"While you may not be offended, this week's words did offend some enough to prompt them to cancel their subscriptions."

I applaud Anu for not shying away from these words and subjects. Those who cancelled their subscriptions are proverbially cutting off their noses to spite their faces and their days will be less enlightened. Words are what they are and to not explore them and their history at the risk of seeming racist or politically incorrect is to not learn and grow from the heritage and history of our languages.

agreed.

I agree with you that Anu both mentioned that some people were offended enough to cancel their subscriptions as well as the earlier decision to run with the "Words that appear offensive but are not" I also applaud.

I do disagree with the line in the reply to the comment just prior to the one you mentioned... "Your observation that three out of five words have negative connotations to blacks may be correct..."

the 3 words mentioned do not have negative connotations to blacks... Tar Baby may be looked on as it was adopted as a racial slur, but "niggle, niggling, niggard, niggardly" or any other word that happens to "n", "i" or "g" (in that order, other then the "N-Word") should not offend people, their poor education should be more offensive, and it will haunt them longer.

my comment is to piggyback