I have to thank the Sun-Sentinel this morning for finally allowing me to achieve my lifelong dream of winning $25 from the Columbia Journalism Review. The money is for that back-page thing, "Lower Case," where they run headline gaffes. And mine came from the Sentinel.
Okay, I haven't actually received the check yet. In fact, CJR probably hasn't even received my submission, since I sent it on Saturday, the very morning that the hilarious headline was published on the front of the Sentinel's local section. But there's no way they're going to pass on this one. It's a sure thing. The headline: "Body possibly abandoned girl's mom."
Why would some derelict body abandon a girl's mom? And how could this ever happen?
You get it. I'll let you know when I get the check.
The story was written by Ihosvani Rodriguez and the headline was surely no fault of his own. But as long as we're on the subject of Rodriguez, I've been meaning to point out a pitch-perfect first sentence he wrote for an article a couple of weeks ago: "The 87-year-old fugitive knew it was over when the detective leaned out of his car window and yelled 'Maria.'"
Pray, Dammit
In the same newspaper, on the same Sentinel local front in fact, was another dubious headline. "Rabbi: Keep praying for Daniel." It was, of course, about Daniel Wultz, the Broward teen who was seriously injured in a suicide bombing during a visit to Israel. That followed the Tuesday headline: "Praying for Daniel."
In the stockpile of headlines for this week are: "You're not praying for Daniel, we can just tell." "Daniel still critical, way to go for not praying." "Daniel recovered, no thanks to you non-praying bastards."
Other Stuff Check out Sunshine State winners here. Some highlights: The Herald's Cenziper beat out the Sentinel's FEMA team for the new Gene Miller Award. But it was the Palm Beach Post's series on pesticides causing birth defects among farm workers that won the big James Batten Award for Public Service.
The Bradenton Herald won the Gene Miller Award in the small category, one of 19 awards won by the west coast newspaper. Yeah, the Bradenton paper is pretty good, but it's not that good. More proof that the small newspaper category is a huge joke.
The only moment of real suspense came during the announcement for the local government reporting/large newspapers prize. That was quickly followed by widespread outrage at the result, as the second-place entry was clearly superior to the scurrilous winner.
Let's see, what else about the banquet. Oh yeah. Bob Edwards is cool. He gave the keynote address and hawked his book about Edward R. Murrow.
In other news, Footy retired. I'd never listened to the radio personality otherwise known as John Kross, but had heard of him. Can't help but wonder what I missed.
