Confusing headlines and other trips down the garden path

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Torco
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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by Torco »

Lesbian Vampire Killer Doll-Set
How about a doll that kills lesbians that are also vampires - match?

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by ol bofosh »

Now even Chucky can look on in fear. :evil:
It was about time I changed this.

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by Qwynegold »

treegod wrote:"Men raped more than women in the US"

What I saw first was... "Men (have) raped more than (just) women in the US".
OMG it's triply ambiguous! :D
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Torco
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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by Torco »

Qwynegold wrote:
treegod wrote:"Men raped more than women in the US"

What I saw first was... "Men (have) raped more than (just) women in the US".
OMG it's triply ambiguous! :D
antriguous ?

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by tezcatlip0ca »

Torco wrote:
Qwynegold wrote:
treegod wrote:"Men raped more than women in the US"

What I saw first was... "Men (have) raped more than (just) women in the US".
OMG it's triply ambiguous! :D
antriguous ?
Way to continue the "eleven-twelve" thread.
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Torco
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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by Torco »

in fairness, the joke was right there, staring at me with wide-eyed expectation.

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by hwhatting »

Declan wrote:I have that problem with a German TV series whose precise German name I can't think of but is something like: "Name und ihre Moerder", which always makes me feel as though the person in the title is the murderer.
I assume you're English L1 and you associate Mörder with "murder"? That's the only way I could arrive at your interpretation. The German is ambiguous, but only between "Adelheid and the murderers she deals with" (the intended meaning) and "Adelheid and the persons who murdered her" (i.e., Adelheid being the victim).
BTW, I liked that series. I always had a soft spot for Evelyn Hamann since her days with Loriot. A pity that both are gone now.

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by linguoboy »

Joshua Landis wrote:Manaf Tlass's father and brother, Firas, who is a leading businessman, are believed to be out of the country.
Interesting family structure they have...

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by Soren »

linguoboy wrote:Language Log has an all-time classic today: "Sack rape row Clarke - Miliband".
There's a nice one in the comments to that post:

Slough sausage choke baby death woman jailed
A woman who fed a nine-month-old baby a piece of sausage, despite being told not to by the boy's mother, has been jailed after he choked to death.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10241928

(Slough is a town)

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by linguoboy »

US mourns Batman shooting victims

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by ol bofosh »

Batman did what??? :o
It was about time I changed this.

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by Shrdlu »

At least he went the whole night without robin.
Last edited by Shrdlu on Fri Jul 20, 2012 4:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by linguoboy »

treegod wrote:Batman did what??? :o
US media outlets and Wikipedia are referring to this as the Aurora Shooting after the town where it took place. But that headline was from the BBC,and that name would say nothing to UK readers. For the same reason, I'm seeing mostly "Batman-Massaker" in the German press.


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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by linguoboy »

Not a garden path, but a confusing headline all the same: Canada Dollar Declines as Central Bank Maintains Rate, Language.

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by linguoboy »

That looks like it drew its inspiration from Google search logs.

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by Thry »

Well, he reached the little death (or not so little) xD

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by clawgrip »

That headline looks like it's just a random list of words.

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by Bob Johnson »

Cash-Poor Sharp Mortgages Display Factories

much easier with regular capitalization


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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by hwhatting »

Where's the garden path in this headline?

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by Thry »

It's not like it's not something typical and usual, at all; I in fact always carry some illegal monkeys just I case I come across a lady and have no other thing to throw at them.

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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by Salmoneus »

The legendary one that I've mentioned before: "Drive to Ban Horse Whipping Mushrooms!" - apparently from the Dominion Post in New Zealand.


Another that I can't find online, because I think it was quickly changed to something less bizzare (but you can still find the news story if you want to verify it): "Argentina drug subs brain arrest".
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Re: Confusing headlines, and other trips down the garden pat

Post by linguoboy »

Liberman just posted in Language Log about "Fish foot spa virus bombshell" from last year's Sun. Still no China Ferrari Sex Orgy Death Crash, but it is all-noun all the time.

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