No f***, no "F word," no "freakings, friggings or firkings," either. It's the complete expletive to end all expletives, or nothing at all. That's the way they're doing it in Canadian newspapers these days, at any rate. How things change. I remember a huge fight at my last newspaper when Jimmy Carter said he was going to "whip Teddy Kennedy's a**" -- and the publishers weren't thrilled that we even went so far as to use the asterisks. It may seem silly now that network television features language that once would have made a sailor blush, but most newspapers I know of are still trying to hold the line on coarse language. Maybe that's part of what makes us increasingly irrelevant in some people's eyes, but I don't think it's a bad thing to have at least one place where you can get information without all the *^%$#@!@# cursing attached.
