Reading the Language Log, I was recently entertained by their recounting of the New York Times quoting George W. Bush’s usage of the word ‘shit‘, and explaining that the first usage on their hallowed pages was when quoting the Richard Nixon Watergate transcripts, where he says “I don’t give a shit what happens”. It seems the transcript was presented in various forms of censorship in the papers, the Senate hearings and other media coverage, with some versions deleting the expletive or working around it.

Now comes Gaiman, in the Sandman story entitled Golden Boy (probably #54 or so, collected in the 8th paperback, World’s End) where Richard Nixon appears to the young Prez Rickard in a dream and explains about the machinations of power. This is his quote:

Forget chasing skirts. You got power, the skirts chase you. Even that dumb [expletive deleted] Jack Kennedy. Even he knew that.

I always chalked the deleted expletive to some obscure style of speech attributed to Nixon, or an odd Vertigo editing choice. Now I know it refers directly to the Watergate transcripts, which make it so much more fun.