Fill in the Blanks

A couple of quizzes to make the week go a little faster:

1. Baltimore Sun editor John McIntyre challenges readers to supply the copy-desk jargon that completes a series of hypothetical newspaper headlines. Example: SOLONS SLATE PARLEY, the title of McIntyre's post. As every headline-writer knows, it means "Legislators Schedule Meeting." My own headline-writing heyday was many years ago, so I got only about half of the correct answers. (Like a couple of commenters, I thought one of the fill-ins should be nixes.) There's a great example of headlinese in one of the comments: Tabs in Tiff Over Liz Pix. If you can translate that without cheating, you're slot material.

2. This one sounds easier, but don't be fooled: it's tough. In just five minutes, enter the 100 most common words in the English language. Tip: only seven of the hundred have more than one syllable. I scored 50 percent, and don't scoff until you've tried it yourself. Language Hat got only 47 correct answers. Verbatim got 61.

Comments

[Q. Pheevr]

1. I don't get this. How are we supposed to know what meaning the headline is intended to convey? I mean, I can come up with short, suitably headlinear words that will go in the blanks, but if I don't know what the story says, how do I know whether they're the right ones? (But I did understand "Tabs in tiff over Liz pix" with no trouble.)

2. Fifty-three, and I was kicking myself when I saw the ones I missed.

[Orange]

50! Although there were one or two more that I swore I'd typed in...but that still doesn't raise my total too high.

[Nancy Friedman]

@Q. Pheevr: Yes, a few commenters had the same complaint. To a veteran newsie, though, most of McIntyre's examples will seem formulaic and the answers automatic.

[John McIntyre]

The point of the headline jargon quiz was to find how much of a hack you are. If it baffled you, you should congratulate yourself. A high score on that one is nothing to brag about.