Thursday, September 22, 2016

Reason Two Trillion & 1 Why

This is a photo of the headline from the print edition of the Iowa City Press-Citizen that is given to us free on Thursday nights. It never fails that I find crap like this:


When I initially read this, I interpreted the headline as follows:

Wadley eager to show Rutgers what it is missed.

This morning, it dawned on me that what the headline writer was going for is to interpret the headline as if these were the words:

Wadley eager to show Rutgers what it has missed.

I think it's a stretch to interpret "it's" as "it has" in that headline. Sure, it technically is correct, if interpreted as such, but that doesn't mean I can't offer a solution to what I'm sure they don't think is a problem. Thus, had I been the one writing the headline, I would have composed this:

Wadley is eager to show Rutgers what it missed

I'm certain I have mentioned that in 1994, I kept a spiral notebook of writing / editing goofs from the Iowa City Press-Citizen - today is just one more reason I would never work for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. I know "never say never" but I'm saying it!

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