Last week, while writing about the taboo that prevents millions of clinically depressed office workers from discussing their condition around the water cooler, I inadvertently broke another taboo.

I used the word “balls” in a description of a routine test that doctors perform on males. Various readers wrote in to complain that the term was inappropriate in a column about office life. I was touched that they could be bothered to react to such a minor act of vulgarity, given the major acts of vulgarity that are performed all the time in offices everywhere.