Good news: the San Francisco Chronicle's meaning-packed headline on this morning's story about the Olympic torch's surprise route change in San Francisco (print edition only--aha! print isn't dead yet!):
TORTUOUS JOURNEY
In just two words, the headline writer conveyed the route's unexpected detour (tortuous: twisting, circuitous) and punned on torch's. And if readers also heard an echo of "torture"--as in, what's happening in Tibet, Burma, and Darfur; or as in, "I traveled for miles to witness this historic event, and all I got was this lousy blister"--well, that was probably not unintentional.
Bad news: The Los Angeles Daily Journal, a legal newspaper, lays off its entire copy desk. Editor Martin Berg told the blog L.A. Observed--stop me if you've heard this one before--"It will take some adjustments, but we're going to find ways to continue to serve our community with the resources we have." Yeah. Do more with less. Besides, automated spellcheck and grammarcheck always work perfectly, right? (Hat tip: Verbatim and Bill Walsh's Blogslot.)
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