Headlines
There we were, at the beginning of the week, writing about reading "Next", the latest book from Michael Crichton, when we mentioned the BBC headline "Blondes to die out in 200 years" and the follow-up "Extinction of Blondes Vastly Overreported" headline in the Washington Post. Yesterday, Paraye Narat mailed to alert us about a story that Chidanand Rajghatta wrote on the blondes row for the Times of India. It appeared on 3 October 2002 and was adorned with the headline: "Blondes extinction report is pigment of imagination".
Talking of exceptional headlines, the Columbia Journalism Review has a section called The Lower Case which casts a cold eye on what gets lost when too much is compressed in a headline. A few examples:
Iranian Head Seeks Arms
Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
Miners Refuse to Work After Death
New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
War Dims Hope for Peace
Drunks Get Nine Months in Violin Case
U.S., Brits agree to bomb trial at Hague
Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
Typhoon Rips through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
Chef Throws His Heart into Helping Feed Needy
Plane Too Close to Ground, Crash Probe Told
Crack Found on Governor's Daughter
Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges
Jail regulators' hands tied in efforts to prevent abuse
Comments
My favourite is, I read somewhere, the world's oldest headline. It dates from December 2nd 1620: "The new tidings out of Italie are not yet come."
Posted by: Caroline Pierce | January 7, 2007 10:22 PM