I think you've got the right approach, Steve. Not that I think the concern I expressed warrants changing the room rating, but certainly Jon's does--reminds me of the person who got a warning message from the Eudora content filter because they were sending out a message that mentioned the President and Vice President, based only on flagging the one's last name and the other's first name, which as plain ol' words are perfectly innocent, but can be vulgar slang: George Bush and Dick Cheney. These filters just aren't as smart as we need them to be, yet.

Interesting you raise the question of kids, though. The one time I've done Barrett's at a "family" show (an international students' dinner to which the community was invited), Beth overcame my objections and talked me into singing "well hang them all" instead--on the basis of "family" concerns, and the fact that she worked in the International Student Advising Office at the time. To be frank, it really still didn't feel right to change it, but then again, this one guy who came from our church who's a bit conservative theologically (like my grandma, not like Falwell) enjoyed it immensely, never knowing the original might have offended him, as did his kids--kids just eat up that lively sea-shantyish stuff for some reason. But I think I'd still sing the original in the room, unless someone objected--different settings.

Would I have sung it to my foster daughter when she was a kid? Yeah. But then again, her (actual) mother sang "The Sexual Life of the Camel," so it was too late to protect her not-so-innocent ears. She turned out alright anyway. :-)

But there are no easy answers or hard-and-fast rules on this stuff, I don't think. I just know that if--unlikely as the occurrence may be--someone says something I'm singing makes them uncomfortable, for themselves or for their kids, I'll stop (if I'm reading the chat at the time, at least--those who've been in the room the last couple of weeks know the trouble I've run into by reading while singing (or was that sinning) :-) ).

Chris