Just coming over to say thank you for saying something about this. I actually cringed when I saw that title because I knew that was a really poor choice of words. Regardless of how an author feels about a word, if it has an offense connotation to it, just don't use it. Don't even invite the possibility of offending someone and creating wank. And when you're called out, don't argue about someone being offended. Just apologize, fix it and move on.

Also LOL @ the new anon comment. I think this is what my weekend was missing. Internet hilarity and fail.