Weingarten Spooked by obscured epithet while commenting on the Washington Post.

2. A brickbat to the Elizabethan-tongued copyeditor who wrote this
headline: "DeLay Loath to Doff His Leadership Hat." Forsooth, I say.

3. The (unintentionally) funniest story today was on B2, about a
graffito found in Charles County that "included a word sometimes used
pejoratively about black people." The story then added that it was
possible this word referred only to Halloween. Out of delicacy,
presumably, we declined to specify the middlin' epithet in question.
This resulted in what was, in my opinion, a totally ridiculous but
highly entertaining story. After a full hour debate, my wife finally
figured out what the word must be, which made us laugh even more. This
story was a silly mistake. Simply not a story. In my opinion.

While I am loath to doff my politically correct hat, I am not sure I consider that epithet even ranks as middlin. I would rate it "unfair to middlin".

My comment on the Post is that it is a fine newspaper, as is the Wall Street Journal and, if that hint is not clear enough, I can spell it out and say that I think the way they could improve it is to fire the insane reactionaries who write the editorials.