Linguistic Query, Obscenity Edition

**Warning! Obscenity Ahead!**

Last night, mabfan and I were sitting at home watching "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," and something said (though I cannot recall what, to be honest) prompted mabfan to ask, "When did the clipped version of 'what the fuck?' to 'the fuck?' become so popular?"

I poked around a bit, but (a) I couldn't immediately put my hands on my copy of The F Word by Jesse Sheidlower and (b) I think the book's publication date predates the popularity of this clipping.

So, I ask you all... can you at all date the popularity of this clipped version?

Things I Learned At/On the Way To/On the Way From EPICon

There may or may not be a more in-depth con report down the line. Right now, it's taken me three days to get the time to do this much, so here goes (with some chronological order, but not much)...

-- Telling cab drivers which way you want them to get you from point A to point B may result in a lecture about time = money.

-- New Jersey Transit ticket sellers are very nice people. Or, at least, the guy I dealt with was.

-- Buying new hats and visiting with friends can be accomplished simultaneously if you've made friends with haberdashers.

-- Dinner with friends is always a wonderful thing.

-- It takes less than half an hour from Forest Hills, Queens to Penn Station at 6 AM. Much later, and it takes double that.

-- Penn Station is a lovely place to eat breakfast at 6:30 AM (provided you've brought your own breakfast).

-- Commuters on NJ Transit don't necessarily know where their trains are going other than to their own stops (inasmuch as the question "This is the right train for Princeton Junction, right?" got me many blank stares and shrugs).

-- Violating my no-coffee-except-in-the-office policy is excusable under certain specific circumstances.

-- Time flies (even on a long car trip) when you're with great conversationalists.

-- Being the navigatrix goes much smoother when I'm looking at the correct page of directions.

-- Tiny diners in the middle of nowhere in Delaware occasionally will surprise you with the availability of kosher junk food. Related to this, a package of cheese crackers and UTZ cheese puffs do not a healthy lunch make. Satisfying, maybe, but healthy, not so much.

-- The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel(bridge-tunnel-bridge) is quite a sight.

-- Swearing in public is illegal in the tourist areas of Virginia Beach.

-- Virginia Beach apparently closes at 10. Finding somewhere that would serve food to a large party was an adventure.

-- Grocery stores that carry national brands are wonderful. Grocery stores whose home brands feature many kosher items are even more wonderful.

-- Peanut butter: it's not just for breakfast anymore!

-- Apparently, I can be replaced by aspects of four other women.

-- I may be Bizarro Nomi. There's also a possibility that cbpotts is Bizarro Nomi. We'll let you know when we figure it out.

-- cbpotts is an exemplary roommate. She's fun to talk to while lying in the dark.

-- "No process for you!"

-- When taking a walk along the beach at sunset, one of the group should keep track of how long/far we've been walking.

-- Having a group of people who are (a) aware of my Shabbat issues and (b) capable of helping me with them makes conventions amazingly smooth.

-- Given the opportunity, I will geek out about editorial process/writing process with very little provocation. It's much more fun when others play too.

-- Blatant idiocy will, in fact, provoke me to squelch my instinct not to make trouble in public.

More Language Nattering

It's all over the reporting about Gonzales firing the prosecutors; it plays a significant role in the end of the West Wing episode "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet."

"I serve at the pleasure of the president."

Anyone know when the phrase was coined?