# Give the guy a break! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 23, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620 "2006-03-23T18:36:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/21 "2006-03-23T20:41:09Z")
> [@Hentor the Barbarian](#): > > However, it’s also possible for people to have in mind things that they fear they might say, I thought Freudian slips have pretty much been disproven. Am I wrong? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/22 "2006-03-23T20:45:28Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > I must be way out of the loop on what is and is not a racist term, but I have never even heard that word before except as shorthand for a racoon, as in the animal. I had an embarrassment of a great uncle that dropped epitaphs all the time. Coon was a favorite of his. I won’t list all the other but coon was his ‘polite’ way of avoiding the N word. he was a grade A :wally Jim ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/23 "2006-03-23T20:45:45Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > I must be way out of the loop on what is and is not a racist term, but I have never even heard that word before except as shorthand for a racoon, as in the animal. You are very lucky indeed. Although probably that epithet isn’t as common as it once was. I have a friend who’s interested in old catalogues of sheet music. There would be a whole category for “coon music”. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/24 "2006-03-23T20:48:04Z")
> [@What Exit?](#): > > I had an embarrassment of a great uncle that dropped epitaphs all the time. _Here lies the corpse of Lester Moore Forty shots from a .44. No Les, no Moore_ Daniel ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/25 "2006-03-23T20:49:22Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > _Here lies the corpse of Lester Moore > Forty shots from a .44. > No Les, no Moore_ > > Daniel Time for my ignorance to be abated: What is that from? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/26 "2006-03-23T20:50:05Z")
Who among us hasn’t accidentally had a slip of the tongue? I dare say ever Walter Cronkite must have misspoke sometime in his career. He apologized immediately and was even an admirer of Condi. Good heavens life is too short to get upset over a slip of the tongue. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/27 "2006-03-23T20:51:08Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > That’s exactly what I thought as well. Same here. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/28 "2006-03-23T20:52:17Z")
> [@What Exit?](#): > > Time for my ignorance to be abated: > What is that from? :smack: **ep·i·thet not epitaphs**. Geez, I hope I don’t get fired over that. 😃 Jim ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/29 "2006-03-23T20:52:38Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > I must be way out of the loop on what is and is not a racist term, but I have never even heard that word before except as shorthand for a racoon, as in the animal. Wow. That’s unbelieveable. I heard it a lot as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/30 "2006-03-23T20:54:07Z")
> [@What Exit?](#): > > I had an embarrassment of a great uncle that dropped epitaphs all the time. Coon was a favorite of his. I won’t list all the other but coon was his ‘polite’ way of avoiding the N word. he was a grade A :wally > > Jim Thanks to Denis Leary, I actually heard “porch monkey” recently. From a relative who also uses “coon.” ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/31 "2006-03-23T20:54:37Z")
Aren’t there new FCC rules that translate into major fines for broadcasting offensive material? Could this have something to do with that? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/32 "2006-03-23T20:54:38Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Wow. That’s unbelieveable. I heard it a lot as a kid. I usually think of it as a slur used in the south a long time ago. Although I wasn’t there, or then, I knew what it meant too. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/33 "2006-03-23T20:57:02Z")
> [@Mister Falcon](#): > > I think he had both boon and coup in mind and his brain misfired. Both words work in the context of the sentence. > [@DanBlather](#): > > That’s exactly what I thought as well. And I’ll third that. As I read it, I originally thought he’d meant “boon” before he explained he’d meant “coup”. It’s like “grool” in Mean Girls.\* And I, like most people, have been known to do it. Fortunately, most of us do it with less mortifying results. \*_“Grool… I meant to say cool and then I started to say great.”_ ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/34 "2006-03-23T20:57:05Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I usually think of it as a slur used in the south a long time ago. Although I wasn’t there, or then, I knew what it meant too. Well I heard it mostly in NYC in the 70’s. This is where my genius of a great uncle lived. Actually most of my Mom’s family was in NYC at that point. We were the first ones out. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/35 "2006-03-23T20:57:15Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I thought Freudian slips have pretty much been disproven. Am I wrong? That’s a new one on me. I know that the DSM still includes similar experiences in the description of OCD (for example, an obsessive thought that one might shout out a profanity in church, which the person experiences as disturbing and alien to him or herself). I’m curious to see any information you could provide to suggest that these types of experiences do not exist. The more I think about it, the more unlikely it is that they have been “disproven,” in the sense of them not existing, because I can recall plenty of evidence regarding demand characteristics eliciting responses or other ways of cueing people subconsciously. Perhaps you mean that they have been disproven in the sense that they represent a deep seated desire. I would agree with that (see above re: obsessive thoughts and OCD), in that they may in fact not have links to some real yet unacknowledged desire of the person. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/36 "2006-03-23T20:58:18Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Wow. That’s unbelieveable. I heard it a lot as a kid. It’s probably because I grew up in a rural part of ohio with very few african-americans, so it just didn’t come up. (if african-american is no longer correct, feel free to substitute the current term of choice.) Or perhaps I heard it somewhere and just didn’t know what it meant and therefore don’t recall. Or maybe my family and circle of friends were just more careful about what they said than others. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/37 "2006-03-23T20:59:18Z")
> [@What Exit?](#): > > Time for my ignorance to be abated: > What is that from? He’s teasing you for apparently confusing the word “epitaph” with “epithet.” ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/38 "2006-03-23T21:01:13Z")
To continue the “accidently saying the worst possible thing” hijack, When I started my current job, the CEO of the company was a British woman with horrible, horrible teeth. She could have been the cover girl for “The Big Book of British Smiles.” I managed to make it through an interview with her without staring at those vile choppers, but my downfall was on my first day of work. She told me how pleased she was that I had started, and I responded “I"m looking forward to working on a project I can really sink my teeth into.” ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/39 "2006-03-23T21:06:37Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > He’s teasing you for apparently confusing the word “epitaph” with “epithet.” Thanks, I figured that out in [post 28](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7226249&postcount=28). 😉 Jim ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620/40 "2006-03-23T21:06:42Z")
So, where was this sensitivity to racial delicacies when Bill Bennet suggested lowering the crime rate by aborting black babies? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/give-the-guy-a-break/349620.md?page=3)