linked? the hed makes it look like she was a survivor of the crash, but not that case. what do you call these kinds of strangely phrased hedlines? is there a word for them?

Crash blossoms?

I think you answered your own question, Dan. "Crash blossom" would be an excellent neologism for infelicitously worded headlines.

Credit for this neologism must go to Nessie3. Hear! Hear! I love it.

A lo, a crash blossom to end all crash blossoms:

Man held for attempted murder of policeman after detention for confining girl expires

That's exhausting to read........ you have an eye for these crash blossoms!

More like Japan Today and the Kyodo News wire service have a rare talent for them.

A pair from the NYT today:

* Names Deal Cracks Swiss Bank Secrecy

* China Shares Regain Some Ground

Wow! A new journalism term is born: crash blossoms.....

and they are apparently blossoming all over. Somebody should put them in a book or a blog devoted to them...... hey, that's a good idea! Nessie3, with your permission, and giving full credit to you for coming up with this great "catch" and the coinage too, I will create a blog right now called "Crash Blossoms" and start cataloguing these things above and more as they come in. My crash blossom secretary will handle the details.

Nessie3, I set it up here:

http://amafubme.blogspot.com/

This sort of enthusiasm for new argot makes me queasy. On the other hand, John McIntyre's incomplete glossary of endangered journalism jargon is an entertaining read.

Fears for Indian tiger after Chinese green light for sale of animal products
(Times Online)

Only about 30 to 40 tigers survive in the wild in China. But about 5,000 live in tiger farms, where they are bred at great speed.

• Many Sic! items are newspaper headlines whose brevity obfuscates. A post on Tuesday on the Testy Copy Editors forum led to a suggestion for a generic term: crash blossom. This is from an example posted in the thread, taken from the Japan Today site: “Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms”. To interpret — Diana Yukawa, who lost her father in the 1985 Japan Airlines crash, has become a successful violinist. Thanks to Chris Waigl for telling me about this. (World Wide Words)

Aussie newspaper’s shock Caster claim (The Times of South Africa)

Saw one a few days ago on the BBC site that said Army makes safe 600lb bomb. I'd have posted then but the TCE site was down, and by the time it was back up they'd changed the hed.

This reminded me of my favorite redundancy flag: What's the difference between a "dangerous weapon" and the other kind?

(Turns out someone had found a large piece of unexploded ordnance from WWII and the army disarmed it, thus making it safe. But the image of a giant bomb suitable for use as an end table did give pause.)

I'm so glad you specified a little more about the story, as when you click on the article link now you get:

Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms
By May Masangkay

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

It doesn't exactly make things any clearer! I think a local reader more familiar with the acrononym JAL might have a better chance of semi-understanding the headline, but it just goes to show you should almost never use acronyms in headlines unless they are so common as to be beyond misunderstanding.

Bill.

P.S. Hello from a brand new member - I'm an Irish copy editor in China. There's something you don't hear every day :-)

Welcome indeed - I'm surprised there is any demand for editing Irish in China. Or should that be erse?

Hi there Katie. I can only assume you're joking - I'm Irish, the copy editing is in China, and I thought it would go without saying it was through English! The new company I'm going to be working for - China Radio International http://www.crienglish.com - does also have services in Arabic, French, Spanish and German as well as Mandarin Chinese though, so I guess it's worth specifying. :-)

Bill.

I CAN tend to be terribly literal at times, and it IS part of my sense of humour, Bear with this testy lot and you will get to enjoy us.

Able was I erse I saw Albion.

It would be "Irish" or "Irish Gaelic."

There once was a man of Dun Laoghaire,
Who propounded an interesting thaoghaire:
That the language of Erse
Has a shortage of verse
As its spelling makes poets too waoghaire.

Alle righte, alle righte.

Hilarious! Although a fastidious editor back home would definitely add an accent called a fadha to Dún Laoghaire. As to the language, it's generally known simply as 'Irish' within Ireland, or 'Gaeilge' which means Gaelic in the language itself.

Bill.

P.S. My partner - a New Mexico native who high schooled in Lubbock - asks if your name means you edit'er!

