I published a "Soapbox" article in Publisher's Weekly called The Decent Thing to Call My Book a couple weeks ago, about the legal and personal challenges of talking about a book with the word "asshole" in the title. In the essay, I discuss -- among other things -- how paranoid some radio producers were about the host or me saying the "a-word" on the air, as they feared getting fined by the FCC and getting fired. Jon Keegan does drawings for Publishers Weekly, and captured the mood during quite a few of my interviews just perfectly with the above drawing. Check out his blog and comment .
By the way, my all time favorite weird censorship was by the BBC "presenter" who told me I could say "asshole" but not "arse." Yes, as the saying goes, we are two countries divided by a common language
The No Asshole Rule was out at my local library the day I went looking for it, so I put it on hold using the library's electronic catalog system.
When a librarian called me to let me know the book was available, they didn't leave the title of the book nor the author's name on my voice mail, as is their normal method of operation when notifying patrons of held books becoming available.
They simply said that, "A book you placed on hold is now available."
Posted by: The Comedian | October 07, 2007 at 01:48 PM