Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

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Raphael
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Raphael »

A tweet from one of the Guardian's Twitter accounts linking to a piece reads "Who should hold the keys to our data? | Nigel Shadbolt and Roger Hampson". Which, of course, invites the smartass response "What's so great about Messrs. Shadbolt and Hampson that they should hold the keys to our data?"

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Soap »

In the same vein, I once saw a news headline/magazine cover linked in a feed

What ISIS really wants --- The Atlantic
Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey says:
Image

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Salmoneus »

Book one of our engineers who will come to your house by SMS or e-mail
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

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finlay
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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by finlay »

for a second there i thought 'coming to the house by SMS' was a totally normal thing that happens to normal people

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by jal »

AUCTION FINDS COMBINED FOR A UNIQUE DESOLDERING STATION
Even though auctions finding stuff would be weird, I still read "finds" as a verb the first time.


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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by linguoboy »

These States Have Had the Most Violent Tornadoes Since 1950 (TWC)

I initially parsed this as "the most tornadoes which are violent", but then I realised "the tornadoes which are most violent" is also a possibility.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Travis B. »

I was wondering if there were tornadoes which were not violent.
Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Vijay »

Travis B. wrote:I was wondering if there were tornadoes which were not violent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAxEJbzGqG8 :D

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by linguoboy »

Yesterday I passed a sign in a shop window which said "HAND CANING" and I was like, "I thought that method of discipline went by the wayside years ago."

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by jal »

linguoboy wrote:Yesterday I passed a sign in a shop window which said "HAND CANING" and I was like, "I thought that method of discipline went by the wayside years ago."
:)


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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Qwynegold »

Salmoneus wrote:Book one of our engineers who will come to your house by SMS or e-mail
This was a good one. :-D The engineers will travel through the tubes of the internet to your house, and one of them has written a trilogy. Here's information about the first book.
Image
My most recent quiz:
Eurovision Song Contest 2018

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Travis B. »

I wonder how you email or text someone an engineer.
Dibotahamdn duthma jallni agaynni ra hgitn lakrhmi.
Amuhawr jalla vowa vta hlakrhi hdm duthmi xaja.
Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro. Irdro.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Raphael »

Oh, that entirely depends on how good that engineer is as an engineer...
did you send enough shit to guarantee victory?

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Vijay »

Travis B. wrote:I wonder how you email or text someone an engineer.
https://www.google.com/search?q=enginee ... gS2AOG5snM:

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by linguoboy »

Nothing garden-pathy about this, but it is damn confusing: Japan PM said offended by dessert served in shoe at Netanyahu home (Times of Israel)

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by jal »

linguoboy wrote:Nothing garden-pathy about this
Well...
[Japan PM] [said offended by [dessert [served [in shoe] [at Netanyahu home]]] (PM offended) vs.
[Japan PM said offended by dessert] [served [in shoe] [at Netanyahu home]] [PM was served] vs.
[Japan PM] [said offended by dessert [served [in shoe]] [at Netanyahu home]] [PM offended, now at N home]

or something.


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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Salmoneus »

To me, it's a grammatical error: needs to be 'said to be' or 'has said he was'. Or switch to a different verb, like 'reported' or 'believed'.
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by jal »

Salmoneus wrote:needs to be 'said to be'
Well, for a headline it doesn't seem out of the ordinary.

A quick google seems to indicate this happens more often:
Evidence said ignored by drugmaker
Osprey training held regularly; safety agreement said ignored


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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Salmoneus »

Wolff was asked about rival teams allegedly suggesting the change, which will also apply at the resurfaced Silverstone and Paul Ricard circuits, was made to help Mercedes
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by zompist »

From a gaming site:

This Dark Souls 3 all bosses without skips WR speedrun is great

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by KathTheDragon »

I'm amused I could parse that correctly first time.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by jal »

KathTheDragon wrote:I'm amused I could parse that correctly first time.
I needed a read or four, and still I don't have a clue what it actually means...


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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by alynnidalar »

If you'd like an explanation:

There is a speedrun of Dark Souls 3 that involves fighting all of the bosses without skipping parts of the game. This speedrun is a world record. And it's great.

Dark Souls 3: a notoriously difficult videogame
speedrun: an attempt to play through a game at the fastest possible speed
bosses: very hard enemies
WR: world record; that is, the fastest speedrun under a given set of constraints
great: a poorly-defined term that in this context probably means "entertaining, if you like this sort of thing"
I generally forget to say, so if it's relevant and I don't mention it--I'm from Southern Michigan and speak Inland North American English. Yes, I have the Northern Cities Vowel Shift; no, I don't have the cot-caught merger; and it is called pop.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by KathTheDragon »

To break it down differently, "all bosses without skips" is naming a category of speedrun, where, as Aly said, all bosses are defeated and no glitches are used to skip parts of the game. If you chunk it together as an adjective describing the speedrun, the rest of the sentence is easily parsed and understood.

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Re: Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Post by Vijay »

Not really that confusing, but when I read this paragraph in an issue of Time magazine:
Besides, North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung, had a signature philosophy of juche, best defined as patriotic self-reliance. This would seem impossible to reconcile with accepting promises of nonaggression from age-old nemesis the U.S. Kim Jong Il - son of Kim Il Sung and father to the current Supreme Leader - added his own philosophy of songun...
it took me a while to realize that the period at the end of "U.S." was also the end of the second sentence, so at first, I was like "the U.S. Kim Jong Il? What?" :P

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