I'll edit'er if she's game. Might be fun.

I used to work in Boston
In a big department store
I used to work in Boston ...

No health coverage tied to 45,000 deaths a year (MSNBC)

AT&T complains Google Voice blocks calls it can't

The entire story is incomprehensible.

Appearing beside that story on the website:

Top articles in News & Opinion

1. Tufts University bans nookie if roomie ‘is present’

Man donates rape reward to victim

**It's not what you think.**

FYI
RICE FARMING
Rice — a staple of unstable future, funds?

Wigeon painting tops stamp art contest [UPI]

Many angry man wouldn't marry interracial couple [AP] hat tip: wsj.com

Angels need bats to rise from dead to stay alive (USA Today)

Us and them department - from BBC News...

Flat body murder probe launched

Deck = A murder investigation has been launched after a woman's body was discovered in an Edinburgh flat

Y'all do know that most of these are intentional and thought to be clever by the writers?

That's what makes them egregious.

I think that's more two-faced than crash blossomish, but it is pretty damned funny. It must've taken me upward of two minutes to figure it out. But I'm kind of tired.

Multiple crash blossoms daily is the standard here. Here are two front-pagers that caught my eye this weekend:

"Dothan quilt
show honors
heritage"

(It's a wire story, so the paper didn't archive its version and its hed. The online version wouldn't have shown the breaks that make it blossom anyway.)

Online now, "Tide defensive lineman’s blocks salvage game."

Officers accused
of inciting violence
to testify before
police ethics panel

(Globe and Mail last weekend)

This one has me completely baffled:

Tiny tech sparks cell signal find

Obviously a story about a development by a tekkie company in Tiny Township (yes really) in northern Ontario. After that, I'm baffled.

Thierry Henry clearly handled before playing the ball for William Gallas to score the equaliser which saw France win the play-off 2-1 on aggregate. (BBC Sport)

Polanski prepares for luxury Alpine house arrest (AP)

Knox convicted, sentenced to 26 years in Italy (AP, via Yahoo News)

Now I know why party poopers have the bad rep.

GM plant to save millions from malaria

Yes, this one is regionally specific. But still..

You must sit under the sun, drink good wine and eat delicious food for the rest of your life, hahahaha!

From the local rag:
Haitians flee capital seeking food

Capital is voracious and amoral.

Not a crash blossom, but certainly a groaner, from the same source:

Haitians mourn as rescuers find another survivor in rubble

Sorry, but this has to be said before we wrap up: What an awful illustration.

Floating college sinks; all safe

(sorry...no link)

Hong Kong Auction Prompts Home-Asking-Price Rises, Standard Says

I especially like the "Standard says."

Haha! Talk about trying to put the whole story in the headline. There's almost as much info in that head as in the three paragraphs beneath it :-)

Bill.

ON this morning's WSJ.Com homepage: Firms Tap Record Cash Piles for Deals

(no unfortunate but hilarious double meaning; merely incomprehensible)

Yet another malodorous blossom from the wsj.com homepage:

Likely Fed Picks Back Low Rates

Kudos for the last two, JJ

NYT home page: Parents Reunited With Baby Pulled Rubble in Haiti

Stimulus funds fuel prescribed burns in state forest [WickedLocalPlymouth]

Rogue Thai general aiding protesters shot in head

Machine repairs dwarf thieves' haul
[The Scotsman]

Dow Surges as Europe Fears Ebb
(WSJ Online)

Hollywood Eyes
Shortcut to TV

(The Wall Street Journal, May 22-23, lede story no less.)

N.Y. man seeking help for stray dog arrested on DWI charges
[silive.com]

FWP relocates grizzly killing livestock at Star Meadow Ranch

http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-re ... 002e0.html

Star Meadow Ranch: Home of the meanest cows in Montana...

