October 22, 2006

Unreadable headlines.

Are you sometimes puzzled by headlines that are written so concisely that it's hard to tell whether words are nouns or verbs? Here's one I saw today:
Life peers face axe in Lords overhaul
Five of seven words could be either nouns or verbs!

I still remember and feel like laughing about a headline from a decade ago that began: "Clinton eyes higher..." He was looking toward higher funding or taxes for something or other, but it created the picture of a man whose facial features were migrating.

4 comments:

Ron said...

My local favorite: After Michigan had a decisive win over South Carolinas' Gamecocks, the student paper said next day, "M whipping leaves 'cocks blue."

Anonymous said...

Yoda could clear it up:

"Life peers face axe in Lords overhaul they do"

Simon said...

What an extraordinary series of contortions is being plagued on "the mother of all parliaments. "No single party would be allowed to command an overall majority, no matter how big its majority in the Commons"; "[t]o ensure that all groups are represented, the new commission would have to appoint some atheists." What a strange new Frankenstein's monster this upper chamber will be: half elected, with the other half appointed (by who knows what means) to make some crude attempt at representing all sections of society. The House of Lords was always undemocratic, but it was never as ungainly as this lumbering brute.

Mister DA said...

"Life Peers Face Ax In Lords"

And what in the world does it say about me, a life-long Libertarian leaning Republican, that I not only did not find the headline unreadable, I pretty much knew what it meant. Interesting article. England is trying to invent a Senate, but appears not to have a clue as to how to go about it.