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No wonder...

Posted by Word Camel on October 18, 2004

In Reply to: It so sadly is posted by TheFallen on October 18, 2004

: : : : : A friend from the UK just brought me a newspaper clipping that says "Bedlam", "nitpicking" and "brainstorm" among others) have been outlawed in in goverment work places because they might offend someone?

: : : : Weird. Bedlam I can understand. But I don't see how nitpicking and brainstorm could offend anyone.

: : : "Nitpicking" because it supposedly refers to the nits in the hair of slaves (a variation on th edubious nitty gritty theme), and "brainstorm" because it might offend mentally ill people.

: : : All this would be terrible not least because it is necessary to have access to the term "bedlam" when dealing with the UK civil service.

: : : I'm also wondering whether, if someone were seriously mentally ill, whether there might be many other words one would find offensive - like "door knob" or "egg whisk" or "mustache"?

: : I'm deeply offended that you said do*r kn*b, and I may sue. But "brainstorm"? Perhaps they thought it was "bra in storm," meaning rained-upon undergarments. Eh? Potentially offensive?

: Some fairly highly placed official was recently forced to resign for using the word "[word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy]rdly" in some speech he gave... God help us. The PC stormtroopers are at the gate.

Terry Pratchett portrayed T Blair as vampire...

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