Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Headlines, airline 'stories', and just what is a hustler?

I have been seeing ambiguous headlines in ST. I had put this one on Facebook three days ago:


Headline writers must realise that while the label "criminal lawyers" may be understood in the context of the text of a particular story, such a label will have an unintended meaning in a headline such as the one above!

Here's another recent vague headline (spotted by KA):


Are the kids the ones in trouble? Or is the professor in trouble?

How about this one from today's ST (Dec 3)?...


Is the headline saying that:
(a) SPH is building a 'media ecosystem'?
(b) SPH has a building which is a 'media ecosystem'?

Anyway, just what is a 'media ecosystem'? A good newspaper will avoid meaningless jargon.

A headline like this one below is usually banned in the same way "One for the album" is strictly disallowed (at least in the days of Old School journalism):


As for this one below, do polar bears see what humans see (in the sense that "see" is being used here)?...


But I do see redeeming headlines like this delightful one:

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Okay, I am done with headlines. I thought these two airline-related stories are quite funny (or at least weird):


(Even here, headline-wise, the term "fliers" usually means the aircrew.)


Two very old (and very corny) airline-related jokes in my collection are:

(1) A passenger boards a plane and sees, in a seat at the back, an old friend he has not seen in years. "Hi Jack!" he shouts out at the top of his voice. He is immediately arrested.

(2) A passenger boards a plane in Fort Lauderdale and tells the flight attendant: "This is a hijack! Take me to Detroit." When the crew member assures him that the plane is going to Detroit, he says: "You're kidding me. For the last three flights on this airline, the aircraft had been hijacked to Cuba!"

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Finally, why was this SG50 ad about this hardworking, sweet and wholesome old woman tagged with the pejorative slang term "Hustling"?...



While a "hustler" may be defined as "someone who works hard for his or her money", the more familiar use of the term is that of a slang word, usually defined as:
(a) someone who tries to deceive people into giving them money
(b) a street walker (prostitute).

No, "hustling" should not have been used in the ad.

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