I’ve heard that newspapers are shy about using the word “suck”, which is astounding to me. It really shouldn’t be, I guess, since my own mother considered suck to be a pretty bad curse word.
Newspapers, like all news outlets, tend to focus on terrible things like murder, war and corruption. That’s what really sucks.
It’s not a bad word, though. It doesn’t even really mean anything. It just sounds good in a bad sort of way. I don’t have any affection for “suck”, but defending its use seems important, maybe because mom thought it was so bad.
One of my favorite comics is Zits. I can’t imagine doing a strip about a teenager without using the word suck. It’s like being a weatherman but not being allowed to use the word “temperature”.
No headache is like a “hole in the straw sucking hard” headache.