Don’t you just love English?
Ok, I was scanning the news this evening and ran across this headline (on CNN if you must know) “Britney Reveals Hot New Body”. Now my first thoughts were “Who Cares?” Then I thought did she steal it? Then can I get a new body too, my knees aren’t what they used to be. And again with that thought, How did they attach it and why not a new brain? All that from one little headline.
Now over the years, I’ve noticed many headlines that can be read in more than one way. Most of this is due to the fact that headlines are rarely punctuated. Good punctuation can define what the sentence means, bad punctuation can give another meaning entirely. Words with multiple meanings can be used to misinterpret the meaning too.
This tendency in headlines has even given the late night talk show hosts something to ‘talk’ about. And they just keep showing up in the papers, and now on line. You would think that avoiding this would be taught in Journalism schools. Or not, maybe it sells more papers. So news day, add a heading that people will take different than intended, It should sell more papers…
I guess it wouldn’t be fair to just leave you with one headline would it?
So for your pleasure
And finally
Enjoy…