Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

Hallow XIII · Post by **Hallow XIII** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 5:43 am

It's a plural verb for a collective noun, silly.

Herr Dunkel · Post by **Herr Dunkel** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 5:45 am

So, England is a collective noun now?
How about "yesterday"? That too

?

Might also be that they forgot they had a past tense

Hallow XIII · Post by **Hallow XIII** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 5:46 am

The English football team is a collective, yes. Cole was recently appointed as the captain.

Herr Dunkel · Post by **Herr Dunkel** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 5:48 am

Still, makes sense they dropped tense too. Since it's a headline and they've already telically waited for him.

KathTheDragon · Post by **KathTheDragon** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:58 am

Salmoneus wrote:England wait too long for Cole.

What is that meant to say anyways?

Salmoneus · Post by **Salmoneus** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 1:11 pm

Yeah, see, not just me this time!

It looks like [England] [wait too long for [Cole]]. (And yes of course 'England' is plural in this instance. It would be laughable otherwise. And the narrative present is usually used by newspapers in place of the perfect)

However, it was actually meant to be [England wait] [too long for [Cole]].

That is, Cole believes that England waited too long (in this case specifically to play Ireland again after the riots last time).

bulbaquil · Post by **bulbaquil** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 7:03 pm

Front and center on my Google News:

"Michelle Obama takes on heckler before crowd"
Did she take on the heckler in front of a crowd, or did she take on the heckler prior to taking on the crowd?

Salmoneus · Post by **Salmoneus** » Wed Jun 05, 2013 7:33 pm

bulbaquil wrote:Front and center on my Google News:

"Michelle Obama takes on heckler before crowd"
Did she take on the heckler in front of a crowd, or did she take on the heckler prior to taking on the crowd?

Or did she take on the heckler, and then the crowd took on the heckler too?

linguoboy · Post by **linguoboy** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 5:15 pm

"Obama defends surveillance programs in San Jose"

Those outside of San Jose, on the other hand, were indefensible.

Salmoneus · Post by **Salmoneus** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:18 pm

linguoboy wrote:"Obama defends surveillance programs in San Jose"

Those outside of San Jose, on the other hand, were indefensible.

I also like the subtler misreading you get if you take 'defends' as a normal habitual rather than a newspaper-speak narrative present.

Salmoneus · Post by **Salmoneus** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:25 pm

Had to laugh:

Tintoretto discovered in National Gallery

Was he? Well that's a turn-up for the books and no mistake!

Pogostick Man · Post by **Pogostick Man** » Sat Jun 08, 2013 9:34 pm

Drudge Report's Twitter feed gives us "Simon Cowell Egged on 'BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT'...". Did he get pelted or did he goad people involved in the show?

Drydic · Post by **Drydic** » Sun Jun 09, 2013 12:36 am

Linguifex wrote:Drudge Report's Twitter feed gives us "Simon Cowell Egged on 'BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT'...". Did he get pelted or did he goad people involved in the show?

How often is that phrase actually used to describe eggs being thrown at someone anymore?

Drydic · Post by **Drydic** » Sun Jun 09, 2013 12:36 am

Linguifex wrote:Drudge Report's Twitter feed gives us "Simon Cowell Egged on 'BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT'...". Did he get pelted or did he goad people involved in the show?

How often is that phrase actually used to describe eggs being thrown at someone anymore?

KathTheDragon · Post by **KathTheDragon** » Sun Jun 09, 2013 1:40 am

I heard it a number of years ago by my quite vulgar school... acquaintances... to describe throwing (rotten?) eggs at a house.

Pogostick Man · Post by **Pogostick Man** » Sun Jun 09, 2013 5:32 am

Drydic Guy wrote:
Linguifex wrote:Drudge Report's Twitter feed gives us "Simon Cowell Egged on 'BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT'...". Did he get pelted or did he goad people involved in the show?
How often is that phrase actually used to describe eggs being thrown at someone anymore?

Well, I've heard it consistently applied to hurling eggs at houses or buildings and the like. Admittedly I'm not quite sure how often I've heard it used with people as the target.

clawgrip · Post by **clawgrip** » Sun Jun 09, 2013 7:47 am

Drydic Guy wrote:
Linguifex wrote:Drudge Report's Twitter feed gives us "Simon Cowell Egged on 'BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT'...". Did he get pelted or did he goad people involved in the show?
How often is that phrase actually used to describe eggs being thrown at someone anymore?

I think it's fine to use "egged" to mean having eggs thrown at someone. I'm guessing the reason it's not often used with that meaning is simply because the situation itself almost never happens.

Astraios · Post by **Astraios** » Sun Jun 09, 2013 7:58 am

You can't say "egged on X" to mean "threw eggs at" anyway. It's always "egged X".

Salmoneus · Post by **Salmoneus** » Sun Jun 09, 2013 8:11 am

Astraios wrote:You can't say "egged on X" to mean "threw eggs at" anyway. It's always "egged X".

Yes, but in this case he was egged WHILE on X.

Salmoneus · Post by **Salmoneus** » Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:37 pm

Relatedly:

Attraction win egg-hit BTG finale

Astraios · Post by **Astraios** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 2:23 am

Salmoneus wrote:Yes, but in this case he was egged WHILE on X.

Huh, I didn't think of that.

din · Post by **din** » Mon Jun 10, 2013 6:09 pm

Salmoneus wrote:Relatedly:

Attraction win egg-hit BTG finale

Even when assuming BTG is supposed to be BGT (Britain's got Talent), I simply have no idea.

(edit): Is it that a group called 'Attraction' won the BGT finale, which was marred by the aforementioned egging of Simon Cowell? If so, that's the most unclear news paper headline I've seen in a while. If not, it's even worse than that.

Astraios · Post by **Astraios** » Thu Jun 20, 2013 8:31 pm

Doctors take a long shot and inject HIV into dying girl

I thought they shot her from a distance with some HIV projectile weapon.

clawgrip · Post by **clawgrip** » Thu Jun 20, 2013 11:15 pm

Either that or they drugged themselves up, and then ended up injecting HIV into a girl.

linguoboy · Post by **linguoboy** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 2:02 pm

Upon reading this, my reaction was, "Why do they want to see the underwear of children under 3 years of age?"

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Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

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