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From: gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett)
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.misc
Subject: d*mn, sh*t, f*ck, un*x: Patterns You May Not Have Considered
Message-ID: <1753@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Jul-85 01:17:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: amdahl.1753
Posted: Tue Jul  9 01:17:03 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 08:06:13 EDT
Reply-To: gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett)
Distribution: net
Organization: Blue Mouse Trailer Resort, Hellmouth, CA
Lines: 43
Xref: watmath net.nlang:3362 net.misc:8208

Why do people use 'sh*t', 'f*ck', 'd*mn', and 'un*x' when they
know darn (damn?) well WE know what they're saying, and THEY know
what they're saying, but they won't come out and say it!

To illustrate the dangers of using '*' in place of a real letter,
I have scanned our local dictionary for words which match these
patterns, as if each word were to be expanded as the Shell
does (ignoring the case of letters).

For 'sh*t' we have:

Shabbat    shaft   shallot     shan't    sharpshoot   sheet
sherbet    shift   shirt       shit      shoot        short
shortcut   shot    shouldn't   shout     showboat     Shreveport
shrift     shunt   shut        shutout


For 'd*mn', we have just:

damn


For 'f*ck':

feedback   fiddlestick   Fitzpatrick   flack    flashback   fleck
flick      flintlock     flock         Franck   Frederick   Frick
frock      fuck          fullback

Finally, we have for 'un*x':

uniplex    Unix


(I should point out here that in our dictionary it did not say
"Unix is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories" but just the
work "Unix" by itself.  Our lawyers are looking into this....).

I hope that by your reading this you are now more alert to the
dangers of the ambiguous '*' and will no longer use it in
contexts where the pattern might be confused for something else
(except for 'd*mn', which is apparently unique).
-- 
Gordon A. Moffett               ...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,sun}!amdahl!gam