“Reign of terrier to continue?”
No, that isn’t Mr. Malaprop (the quote unquote president) wondering about the latest actions of “Islamofascists” (a word no doubt coined for him by others). That is my favorite headline of the day, and it accompanies coverage on MSNBC.com about the Westminster Dog Show.
In the days before the World Wide Web, I was a copy editor at The Atlantic City Press. (Excuse me — “The Press of Atlantic City.” Clearly the name change, made in the early 80’s I believe, fixed a grievous misconception that this daily newspaper was in some way aligned with Atlantic City.) The duties of a copy editor include, yes, editing copy, as well as rewriting, and supplying headlines. At times the headline assignment — always on the fly, with a deadline looming — was a real head-scratcher. It wasn’t uncommon to be assigned a “242” (a headline to fill two columns in a 42 point-typefont) or even a “142” (ONE column, 42 points) with seemingly mere minutes to go and on a subject best summed up by a 90-minute lecture with Q & A to follow. At some point our beloved managing editor Bob Ebener (well, I loved him; he was my Lou Grant) sweetened the pot with a weekly contest — $25 for the best headline and $25 for the best caption. I won each of these several times in my 6-month stint on the copy rim, winning best caption once for a photo of a billboard painter doing the art for a gigantic sign of a human (lending me the inspiration for a caption that played off Lilliputians), and best headline once for anchoring a lengthy piece on local welfare fraud with the headline “Brother, can you spare too much?” This latter achievement was especially noteworthy among copy editors because the reporter actually sought out the editor responsible (me) and thanked him profusely. I would say that was better than the extra 25 bucks, but I really needed the 25 bucks.
While I haven’t been a copy editor for 20 years, I haven’t lost one bit of my appreciation for the oft-neglected art of headline writing. (An art I still employ, of sorts, with corporate clients.) The “Reign of terrier” headline works in all aspects: It fits the small space assigned, it grabs the eye (because, indeed, I thought at a glance there was a story about a “reign of terror” alongside a photo of a dog), and it delights the reader.
I don’t know who wrote this, but somebody oughtta send him 25 bucks.