letter.cls documentation contains offensive term

[leingang]

This is a request for documentation enhancement only, and does not refer to any functionality.

Issue

One of the examples in the letter.cls documentation (line 843 of letter.dtx) contains a placeholder name for an institution. The name is a play on the real-life Institute for Advanced Study. It uses an antonym for advanced, which was, at one time, the accepted medical term for people with intellectual disabilities. Today the term is most often considered offensive, and the word itself is frequently avoided.

Proposed Solution

Change the placeholder name to something like Institute for Trivial Study, Institute for Rudimentary Study, Institute for Antediluvian Study, or any other term that maintains the original intent (to spoof on IAS) but avoids this outdated usage.

References

• US Social Security Administration rule on terminology August 1, 2013. In the public comment phase of the proposed rule change, 71 of 76 commenters enthusiastically supported replacing the term.
• Merriam-Webster's Dictionary definition N.B. the annotation dated, now offensive
• Google ngram for the word, 1800–2019

[GabbySeligman]

I kind of like the old term.