It’s pretty common for profanities and other forbidden words to get the fig-leaf treatment of asterisks, dollar signs and ampersands in print. Usually, the strange characters sort of hide what the word is you’re trying to soften.
But on The News & Observer‘s website this morning was one that made me ask, “What’s the point, guys?” (boldface added by me):
Many Carolina fans apparently are still smarting from his decision to fire football coach Butch Davis. And of course, there’s always Duke. At least the crowd didn’t chant for Perdue to “go to he!!” as they do the Blue Devils.
Exclamation points look enough like “L”s that the editors might as well have used the full word itself. Which leads to the next question: Is “hell” really now in the same category as other, more vulgar, profanities?
