This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
The winter of early 1981 was a simpler time, a gentler time. Like so many college students, I was watching Saturday Night Live in the living room of my small dorm when the SNL cast member Charles Rocket dropped an f-bomb on live television. I looked around at my fellow students. Did we just hear that? The show was already struggling with ratings, and within a few weeks, Rocket and the producer—and eventually, most of the cast—were fired. Oh, to be so young again, and so easily shocked at someone dropping the Mother of All Obscenities on live television.
Actually, the Mother of All Obscenities