Sebelius stumps for anti-childhood obesity plan [AP]

Cop Punches Woman Video Goes Viral! [Right TV]

Paterson police in search of missing 83-year-old woman may have Alzheimer's [N.J.com]

Denver cops kill man with fake gun [Denver Post]

hat tip: fark.com

In Faulty Computer Suit, Window to Dell’s Fall [Times]

They fixed that last one. It's now:

In Faulty Computer Suit, Window to Dell’s Decline

Hold on. They "fixed" it again. This should be clear as a bell:

In Faulty-Computer Suit, Window to Dell Decline

Suit Over Faulty Computers Highlights Dell’s Decline

The latest is a little klumsy, but understandable. Next time, perhaps someone will think about it before posting a headline. Wait. Never mind.

But ... but ... the latest hed lacks wordplay.

AP:
Surgeon jailed for killing 3 appeals in Australia

House Inquiry on Waters Tied to Bank [Times]

Council hires ban bid taxi firm

(Pointed out by John McIntyre.)

That's a crappy headline, but I'm not sure it's a crash blossom.

Didn't you have visions of bizarre carpentry? Or is it just me (and my equally twisted friend who pointed it out to me)?

I did but I'm not sure that makes it a crash blossom. We may have to work on a definition. Since the term was not my invention, I am unqualified.

Phillip, it seems to me that one essential element of a crash blossom is a word that can serve as either a noun or a verb. In other words, it seems to me that the original and the majority of the follow-ups cited have a word that can serve as either a second verb or the object of the first.

So we have a pattern of subject-verb-ambiguous word pattern that can be interpreted as either subject-verb-object or subject-(verb phrase modifying the subject)-verb. Someone who recalls more grammar than I might come up with better terminology.

And a second essential element seems to be that, without the full story, it's next to impossible to figure out what in the heck is going on.

The thing that gets me is that the Internet was supposed to free headline writers from the constraint of tight counts. Yet we still get the inscrutable shorthand that leads to these headscratchers.

Yes, but there's still room to add "a" or even "is a hit" to this one to add a bit of coherence.

Thank you, Search Engine Optimization, which depends on keywords, not clarity. Presumably, enough humanoid robot fans will find the story and click on the link to make clarity and line-filling less than an afterthought.

I can't disagree but, in fairness, I saw plenty of headlines just as bad before there was a Web.

"Efforts Meant to Help Workers Batter South Africa’s Poor"

Don't know about the rest of you but I love it when workers are getting help at battering the poor.

agreed, but "squeeze" is considerably funnier.

Just caught up with the FDA/salmon CB. That might be my favorite one yet. Awful on every level!

We need some sort of crash blossom item in the Testy Copy Editors merchandise store.

Just in time for Xmas, of course.
I think such a product would require design skill beyond my meager abilities. Volunteers, step up!

Fortunately, copyright laws prohibit any logo involved from stealing part of the baffling (and, IMHO, awful) illustration that ran with the NYT crash blossom piece.

"TCE: Tracking the wily crash blossom since 2009"

(Sounded like a good idea till I wrote it down. Too linguistically lame for copy editor gear. Never mind.)

Here's one for the file. More a headache inducer than a crash blossom -- unless you glance at it while walking past the coin box. Made me back up and look again.



(Bonus "infobox" with non sequitur title and narrative text that neither condenses nor expands on what's in the story.)

A truly serious HUH??

From "this day in history," the NYT cover in 1968:

Soviet Bids U.S. Confer; Calls for 'Normalization'


Bonus track: This deck hed from the 'Nixon Wins' main hed:

President-Elect Vows His Administration Will Be 'Open'

(I guess we should have paid closer attention to those quotation marks.)

Man accused of trying to run down ex-girlfriend after rejected marriage proposal was holding flowers at time of arrest, officials say [LAT]

I note that many, if not most, of the headlines at http://www.crashblossoms.com/ are not crash blossoms at all.

'Dog'

Pilots' Claims in Crash Files Dog Med Test Company

I had that on my clipboard on my way here ...

Immigration numbers hit by property rule change

[The Standard, Hong Kong]

First thought, "only the Brits..." but turns out to be only on The Google. Paper did a bit better.
Whale who swam up the River Thames skeleton put on display

Disused Amlwch branch line reopening study begins [BBC]

Superman Reboot Diane Kruger Involvement Shot Down [HDR]

Free Trove of Music Scores on Web Hits Sensitive Copyright Note

NYT