"farted away"

[Barsuk]

Is "fart" really that offensive? Color me shocked.

I wouldn't write it in the context in question (and maybe not in any context), but I don't think of it as a profane or offensive word in the least.

I guess I learned something today.

 

[EE94]

I'm clearly in the minority, and perhaps its the mood I'm in, but I chuckled at the line.
I don't find the word offensive, and to me it evoked a description of clumsy incompetence by the Raiders.
Everybody farts, but it's embarrassing when it happens in public.
I would have let it go and outraged readers be damned.
I think more would have enjoyed it than were outraged.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

It's a great line. Farts are funny...

I doubt I could get that past my desk.

These are some of the words I've had edited from my copy recently. To be fair, all were in quotes...

Asshole - It was a damn good quote and when they censored it, they made it look like he said the f-word. That's why I left it in...

Ballsy - They changed it to (gutsy). Whatever...

God damn - They changed it to (expletive), which again, made it sound like the guy said the f-word.

Pissed - It will never be adequately explained to me why this is offensive when an athlete says "I'm pissed..." It would be one thing if he said, "I'm going to pish all over him..." Big difference...

 

[Ace]

Offensive or not, it's a juvenile way or writing.

I may be wrong, but I would be willing to be that every Pulitzer Prize winning story managed to win despite not using the word "fart."

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Offensive or not, it's a juvenile way or writing.

I may be wrong, but I would be willing to be that every Pulitzer Prize winning story managed to win despite not using the word "fart."

Agreed, but how many pulitzer winners made you laugh out loud?

 

[Ace]

Offensive or not, it's a juvenile way or writing.

I may be wrong, but I would be willing to be that every Pulitzer Prize winning story managed to win despite not using the word "fart."

Agreed, but how many pulitzer winners made you laugh out loud?

Zero -- Exact same number as Raiders game stories.

 

[HandsomeHarley]

Would you have a problem if his words were "full of shirt?"
Farts are funny.
Farts make people laugh. Or cry, if they're cripplers.

The word "fart" has no business in a newspaper. Even in a column.

How do you know about my farts?

(They do make my wife cry. Or at least make her eyes water.)

 

[ballscribe]

I once used the word, "Dinger," in a column about baseball. My publisher wouldn't let me use it because she said it was slang. I wouldn't have used it in a gamer, but it's a phrase sports fans use, so it should have been acceptable.

awww.... Don't EVER use dinger. Or tater, or base knock (I actually saw that one in an mlb.com story today). Or "plated" a run. Or "frozen rope". Or "can of corn". Or "two-bagger". Or anything else of that type. It's beyond lame, and so amateurish it looks like a high-school paper.

Why not call it what it is? Isn't that why we have names for things? I'm not sure many sports fans even use them. TV and radio commentators do, though.

 

[finishthehat]

The Houston Chronicle recently used it IN A HEADLINE over a Maureen Dowd column; readers, and editor Jeff Cohen, not happy.

http://blogs.chron.com/aboutchron/archives/2006/10/post_13.html