Headlines: Headless Body in Topless Bar

Today's news headline least likely to inspire readers

to continue on to the body copy...

US: Tangible progress

in Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks

    -- Associated Press

Vintage headline...

Self-proclaimed invisible man

a no-show at court hearing

  -- The Daily Herald

Vintage headline...

Iceberg lettuce hit by titanic rise in price

-- The Sunday Times of London

Clickbait headline (reports of Graham's death

are exaggerated)...

Lindsey Graham found dead

-- Christo Aivalis (a leading clickbait artist,

   on his YouTube channel)

@JosephDemps

By all means.

Fire away!

  -- cccmedia

A tedious headline.

The early 202: Debt doom looms

        -- The Washington Post

OMG, this headline could have appeared any day

for the past two months.  Another predictable

warning about the so-called debt ceiling that

predictably will be resolved in the brink of time

around June 1st.

(202) is the Washington, D.C., area code.

Another snoozer today...

Biden, McConnell call meeting

"productive," But Reach

No Agreement

  -- The New York Times

Headline writers overuse 'productive' for such

closed-door-meetings stories, a word

that is meaningless other than giving such

writers an obvious if empty headline.

Crime drops in Cuenca

and police credit citizen brigades

and warnings to thieves for the trend

   -- Cuenca, Ecuador, HighLife website

Oh, sure, it was the police-posted warning signs telling criminals

they'd be in trouble if they committed new crimes.

Ah, if it was only that simple!

My husband drove erratically,

claims to not remember it

and then took my dog.

-- Reddit headline for a post about an incident

in Massachusetts.

The headline seems humorous, although the

woman's story is harrowing. Her husband

lost it and almost forced her to exit the

vehicle while he gunned the motor.

Personification? Mixed metaphor?

City coffers see rainy days

-- this week in The Forum (Fargo, ND-Moorhead, MN),

   page 1 above the fold in Wednesday's print edition

The headline writer uses the headline jargon word

coffers as if a coffer (strongbox of organization's

financial reserves) had eyeballs. The story compares

the opinions of local elected officials about budget

shortfalls.

Probe, find, hit and rap are other words

that headline writers have historically fallen

back on -- short, concise verbs that imply action

or revelation.

cccmedia

The most famous Hollywood-news headline

of all time was probably what Variety printed

in 1935...

Hix Nix Stik Flicks

The playful headline topped an article about

how rural USA residents were not flocking

to movies depicting rural life. Hix is a deliberate

mis-spelling of hicks or rural persons. Stik refers to

"the sticks," meaning low-population rural

places. Nix is slang for no or "say no to."

cccmedia

An historically important headline appeared in

the New York Daily News when US President

Gerald Ford denied a federal bailout to

New York City during its fiscal crisis of 1975.

Ford to New York: Drop Dead

Although Ford eventually approved funds to

assist the city's comeback, this header is widely

viewed as having damaged the president's

reputation in the Big Apple in the 1976

presidential election.

Jimmy Carter defeated Ford in New York with

New York City going to Carter with 67 percent,

as he scored all the state's electoral votes.

This was pivotal in the close national election

and an example of a local headline writer

impacting national news.

Carter won the electoral college, 297 to 240.

Ford would have won the election had the

41 New York State electors swung to his column.

Ford's other problem in '76 was the backlash

to his decision to pardon ex-president Nixon

who had resigned amid Watergate disgrace

in 1974.