Pedants' Paradise

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  • kernelbogey
    Full Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 5808

    Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post

    The Shock of the News.
    I wish I'd said that.

    Comment

    • LMcD
      Full Member
      • Sep 2017
      • 8695

      Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
      Rise in UK deaths expected due to snow and ice weather warnings - The Guardian
      Perhaps we shouldn't have warned the snow and ice weather.

      Comment

      • Pulcinella
        Host
        • Feb 2014
        • 11119

        Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
        Rise in UK deaths expected due to snow and ice weather warnings - The Guardian
        Now changed:

        Rise in UK deaths expected as Met Office warns of snow and ice

        Comment

        • LMcD
          Full Member
          • Sep 2017
          • 8695

          Originally posted by Pulcinella View Post

          Now changed:

          Rise in UK deaths expected as Met Office warns of snow and ice
          That's better, but I suspect there's always a rise in UK deaths immediately after the Festive Season.

          Comment

          • oliver sudden
            Full Member
            • Feb 2024
            • 654

            I was slightly amused recently to see the ticker headline: “Sydney rings in the new year with fireworks, light shows”.

            The light given off is indeed one of the tell-tale features of fireworks, I thought to my pedantic self.

            (Does this count as a ‘crash blossom’? I think it might.)

            Comment

            • smittims
              Full Member
              • Aug 2022
              • 4397

              My old Dad would say ' that's not news. It would be news if they didn't ring in the new year with fireworks'.

              Comment

              • vinteuil
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 12957

                Originally posted by oliver sudden View Post
                I

                Does this count as a ‘crash blossom’?
                ... thank you for introducing me to the term : some nice examples here -

                A headline that is ambiguous because of its wording or punctuation


                Comment

                • smittims
                  Full Member
                  • Aug 2022
                  • 4397

                  'Red Generals fly back to front'.

                  'Giant Waves down Tunnel'.

                  Comment

                  • french frank
                    Administrator/Moderator
                    • Feb 2007
                    • 30518

                    To be pedantic, I think a 'crash blossom' involves a misreading (typically in a headline of some sort) which gives rise to a new word or term. It's not just an ambiguity. In that it's similar to a 'mondegreen' which is a mishearing of the words of a poem or song. If you remember the fate of the Bonnie Earl o' Moray ("They Lady Mondegreen...") ...



                    My own literary creation c. 1978 - 'Pub rents rocket' - would therefore not qualify as an earlier example of a crash blossom
                    It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                    Comment

                    • oliver sudden
                      Full Member
                      • Feb 2024
                      • 654

                      Originally posted by french frank View Post
                      To be pedantic, I think a 'crash blossom' involves a misreading (typically in a headline of some sort) which gives rise to a new word or term. It's not just an ambiguity.
                      I’m not sure how many of the Merriam-Webster examples fit this description though?

                      My favourite mangled headline of all (one I saw in the wild in 2004, in the hands of a friend of a friend who worked for the journal in question) concerns the unexpected dropping by Hamid Karzai of his vice-president from his ticket for the then-forthcoming presidential elections.

                      In surprise, Karzai drops powerful No. 2

                      Comment

                      • Old Grumpy
                        Full Member
                        • Jan 2011
                        • 3654

                        Originally posted by oliver sudden View Post

                        I’m not sure how many of the Merriam-Webster examples fit this description though?

                        My favourite mangled headline of all (one I saw in the wild in 2004, in the hands of a friend of a friend who worked for the journal in question) concerns the unexpected dropping by Hamid Karzai of his vice-president from his ticket for the then-forthcoming presidential elections.

                        In surprise, Karzai drops powerful No. 2

                        Comment

                        • french frank
                          Administrator/Moderator
                          • Feb 2007
                          • 30518

                          Originally posted by oliver sudden View Post
                          I’m not sure how many of the Merriam-Webster examples fit this description though?
                          Language usage moves at an ever-increasing pace! No sooner have you settled in your own mind what a word or phrase means than the meaning is out of date. But tomorrow it may be current again
                          It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                          Comment

                          • smittims
                            Full Member
                            • Aug 2022
                            • 4397

                            About thirty years ago I bought the Oxford Dictionary of New Words. Their 'newness' was attributed to their use in 'The News'. Many of them are now already obsolete. It reminded me of when we were children and my mother, joining us in watching the television,said 'look, she's jiving with her friends' . My sister turned to her scornfully and said 'Mother, you don't say "jiving" now'.

                            Comment

                            • Serial_Apologist
                              Full Member
                              • Dec 2010
                              • 37861

                              Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post

                              I wish I'd said that.

                              Comment

                              • Serial_Apologist
                                Full Member
                                • Dec 2010
                                • 37861

                                Originally posted by oliver sudden View Post

                                I’m not sure how many of the Merriam-Webster examples fit this description though?

                                My favourite mangled headline of all (one I saw in the wild in 2004, in the hands of a friend of a friend who worked for the journal in question) concerns the unexpected dropping by Hamid Karzai of his vice-president from his ticket for the then-forthcoming presidential elections.

                                In surprise, Karzai drops powerful No. 2


                                A drop in the ocean, if today's sewage mismanagement is anything to go by!

                                Comment

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