The naming of something helps it turn up everywhere, or at least it helps me recognize what is right before my eyes. Sometimes, it's a headline. Sometimes, it's a cry for help.
John McIntrye and Chris Brogan expanded my vocabulary this week and that reminded me about speaking in code. Make that singing in code.
McIntrye wrote a post describing headlines that are "crash blossom." He even leads us to a collection of examples. and to Testy Copy Editors where Nessie3 of Japan posted the headline that lead to Dan Bloom coining the name. (Updated 12/31/09 to credit Dan.)
Now, I'm seeing headlines like this - Japan Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms - in so many places. Go ahead, read the story and you'll understand why it is such an "infelicitously worded headline."
McIntrye also reminds of the dangers of the spell-checking software programs, that darn Cupertino effect that gets you Cupertino for a misspelling of cooperation. He also gives examples of eggcorn and snowclone. (Why am I surprised that there's an eggcorn database? or snowclones database?)
Chris Brogan sent me on an Internet search because he recently classified 114 emails as bacn in a newsletter. So now I know what to call all that email I think I'll read later because not enough folks read his 2007 post.
The bacn got me thinking about codes. A co-worker alerted me long ago that red cheeks were a clear signal to slow down. My husband lets me know when to stop without even mentioning that word.
For a group of friends in Detroit, a request for an urgent cup of Earl Grey tea signals a need for rescuing from an uncomfortable scene. For five years, the author of "The Years Keep Passing Me By" blog knows someone saying the "obscure and ridiculous" phrase means "your blockhead friend will suddenly become aware and swoop in to save the day."
I remember some Tennessee friends who would start singing a Carter Family classic at the oddest moments. The first time I heard them sing that I was driving them back to their hotel in Michigan. Unfortunately, I missed a turn, then another, then .... a quick 10-minute trip took several hours and landed us in a woodsy area miles away. (This was years before GPS and wireless access.)
Fortunately, the first impression didn't last so I also got to use the song to signal distress if post-concert activities got out of hand and I needed rescuing. Sometimes, shouting help isn't the best way to find a knight in shining armor.
August 30, 2009
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McIntrye wrote a post describing headlines that are "crash blossom." He even leads us to a collection of examples. and to Testy Copy Editors where Nessie3 of Japan coined the name.
ReplyDeleteactually Nessie3 did NOT coin the term. I did. ask me how and why i coined it. of course all credit goes to nessie3 who first brought the phrase to my attention but actually i coined it and popularized it. ask me how i did it at danbloom AT gmail Dot com
Dan:
ReplyDeleteThanks for alerting me. I changed the post and am sorry that I didn't credit you from the start.
Hi MaryAnn, thanks for the update on crash blossons, you know this made it to the new york times top words of 2009 list. and it started just in August, that was quick! and yes, while I coined the term as a new term for these kinds of headlines, i want to give full credit for the term to Nessie3 in Sapporo, Japan, an editor there who posts often at TestCopyEditors and it is all because of his wit and good eye that the crash blossons coinage occurred. I was just surfing by. So yes, I did coin the term, but I give all kudos and credit to Nessie3, whose real name I am still trying to get. I emailed him a few times but so far no response. He is an expat living in Japan for a long time, that much I know...
ReplyDeleteby the way, in addition to your great blog, re the cupertino thing -- and no, i did not coin that, har -- but have you ever heard of an atomic typo? Google the term. I also did not coin that but i did investigate it a bit. What it means exactly I am not sure and why the atomic is there i do not know for sure, but it is about this item above:
"[John] McIntrye also reminds [readers] of the dangers of the spell-checking software programs, that darn Cupertino effect that gets you Cupertino for a misspelling of cooperation. He also gives examples of eggcorn and snowclone. (Why am I surprised that there's an eggcorn database? or snowclones database?)"
An ATOMIC TYPO is occurs when a word that is spelled wrong for the context but it still spelled right for another context gets through the spell checker. For example: the spellcheck cannot see the difference between nuclear and unclear, or between Sudan and sedan, or between Governor Chris and Governor Christ, things like that. Someoone, i have no idea who, came up with this term long ago, maybe, and it is now a real newsroom word, but most newsies have never heard it. Maybe do a blog one day on this?
Hi MaryAnn, thanks for the update on crash blossons, you know this made it to the new york times top words of 2009 list. and it started just in August, that was quick! and yes, while I coined the term as a new term for these kinds of headlines, i want to give full credit for the term to Nessie3 in Sapporo, Japan, an editor there who posts often at TestCopyEditors and it is all because of his wit and good eye that the crash blossons coinage occurred. I was just surfing by. So yes, I did coin the term, but I give all kudos and credit to Nessie3, whose real name I am still trying to get. I emailed him a few times but so far no response. He is an expat living in Japan for a long time, that much I know...
ReplyDeleteby the way, in addition to your great blog, re the cupertino thing -- and no, i did not coin that, har -- but have you ever heard of an atomic typo? Google the term. I also did not coin that but i did investigate it a bit. What it means exactly I am not sure and why the atomic is there i do not know for sure, but it is about this item above:
"[John] McIntrye also reminds [readers] of the dangers of the spell-checking software programs, that darn Cupertino effect that gets you Cupertino for a misspelling of cooperation. He also gives examples of eggcorn and snowclone. (Why am I surprised that there's an eggcorn database? or snowclones database?)"
An ATOMIC TYPO is occurs when a word that is spelled wrong for the context but it still spelled right for another context gets through the spell checker. For example: the spellcheck cannot see the difference between nuclear and unclear, or between Sudan and sedan, or between Governor Chris and Governor Christ, things like that. Someoone, i have no idea who, came up with this term long ago, maybe, and it is now a real newsroom word, but most newsies have never heard it. Maybe do a blog one day on this?
I see by the snailpapers in Britain that a major literary agent has
ReplyDeletesigned up a top journo there to write an “on language” type of book
about CRASH BLOSSOMS in the English-language media the world over, for
publication in 2012 — and advance of US$25,000 is being reported, the
writer keeping low profile, book capitalizing on Ben Zimmer’s recent
New York Times “On Language” article about said “crash blossoms” and
how they, er, bloomed, er, blossomed ….. THE BOOK SHOULD BE A WINNER!
BRAVO!
No, the book won’t be Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim, and Other Flubs
from the Nation’s Press published by Columbia Journal in 1980, before
the term “crash blossoms” bloomed, and no, it won’t be titled Red Tape
Holds Up New Bridge a 1987 tome by Gloria Cooper. The title of the
Crash Blossoms book is still tentative but for sure CRASH BLOSSOMS
will appear in the title. Any suggestions for what to call this book?
I will forward them on to the literary agent, the editor and the
author.
The book also will not be titled Anguished English: An Anthology of
Accidental Assaults Upon Our Language which Richard Lederer did in
1987.