The Little Brown Reader

Early in the 17th century in Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in the New World, cursing was considered a crime. For a first offense, a person was to suffer "severe punishment." For a second offense, he was to have "a bodkin [a small, pointed instrument used to make holes in cloth or leather] thrust through his tongue."

There would be no fourth offense; for the third, a curser would be put to death.

Now, early in the 21st century, the Federal Communications Commission has decided that the most common, if also most crude, four-letter synonym for the sex act may be uttered on television---if, that is, it is used "properly."

How do you say "f***" properly, you ask?
First, the background. On Jan. 19 of this year, on the nationally televised Golden Globes Awards program, the singer Bono, accepting an award, said either "this is really, really f***ing brilliant," or "this is f***ing great." As a result, 234 complaints were filed against the TV stations that carried the show, one of them from a watchdog group called the Parents' Television Council.