A string of words out of context can mean many things to many people. Newspaper headlines have a funny way of condensing information that sometimes goes awry ("X-Ray of Dean's Head Shows Nothing" comes to mind*). The following headline was brought to my hubby's attention by way of illustrating this point. To this fellow, and to us and most of the people we associate with the words "Vikings reportedly trade Moss to Raiders" looks like the lead in to an exciting article on newly discovered trans-Atlantic trade practices of the early Middle Ages. That was his first impression, mine as well. Obviously it has something to do with adults playing games for money, which is far less interesting in my book. Feh.
*Refers to an incident in the 30s(?) involving baseball player Dizzy Dean, who was struck rather severely in the head by a ball and subsequently rushed to the hospital.
as someone in the word business, apreciated your last post immensely. very funny.
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorites (real examples): "High Speed Train Could Reach Valley in Five Years; "Teenage Girls Often Have Babies Fathered By Men"; or "Man Shoots Neighbor With Machete."
nice blog. will check again.
That's some machete! Of course, to so many newspaper people "shoot" equals "kill", since it doesn't occur to them that guns are ever used for anything else (*sigh*). I also want to know the other ways of fathering children...sounds like sci-fi!
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