Solon flays nod nab ploy
Designers like size, advertisers like size, space is finite and somebody has to split the difference.* For that and other reasons, deciphering headlines can often seem like a game of Scrabble devised by particularly malicious orcs: great if your vocabulary is long on words like flay, blast, rap, nab, flee, rip, solon and cops; nasty, brutish and short otherwise.
With no space concerns in play, though, it's hard to see why "nabs nod" made sense as anything but a stroll through the antiques mall. I'm not sure the audience is as fond of buggy whips and kerosene lamps as we are.
* One of the uglier hed calls I remember was a 2/60/1, no descenders, for the bizpage news lead. Quick, think of a verb and pronoun that fit with room left over!
Labels: heds
posted by fev at 11:25 AM
3 Comments:
Surely if he rallied for a victory his nabbing the nod is understood? Why put it in at all?
ps - thank goodness, the capcha is a nice clear photo of a number, not one of those horrible twisty color-changing letter sequences. I think I can prove I'm not a robot in one try today.
Designer wanted: 1-60[bold]-3 on annexation by
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. I complained to slot editor, who said to ask for a drophed. Designer said no drophed.
So, I wrote:
"Man
bites
dog"
and warned slot editor to check it long before deadline.
Designer barely survived resulting fury.
Oh! I
Get
It!
Post a Comment
<< Home