Pedants' Paradise

[kernelbogey]

The Shock of the News.

I wish I'd said that.

[LMcD]

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.

[Pulcinella]

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

[LMcD]

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.

[oliver sudden]

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.)

[smittims]

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

[vinteuil]

I

Does this count as a ‘crash blossom’?

... thank you for introducing me to the term : some nice examples here -

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/crash-blossom-words-were-watching

[smittims]

'Red Generals fly back to front'.

'Giant Waves down Tunnel'.

[french frank]

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...") ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen#cite_note-Wright-6

My own literary creation c. 1978 - 'Pub rents rocket' - would therefore not qualify as an earlier example of a crash blossom

[oliver sudden]

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

[Old Grumpy]

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

[french frank]

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

[smittims]

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'.

[Serial_Apologist]

I wish I'd said that.

[Serial_Apologist]

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!