{"id":15003,"date":"2012-06-25T23:24:05","date_gmt":"2012-06-26T07:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=15003"},"modified":"2023-12-17T13:28:43","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T21:28:43","slug":"unintentional-double-entendres-in-the-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=15003","title":{"rendered":"Unintentional double entendres in the press"},"content":{"rendered":"

With all the talk of bullying in schools<\/strong>, I was surprised to read a Page 1 headline in the June 14 Point Reyes Light<\/em> that said that none of the bullying laws attempts to make students more compassionate: “No bullying law aims to bring compassion into schools.”<\/p>\n

For the record, the unintended double entendre was the result of leaving out a grammatically required hyphen. The correct usage would be: “No-bullying law aims…” When two or more words before<\/span> a noun add up to an adjective modifying the noun, they should be hyphenated. We write a “well-stocked refrigerator” but not “the refrigerator is well-stocked” because in the latter case “well stocked” follows<\/span> the noun.<\/p>\n

There is one exception to this rule. When one of the words describing the noun to follow is an adverb ending in ly,<\/span> it is not hyphenated. In other words, we do not write a “nearly-naked damsel” although we do write an “almost-naked damsel.”<\/p>\n

The Columbia Journalism Review<\/em><\/strong> has helped produce two books of newspaper gaffes, most of which are far more noteworthy than The Light’s<\/em>. Both books are available online. The first is called Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim <\/em>(1980). It takes its title from a headline in the Herald Independent<\/em> in Wisconsin. A hyphen between dog<\/em> and bite<\/em>, by the way, would have eliminated the confusion. Of course, not all garbled journalese results from hyphenation errors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not only is the caption enigmatic, the word should be “bales,” not “bails.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Here are other examples from the book. Sometimes it takes awhile to figure out what the headline writer or copy editor was really trying to say. A headline from The Washington Post<\/em>: “All Utah Condemned to Face Firing Squad.” Or from the Eugene, Oregon, Register-Guard<\/em>: “Prostitutes appeal to Pope.”<\/p>\n

Another case of cannibalism? A headline in The Washington Post<\/em>: Chester Morrill, 92, was Fed Secretary. From the Norwich Bulletin<\/em>: Marital Duties to Replace Borough Affairs for Harold Zipkin. From the Atlanta Journal<\/em>: Connie Tied, Nude Policeman Testifies.<\/p>\n

From The Hartford Courant<\/em>: Rosemary Hall Gets New Head. From The Tampa Tribune<\/em>: City May Impose Mandatory Time for Prostitution. Or from The Charlotte Observer<\/em>: Police Kill Man With Axe. And from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer<\/em>: Tuna Biting Off Washington Coast.<\/p>\n

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From the Daily Sun\/Post<\/em> in San Clemente: “Cold Wave Linked To Temperatures.” A paragraph from the Metropolis<\/em> (Illinois) Planet<\/em>: “Owners of all dogs in the city of Metropolis are required to be on a chain or in a fenced-in area.” From The News<\/em> in Groton, Connecticut: “Police union to seek blinding arbitration.”<\/p>\n

From The Cumberland<\/em> (Maryland) News<\/em>: “New Orleans To Get Force of 50 State ‘Supersops.'” Probably to stagger around the French Quarter. And from The Missourian<\/em>: “Less Mishaps Than Expected Mar Holiday.” Or how ’bout this from the Chicago Daily News<\/em>? “Woman better after being thrown from high-rise.”<\/p>\n

From The<\/em> (Gainesville) Times<\/em>: “Missionary risked dysentery and bigamy in eight-day trip to Nigerian villages.” Say what? (Any reader who can decipher this one is urged to send in a comment.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In the words of singer Rod Stewart, “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”<\/em><\/p>\n

From The Lethbridge <\/em>(Alberta) Herald<\/em>: “Drunk gets nine months in violin case.” A headline in the Gainsville<\/em> (Florida) Sun<\/em>: “Nationwide Heroine Crackdown Includes Arrest of Three Here.” And from the Williamsport<\/em> (Pennsylvania) Sun-Gazette<\/em>: “Doe Season Start Called Success; Four Hunters Stricken in Woods.”<\/p>\n

From the Yakima<\/em> (Washington) Herald Republic<\/em>: “Accused pair of wire cutters arraigned.” While from the upstate Seattle Times<\/em>: “Bar trying to help alcoholic lawyers.” And from The Arizona Republic<\/em>: “Scientists are at loss due to brain-eating amoeba.”<\/p>\n

From The Contra Costa Times<\/em>: “Greeks Fine Hookers.” Oh, are they? But never on Sunday. From the Detroit Free Press<\/em>: “Police Can’t Stop Gambling.” And from the Fort Worth Tribune<\/em>: “He Found God At End of His Rope.”<\/p>\n

From the Buffalo Courier-Expres<\/em>s: “Child’s Stool Great For Use in Garden.” And from the Tonawanda<\/em> (New York) News Frontier<\/em>: “Teen-age prostitution problem is mounting.” Announcement in the Vermonter<\/em>: “AN ITALIAN SINNER will be served at 5:30 p.m. at the Essex Center United Methodist Church.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From the Detroit Free Press<\/em>: “Milk Drinkers Turn to Powder.” And from The<\/em> (Ottawa) Citizen<\/em>: “People should evacuate when gas odor present.” Another scatalogical double entendre, this one from the Lewiston<\/em> (Idaho) Morning Tribune<\/em>: “Columnist gets urologist in trouble with his peers.”<\/p>\n

The second book of newspaper gaffes <\/strong>collected by the Columbia Journalism Review<\/em> is called Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge<\/em> (1987). The book takes its title from a headline in the Milford<\/em> (Connecticut) Citizen<\/em>. From The Toronto Star<\/em>: “His humming rear end is a major distraction.” From The Guardian<\/em> in England: “British left waffles on Falklands.”<\/p>\n

And from The<\/em> (Kitchener, Ontario) Record<\/em>: “Woman off to jail for sex with boys.” A horrible double entendre from the Reading<\/em> (Pennsylvania) Eagle<\/em>: “How You Can Lick Doberman’s Leg Sores.”<\/p>\n

A headline from our own San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>: “Residents were shocked each time their neighbors went on a murder spree.” And this from The Alabama Journal<\/em>: “Blind Woman Gets New Kidney From Dad She Hasn’t Seen In Years.”<\/p>\n

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No wonder one of the Urban Dictionary’s<\/em> definitions for double entendre is: “a word or phrase that has a double meaning, with one of the meanings usually naughty or rude.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With all the talk of bullying in schools, I was surprised to read a Page 1 headline in the June 14 Point Reyes Light that said that none of the bullying laws attempts to make students more compassionate: “No bullying law aims to bring compassion into schools.” For the record, the unintended double entendre was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[317,318],"class_list":["post-15003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-point-reyes-light-newspaper","tag-double-entendres","tag-newspaper-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15003"}],"version-history":[{"count":158,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40314,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15003\/revisions\/40314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}