Cross about the Crossword (Calgary Sun Censorship?)

I was doing Saturday's New York Times Crossword puzzle in the Calgary Sun (Each paper runs the Times puzzle and I buy the paper to do it based on which paper costs less on any given day.) Both papers run what I call the "idiot puzzle" in addition to the Times puzzle. I noticed yesterday's answers to the idiot puzzle had been replaced by a brown square that said inside it,

"Solution to yesterday's crossword unavailable due to language that may be offensive to some. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Well, of course I had to dig out yesterday's paper and do it, thinking as I rummaged the recycling whether I could send in my objection to "FROZEN" or "ALBUQUERQUE" as found in today's puzzle and thus get the answers censored.

So you're wondering what they censored.

There were two that someone could possible find offensive.
15 Across -- "A malicious woman with a fierce temper" Answer: HARPY
Dictionary.com says, "2.(lowercase) a scolding, nagging, bad-tempered woman; shrew."
50 Down -- "An American Indian woman" Answer: SQUAW
Dictionary .com says, "1. Often Offensive. a North American Indian woman, esp. a wife.
2. Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
a. a wife.
b. any woman or girl."

In the former, a slangy derogation, or as my dictionary of slang says, used in the 1970's to mean a lesbian. Out here in redneck land the idea of a lesbian could be offensive and the idea that any lesbian might live in Alberta would probably be terrifying to some.

As for the latter, no mention of the clue itself. "North American Indian" has probably been replaced by "First Nation" or "Aboriginal" or "Native American" or "Native Canadian" or "Indigenous Peoples" depending who you ask I don't think "American Indian" has been around for a long time.
For more info look at the Wiki article that begins:
"Squaw is a spelling of an eastern Algonquian First nation morpheme, meaning "woman," that appears in numerous Algonquian dialects variously spelled as squa, skwa, esqua, sqeh, skwe, que, kwa, ikwe, etc." And, check out: The Sociolinguistics of the S-Word by William Bright, University of Colorado.

Upcoming Readings

Hey all,
Here are my upcoming readings:

October 1, Paragraph Books, Montreal, 7:00 PM.

October 4, LitLive, Sky Dragon Centre, Hamilton, 7:30 PM.

I hope to see some of you there!!

Some extra curricular reading and listening

Pick up the literary magazine Third Wednesday, published out of Michigan:

I have a poem in the Summer 2009 issue. Thanks Third Wednesday!

If this week is seeming long, check out poet John Giorno on YouTube. It's the perfect tonic. Crank the speakers at work and enjoy.

The system was breaking down and a half bent nail.

We are reading Ashbery in class but I won't report on it here (student privacy etc, etc.) I can, however, vouch for this: "The system was breaking down...Who has seen the wind? Yet it was precisely this that these enterprising but deluded young people were asking themselves. They were correct in assuming that the whole question of behavior in life has to be rethought each second;"

The book that really surprised me lately was failure by Philip Schultz. Here's a wonderful book of poems by a former Pulitzer winner that -- I'll use a bit of his own ideas here -- like leaves glow in the sun, and fall and could be raked up or could set one meditating on life. You know when someone says, "you're staaaring"? Yeah. He writes, "I could take a walk with my wife and try/ to explain the ghosts I can't stop speaking to./ Or I could read all those books piling up/ about the end of understanding.../ Meanwhile, it's such a beautiful morning,/ the changing colors, the hypnotic light." This excerpt gives the flavor of the best ones here.

Interesting that both poets are engaged in recollections, in the pointillist smattering of memory over their consciousness. Everything's a pretext for digression, feeling, evaluation. Life as a montage.

Along the River that Flows Uphill: From the Orinoco to the Amazon

I've reviewed this book for Bookpleasures.com run by Norm Goldman. He should be posting it soon. Check out his website here!