Confusing headlines

[bradrn]

Two in one day! This one isn’t from a newspaper, but manages to be tremendously confusing all the same:

A portable Common Lisp toolkit for building inspectors

(As one commenter put it, ‘I was excited to learn how building inspectors were using Common Lisp’…)

[Travis B.]

Two in one day! This one isn’t from a newspaper, but manages to be tremendously confusing all the same:

A portable Common Lisp toolkit for building inspectors

(As one commenter put it, ‘I was excited to learn how building inspectors were using Common Lisp’…)

When I first read the text in bold, before I read the text in parens I reacted in much the same fashion.

[Darren]

On an advert - DIY or Do It For Me

Granted I'm not confused about what they mean, but it reads horrendously

[Man in Space]

Courtesy of News Channel 5, WEWS:

'What a tragedy for Cleveland': Firefighters battle historic Tremont church fire

Is the church itself historic or is this a blaze of hitherto unforeseen intensity? (Or are we talking about the vintage section of Tremont?)

[hwhatting]

Courtesy of News Channel 5, WEWS:

'What a tragedy for Cleveland': Firefighters battle historic Tremont church fire

Is the church itself historic or is this a blaze of hitherto unforeseen intensity? (Or are we talking about the vintage section of Tremont?)

And is it a tragedy that the firefighters are battling the poor fire?

[Raphael]

Not a headline - from the Irish Times liveblog of the Irish local election count:

In the Killiney-Shankill electoral area, first time candidate Roland Kennedy a Fórsa trade union organiser and cafe owner and former Cllr Dave O’Keeffe are battling it out for every single vote.

I'm still not sure which of the two is the cafe owner.

[Man in Space]

I'm still not sure which of the two is the cafe owner.

My guess is it’s Kennedy. How I parse this:

In the Killiney-Shankill electoral area, [first time candidate Roland Kennedy[,] a Fórsa trade union organiser and cafe owner][,] and [former Cllr Dave O’Keeffe] are battling it out for every single vote.

[bradrn]

I'm still not sure which of the two is the cafe owner.

My guess is it’s Kennedy. How I parse this:

In the Killiney-Shankill electoral area, [first time candidate Roland Kennedy[,] a Fórsa trade union organiser and cafe owner][,] and [former Cllr Dave O’Keeffe] are battling it out for every single vote.

This was my initial guess too, but you can rebracket the conjunctions:

In the Killiney-Shankill electoral area, [first time candidate Roland Kennedy[,] a Fórsa trade union organiser][,] and [cafe owner and former Cllr Dave O’Keeffe] are battling it out for every single vote.

[Man in Space]

More of a confusing comic strip dialogue, but thanks to Dick Tracy, we get this demonstration of why indexing is important:



It reminded me of the section in one of the LCKs talking about this sort of thing with reference to ergative languages.

[Man in Space]

C/O Futurism:

Scientists Intrigued by Sharks That Can Walk on Land for Two Hours

[Raphael]

C/O Futurism:

Scientists Intrigued by Sharks That Can Walk on Land for Two Hours

Great that they solved the mystery after two hours.

[Man in Space]

C/O Futurism:

Scientists Intrigued by Sharks That Can Walk on Land for Two Hours

Great that they solved the mystery after two hours.

That’s how I initially wanted to parse it.

[Man in Space]

C/O The Hollywood Reporter:

Taylor Swift Drove Nearly 338K People to Vote.gov with Kamala Harris Endorsement Post

[Travis B.]

C/O The Hollywood Reporter:

Taylor Swift Drove Nearly 338K People to Vote.gov with Kamala Harris Endorsement Post

I wonder how you drive 338K people to a website, or what vehicle can fit 338K people.

[fusijui]

From El Grauno today:

Seoul crowd crush police sent to jail for deadly failings in Itaewon disaster

-- which to me sure sounded like an incident of mob vengeance on law enforcement personnel even with the latter having received a custodial sentence.

[Travis B.]

El Grauno

That's what I'm going to call it now.

[Man in Space]

Courtesy of WOIO 19 Action News:

Painesville man tries to clear gray area around burst pipe

[fusijui]

Courtesy of WOIO 19 Action News:

Painesville man tries to clear gray area around burst pipe

I had to look at the article to understand that it was ambiguous; standing alone, I don't think I would have interpreted "to clear a gray area" to mean "resolve a legal/administrative confusion". (Not that I really knew what it meant w/r/t a burst pipe, but I'm more familiar with administration than plumbing.)

[Man in Space]

Our friends at the BBC changed the headline after publication, but this originally had the headline:

Bristol boy shot when a toddler raises £8k for hospital

[bradrn]

Our friends at the BBC changed the headline after publication, but this originally had the headline:

Bristol boy shot when a toddler raises £8k for hospital

Amazing. The perfect garden-path.

(And it still has that headline as the <title>!)