Politics

Here's the historic front page.

Newspaper reporters often save historic front pages. Last year's front page announcing Park Geun-hye's official impeachment comes to mind as a recent example. But a recent one we shouldn't overlook is last weekend's edition, featuring the profanity "shit" prominently.

The word appeared in a teaser right under the paper name, about a story quoting Trump's bigoted comments against Haiti and Africa. The full text read: "Trump's slur on immigrants: US president's 'shithole' remark sparks fresh outrage," accompanied by a picture of the former reality TV star looking smug.

When I first saw the front page, I didn't know how to react. The responsible editor in me wanted to take out the word; my other side eventually won out.

On the one hand it is unprofessional and might offend readers. But on the other, I can't help but celebrate this tiny milestone.

Ultimately, it is a word the U.S. president uttered and it is in quotes. The vulgarity of his wording is part of the story, as has been the case too many times lately.

Over the past couple years America has produced a lot of vulgar moments. Last year we had short-lived White House Press Secretary Anthony Scaramucci's comments on rival Trump adviser Steve Bannon's autofellacio aspirations. This led to flustered journalists and pundits alike struggling to explain the nature of the comments.

And of course the year before that came the audio recording of Trump's "grab 'em by the pussy" comment, leading many parents to explain sex and sexual harassment to their children and also inspiring the "pussy hats" at the Women's March in Washington in protest of Trump's inauguration.

It is a great shame this is the world we find ourselves in, where a mind poisoned with evil thoughts toward humanity has such a powerful platform globally.

But also, I like swearing. Research suggests it is good for stress and blood pressure, which might account for how Trump has made it to his 70s on a diet of McDonald's and KFC.

I still remember when "South Park" got away with "shit" back in 2001, with characters uttering the "literal curse word" 162 times _ and nearly unleashing a mystical plague.

More recently, Netflix dropped the first f-bomb in Star Trek history on "Star Trek: Discovery" last October. "This is so fucking cool!" one character remarked before apologizing.

Her superior officer glared at her, before saying "No, cadet, it is fucking cool."

Trump's anti-immgrant remarks aren't so fucking cool, used in a negative sense. In either case, it's not the obscenity of the word used, but the intent of the message.

And that's something people have been slowly starting to understand. Societal conservatism has held back our tongues too long, and now we find it's the most conservative among us using the most vulgar words.

Years ago, either 2000 or 2001, I attended a Canadian University Press conference in Vancouver, where American author Dan Savage gave a highly inspirational keynote speech to the new generation of newspaper reporters.

The problem with newspapers, he said, was they were restrained because they catered to the most social conservative of their readers, the ones for whom they held back on profanity but also inventive content. His solution to fix the newspaper industry, overnight, stuck with me. Have newspapers print a swear word, just one, on the cover, for no good reason. The offended customers would cancel their subscriptions, and progressive younger, impressed by the move, would take their place. And then newspapers could move with their readers into the future.

I don't think that's quite what happened, but it's closer than I ever could have imagined.

Anyway, on my way to Dongdaemun I passed by a small Park Sa Mo protest. Spoilers, "Candlelight Revolution" = "Communist Revolution." What a depressing worldview where your salvation depends on the incompetent daughter of a long-dead dictator.

I circled the block to make a second pass.

A closer look. Yes, those are Israeli flags. Maybe they want Hollywood and the world banks to rescue them.

Just to show that's definitely what it said.

The old Dongdaemun shoe market.

Miracle again!

Because Westerners can't read numbers...

In the shoe market.

There's been a lot of heavy renovations here, and they seem settled on Sewoon Plaza as a name now. Somewhat confusing as there is an actual plaza by that name on the other side of this building, but this sign (and the one in the next picture) seem to indicate they're happy with Sangga being Plaza.

This is after I had a pretty heated discussion with a coworker that "Sewoon Mart" is the worst possible thing to call this complex.