A few weeks ago I was editing a story about former Durham resident Peter Kramer's experience while working as a Red Cross volunteer in Natchez, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina.

In one anecdote, Kramer describes a conversation he had with a Louisiana family that had arrived at a shelter looking like the Beverly Hillbillies. Their 12-vehicle caravan was hauling cages bearing critters large and small, so shelter officials were reluctant to let them stay. In an effort to lighten the atmosphere, Kramer said, "Wait a minute! You must be country people!"

To wit, one of the evacuees responded, "Yeah, we're real [C-word]." You're probably wondering what term they used. We'll, you didn't read it then, and you won't read it now.

Turns out the self-descriptive term can be construed as both a point of pride and an ethnic slur for Cajuns, the nickname for Acadians, the French-speaking people who migrated to Louisiana from Nova Scotia.

I learned that from a Web site that features, of all things, an ethnic slur database. Who knew there were so many disparaging terms to refer to people in a derogatory manner?

It appears that practically everyone on this planet is subject to a slur of some kind.

What an awful waste of creativity. Makes you wonder if turkeys have names for us.