And so, to combat a poverty of language, we have placed restrictions on language.

Go fuck yourself, Blake.

Ah, Blake Howe....notice he uses "excrement" even when mailing fake anthrax to Senators. Super classy old fuck.

A retired Seattle attorney who mailed a baking soda-filled envelope to a U.S. senator has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge.
On May 8, a mail handler examining a letter sent to Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., was hit in the face by a blast of white powder emanating from the envelope. Concerned that the powder could be anthrax -- the biological agent that killed five in a string of attacks beginning in 2001 -- the mail handler was decontaminated and the substance analyzed.
The letter carried a handwritten message -- "I hope you choke on your own excrement such as this" -- and the name of Blake Howe, a 77-year-old Seattle man who pleaded guilty to related charges in July.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/S…

What the fucking fuckity fuck is this fucking fucked-up fuckwad fucking talking about? Fuck!

@3 - Ahem. That should be "Go FOOL yourself, Blake."

Of course, now I'll never hear "Fool me once, shame on you" the same way again.

Howe can he be such a fucking douchebag?

Mr. Howe wanted to get mentioned on Slog and it appears his idea worked.

All caps is the most poverty stricken of all language.

@4 Nice catch. Words bad, making someone fear for their life, all good. Sociopathic much Mr. Howe?

"...whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire." -Matthew 5:22

Irony much?

I prefer endorsements without a "holier than thou" stick up their ass, thanks.

I read the Stranger every week, and I'm not an Old, but I do think Blake has a point. With a few exceptions here & there, the content and composition of the Stranger is pretty laughable. The only reason to read it is for an occasional chuckle, and to get ideas for things to do around town. It's not that the Stranger uses profanities, but it's how they use them. The way the Stranger uses profanities typically detracts from the value and integrity of the writing. If you want to see real writing (with occasional profanities, but not gratuitous), you are better off reading something like the New Yorker.

FOOL!!!

(as a fool, I am offended)

Actuall I meant to say that @5, but it somehow changed fool to fuck. Hecht must have a wordfilter on or something. :)

Mommy, he said a bad word. Boo-fucking-hoo.

Also, if he were a better editor, he would have replaced indefinite articles when necessary and would have found replacement words for the ones that he ****'d and ===='d out, instead.

think of how frustrating it must be to have your only offspring be Homer Simpson.

@13, the point of any kind of stylistic choice of language in a magazine is to identify its ethos to its audience. The Stranger sees its audience as friends, so its language is familiar and jocular. The New Yorker sees its audience as people it has to impress at a cocktail party, so its language is full of idiosyncratic affectations, like that fucking umlaut in cooperate.

Fucking tight-assed people need to get the fuck over themselves. There are no fucking magic words, and no "bad" words either. If "fuck" offends you, that is your own sad problem.

If it IS the same Howe as in @4, then this makes a certain sense. A lifetime of authoritarianism and arguing about rules as an ill-fitting approximation for right and wrong could definitely leave you with some fucked-up priorities.

Looks like we have a new A. Birch Steen!

Profanity, when used only when the emphasis demands it, is effective. Otherwise, it's indicative of lazy, uncreative minds.