F-Bombs Away

Fuck. It's satisfying just to say the word, isn't it? Not only is “fuck” one of the most vivid and malleable profanities ever to get your face slapped or a kid's mouth rinsed out with soap, but it possesses a certain phonetic integrity, a graceful yet utilitarian compactness, from opening fricative to closing plosive. Granted, it's still not a word to use in polite company — that is, unless you happen to be at the Tattered Cover in LoDo tonight to witness Jesse Sheidlower's presentation and signing of his book The F-Word. Now celebrating its massively updated and expanded third edition, The F-Word explores the etymology, evolution and eternal glory of the F-bomb, from its hazy origins in antiquity to its modern-day quirks and compounds ("artfuck," anyone?).

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• Jesse Sheidlower

Sheidlower, an editor at large of the Oxford English Dictionary, will appear at the store, 1628 16th Street, at 7:30 p.m.; for information, call 303-436-1070 or visit www.tatteredcover.com. You’ll probably never hear the word "fuck" uttered in such a detached, refined and even rarefied manner — or by a more scholarly gentleman — ever again. That said, Sheidlower's website bears this ass-covering disclaimer: "The content [of The F-Word] is neither endorsed by nor associated with the OED." Now, that's fucking bullshit.
Tue., Oct. 6, 7:30 p.m., 2009