Over lunch today I finished Jill Lepore's article on Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk (Sept. 18).
I am still laughing over what Mr. Shawn would say about this sentence (from Lepore, not Isaacson or Musk):
"The book upholds a core conviction of many executives: sometimes to get shit done you have to be a dick."

Even I'm a little shocked by that. Not disapproving exactly, because I don't really care if people swear. Maybe in context the wording sort of characterizes the gruff, let's-get-er-done attitude of people who think along those lines. But as a writer I usually try to stay away from profanity except in a direct quote (and even then, in the newspaper, we'd have to substitute [expletive]).
Did I already mention (yes, I think I already did) that a few years ago I wrote a story in which I used the phrase "flipping cold" (about people's facial hair getting covered with frost in Minnesota in January)? The editor emails me, "I don't think we can get away with 'flipping.'" And I responded "So shall we just go with fucking, then?" Later I heard from another coworker that this editor doesn't let his teenage kids say "flipping."

I feel like even Mr. Shawn might have been OK with "flipping."