour erections and incestuous twins interrupted by a brief shot of an actual female breast, and so they've been granted enormous license to drop ridiculous hammers on broadcasters for violations they refuse to define in any but the vaguest of terms. Hence the running scared. As Kevin Drum has noted: "So much for the Simpsons."

    Still wondering what a powell would be. Obviously, it should involve a breast, and exhibitionism, or at least public shame and humiliation. And it ought to be fucking brilliant. But aside from that? Anyone?
    — --k.    Apr 29, 06:40 AM    #
  4. Commercials for four hour erections? I think, sir, that you are sadly mistaken. The drug enables one to throw a football through a tire suspended from a tree by a rope. Get your mind out of the gutter.

    Alas, I cannot dispute the commercials promoting incest. But I can excuse them. The twins involved are always female, thus no risk of inbreeding.

    My biggest problem with current commercial campaigns is the one for heroin. You know, "What can brown do for you?" The answer, apparently, is "anything." But mostly it is a "big, brown buzz."
    — Jake Squid    Apr 29, 09:24 AM    #
  5. You know, that really pisses me off.

    But seriously: I have no data, but how can anyone doubt that the current usage "sucks" has its origin in a graphic homophobic slur? The bullies of my home town used it as a standard taunt, generally with a direct object, long before the vague objectless "sucks" became commonplace.

    — Prentiss Riddle    Apr 30, 04:06 PM    #

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