[QUOTE=2015 Cecil]
(7) Breathe on charm, charge with air. Charge basically means recite more incantations. If I were you, I’d chuck the incantation jive, but for those who insist on it, here’s a representative sestet:
<doggerel redacted>
Whatever floats your boat. Moving on:
[/QUOTE]
It originally read, as I recall clearly, and as is confirmed by sites where the original article is quoted or reposted:
[QUOTE=1982 Cecil]
(7) Breathe on charm, charge with air. Charge basically means recite more incantations. If I were you, I’d chuck the incantation jive, but for those who insist on it, here’s a representative sestet:
<doggerel redacted>
El retardo supremo, if you want my opinion. Anyway:
[/QUOTE]
So…the [del]Straight[/del] Hetero-Cisgender Dope is reposting old articles without updating with subsequent discoveries (that in some cases invalidate or contradict Cecil’s original opinions) because it would be too time-consuming, but there’s plenty of time to go over them with a fine-toothed comb for insensitive language? Being factually incorrect is fine as long as we aren’t being politically incorrect?
This complaint only makes sense if you assume the articles were sanitized recently relative to their appearance on the front page. Far more likely is that they were sanitized long ago, when they were compiled into books, and it is the book version that is posted on the site.
Powers &8^]
And it was in its original form on the site as late as 2005, when I first found the Straight Dope. (I read the archived articles obsessively for almost a year before joining the boards, and distinctly remember getting a chuckle out of “El Retardo Supremo.”)
Some of the Classics were edited in the AOL years to conform to the AOL Terms of Service.
The standards for an alternative newspaper are different from a “family-friendly” website. Or at least they were in 1996.
Some of the Classics had their illustrations removed for the same reason. I think we’ve gotten all those back together but the expurgated Classics have not been returned to pre-AOL condition.
If you list these edited Classics that you find – this thread would bea good place to do this – they can be brought to Ed’s attention and perhaps they can be returned to their original status. I can’t speak for Ed on that but the worst thing he could say is no.