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 Post subject: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2003 9:29 pm 
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The Sun-Times ran a story this week about the upcoming opening of a play called "Puppetry of the Penis.'' For those of you who missed this, the play stars the penis is various forms of manipulation. (Kind of like those balloon magicians ...)<p>
The headline:<p> The thing's the play<p> I thought that was pretty darn good ...


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 Post subject: Re: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2003 9:57 pm 
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Location: Bethesda, Md.
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by dasher:
The headline:<p> The thing's the play<p> I thought that was pretty darn good ...<hr></blockquote><p><cough><p>Let's just say "it's been done" and leave it at that.


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 Post subject: Re: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2003 10:07 pm 
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Blanp, I knew you'd say that! :)


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 Post subject: Re: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2003 10:31 pm 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by dasher:
Blanp, I knew you'd say that! :) <hr></blockquote><p>Again, you're being deliberately provocative. You know perfectly well that we tear things down around here, not praise them.<p>(A friend of mine avoids this site because, she says, it's "too negative." Well, "duh"!)


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 Post subject: Re: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Fri Jan 24, 2003 12:37 am 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by blanp:
<p>Again, you're being deliberately provocative. You know perfectly well that we tear things down around here, not praise them.<p>(A friend of mine avoids this site because, she says, it's "too negative." Well, "duh"!)<hr></blockquote><p>Yeah, leave that positive stuff to Poynter.


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 Post subject: Re: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Sat Jan 25, 2003 10:38 pm 
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Location: Albuquerque, N.M. USA
I'll be a bit argumentative, if not negative.<p>Let's not just say it's been done before. I don't have nexis access, so could you tell us where and how often it's been done before? I see that it's an O. Henry title and the title to an episode of "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" (!) (btw, Jean Kerr died a couple of weeks ago), but has it been used much in headlines before and was any a specific reference to a penis? If not, then maybe we shouldn't just say it's been done before and should just give someone a little credit for having fun with a headline. <p>It's a thoroughly entertaining headline and a reference i'd never seen before and probably neither had a vast majority of the Sun-Times readers. <p>I know i'm leading with my chin on this one, but then i don't have any rigid rules about trotting out a play on words, even if O. Henry -- surprise! -- beat me to it.


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 Post subject: Re: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Sat Jan 25, 2003 10:59 pm 
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Toronto Star
August 25, 2001 Saturday Ontario Edition <p>HEADLINE: The thing's the play for penis puppeteers <p>Richard Ouzounian, THEATRE CRITIC <p>It's a birthday that Jackie will never forget. <p>She's a cherubic, cheerful lady of a certain age and she'd been out to celebrate with friends over a dinner at Swiss Chalet. Then she wound up on stage during the audience participation portion of The Puppetry Of The Penis (****), which opened last night at the New Yorker Theatre, and found herself holding a naked man's legs in the air while he twisted his genitals into the shape of an Australian fruit bat.


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 Post subject: Re: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2003 1:41 am 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by jjmoney62:
It's a thoroughly entertaining headline ....
<hr></blockquote><p>No, it's not.
"Thing. Oh. You mean THAT thing. Giggle."
It's a baby-talk baby step up from "F-Word."


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 Post subject: Re: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2003 1:58 am 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by jjmoney62:
give someone a little credit for having fun with a headline.<hr></blockquote><p>It's like I don't know you.
Headlines are not for copy editors to have fun with.


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 Post subject: Re: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2003 2:32 am 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by blanp:
It's like I don't know you.
Headlines are not for copy editors to have fun with.
<hr></blockquote><p>Most of the time, that's true. But given the subject matter, it would be hard not to have fun with it. In fact, a straightforward lede might even seem out of place.


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 Post subject: Re: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2003 3:11 am 
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Speaking of recycling headlines from the Toronto Star:<p>Toronto Star
November 1, 2001
<B>The Keys to happiness</B>
At the end of the lazily winding concrete ribbon lies Key West, a part of Florida that makes the hours on the highway worthwhile <p>The Washington Post
January 26, 2003
<B>The Keys to Happiness</B>
Drinking up Florida's southernmost islands to the very last drop


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 Post subject: Re: Good hed of the week
PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2003 9:16 am 
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Location: Albuquerque, N.M. USA
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr> Originally posted by jjmoney62:
It's an endlessly clever headline... <hr></blockquote><p> <blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by blanp:
<p>No, it's not.
<hr></blockquote><p>Yes it is.<p>[ January 26, 2003: Message edited by: jjmoney62 ]</p>


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