When hoary illiterates spew moans of deprecation at perfectly utile words that titivate the vocabulary, I blurt a snigger. Julian Bond said, in reaction to controversy over a remark by a budget aid to the mayor of Washington, D.C. that included the word "niggardly": "You hate to think you have to censor your language to meet other people’s lack of understanding." You may hate to think it, but sadly, it is true.