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21 August 2006
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Scanning the Headlines

Incomprehensible headlines from CNN

I speak and largely comprehend colloquial English.  I know, for example, that when a headline says "Judge to rule on UK bomb suspects," it doesn't mean that a new form of torture has been discovered in which evildoers are transformed by judges into diffraction gratings.  Likewise, I understand that in "Boy, 12, boards plane without ticket, passport," it is the boy, not the aircraft, that is deficient in paperwork and that the aircraft probably has its airworthiness certificate and radio license properly displayed.  Moving along, I infer that in "Israel may stay for months in Lebanon," the synecdoche refers to Israel only, and "Lebanon" really does mean "Lebanon."  For a bit more synecdoche, "Paper sorry for Prince Harry groping pictures," may mean the management of the [news]paper is sorry that Harry was allowed to grope those otherwise pristine pictures, or perhaps, improbable as it seems, they are pictures of Harry performing some act of gropage. 

Which brings us to "Brainy RV def but preppy white posse's whack."  The little icon next to it means that it's a video, which further means it takes a lot more than idle curiosity to get me to actually scrutinize it.  I asked two people, both of whom are younger and far more hip ("hep") than I am to speculate about the headline's meaning.  This resulted in two blank stares. 

If you have a clue as to what this might mean, please let me know!  Me?  I'm taking the rest of this blogitem off before I find out that Barbaro has been arrested for assaulting the comeback trail.

Follow-up 23 November 2006


Why I'll never run out of material...

© 2006
Richard Factor