(Expletive Deleted)

By Don Shearon

First Published August 20, 1974“(Expletive deleted).”That phrase popularized through publication of the White House Transcripts seems firmly entrenched as a part of the Mother Tongue. One might say it is a legacy from an era future historians are almost certain to label The Watergate Years.Those two words, along with the brackets that insulate them from perils of the workaday world, can be a convenient tool. Their generous employment threaded through the White House Transcripts is evidence enough. But the words and their brackets, to be called here The Phrase, could lend themselves to a variety of applications for both good...