Postie cries foul over language of pranksters (From Worcester News)
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Postie cries foul over language of Times newspaper pranksters
11:05am Monday 13th August 2012 in News By Sarah Taylor
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DISGUSTED: Mr Nicholls with the letter (30098001)
A WORCESTER postman has spoken of his shock when he discovered a letter in his bag addressed to a Mr F *** Off.
Douglas Nicholls was doing his rounds in Hallow when the large letter appeared.
The experienced postman delivered the letter but couldn’t stop thinking about the offensive language.
The 53-year-old, of Warndon Villages in Worcester, said: “I couldn’t believe it when I saw the address. Even after 32 years working as postman I have never had anything like this.”
Inside the offensive envelope was a promotional Olympic Scrapbook sent out by the Times and Sunday Times.
Mr Nicholls said: “I delivered it at about noon on Friday. But afterwards I started thinking about it and felt even more offended.”
He returned to the house and spoke to the woman living there, who does not wish to be named.
“She told me she had thrown it away as she didn’t order it,” he said. “I asked if I could have it and she got it for me. I was very offended because I never swear. I have been brought up not to swear.”
When Mr Nicholls took his children to see Meet the Fockers he said he couldn’t even say the name of the film.
“I had to call it ‘meet the parents’,” he said. “If I had said the name of the film I would have had to pay my kids £5. That is why it shocked me so much.”
It is thought the rude name made it through the system because the prankster who input the name included a space between the first two letters of the offending word.
A Times and Sunday Times spokesman said: “While we have screening processes in place to ensure offensive language is not used in mailings, it was not picked up in this case because of the letter spacing used in the name.
“We apologise for any upset caused, and we are investigating ways to avoid this situation from occurring in the future.”
Comments(18)
Bob Churchill
says...
11:30am Mon 13 Aug 12
Maggie Would
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11:32am Mon 13 Aug 12
Vox populi
says...
12:02pm Mon 13 Aug 12
Come on WN you make anyone that lives in Worcester look like Mary Whitehouse.
Meanwhile back in Victorian central England:
Somebody swore
Oh and then somebody dressed provocatively and were refused entry to a night club
Then somebody had a tattoo which automatically means they are a murderer!
Really I am one for standards but please!
PaulMeUnder
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12:11pm Mon 13 Aug 12
You were offended, so what? Be offended. End of story
Pathetic
Leeolitina
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12:14pm Mon 13 Aug 12
one94
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12:53pm Mon 13 Aug 12
! This story is a wind up.
.
"When Mr Nicholls took his children to see Meet the Fockers he said he couldn’t even say the name of the film"....but he sat through an hour and a half of the movie where the name is used throughout, so obvioulsy not that offended then
Fog Based Japery
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2:05pm Mon 13 Aug 12
truth must out
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2:27pm Mon 13 Aug 12
jabroner
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3:37pm Mon 13 Aug 12
ushmush83
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4:05pm Mon 13 Aug 12
CJH
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5:15pm Mon 13 Aug 12
SAVA9E
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5:22pm Mon 13 Aug 12
Heffalump22
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7:57pm Mon 13 Aug 12
As for said postman that surprises me he actually read the envelope! If that is the worse he has come across in the 30 odd years working as a postie then he is lucky he really must have been having a slow post day. One thing did he get his bosses permission to speak to the News as they have not commented I wonder. I would advise he man's up after all you only have to walk down the street these days and that language comes at you from all corners. As to the Disgusted under his photo please its only a typed address its not like its body parts !
mr.meldrew
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9:15pm Mon 13 Aug 12
Cecil9995
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9:46pm Mon 13 Aug 12
alfiepie
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9:12am Tue 14 Aug 12
DizzyBint
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10:19am Wed 15 Aug 12
Bob Churchill says...
11:26am Mon 13 Aug 12
If someone intentionally ordered mail with swears in the address, to send to someone with malicious intent, then that's not very nice. However the victim herself doesn't sound too upset from the description in the article. And it's not exactly the worst thing going in the world. School kids tell each other to f- off every day and it's not nice but, unlike Mr Nicholls, most of us learn to cope with a bit of casual offence without running to the local news.
Writing swears in the address could simply have been a kind of protest against intrusive marketing (i.e. "I came to this page to order the booklet, **** it, but I don't want you to keep all my details").
I think it's more amazing that a postie thinks he has the right to knock on a stranger's door to ask about their mail!
And seriously, if you think it's mortally offensive to hear or read a word that sounds like a swear, then don't take your kids to see Meet the Fockers in the first place! It is, I guess, a central running joke in the franchise that Ben Stiller's character's family name sounds like a swear. At least the kids, if they saw the movie, may pick up on the message: that it is context, intent, tone and deployment of our language that matter, more than the black-and-white fact of what individual words we use.