It’s imperative that copy editors have dirty, filthy, perverted minds.
Because that’s the only way you’re going to avoid running a headline like this:
That ran Friday in the Southern Illinoisian of Carbondale, Ill., circulation 26,810. That’s the professional paper — not the student paper at Southern Illinois University. For the record. Find the online version — which uses the same headline — here.
Yes, I also posted a similar howler last week.
Thanks to my tipster… Whose name I seem to have misplaced.
You know who else needs copy editors? Local TV news operations. And other local TV news operations. And Baseball jersey manufacturers. And Kansas State University. And the New York Jets, the Minnesota Vikings and the St. Louis Cardinals. And college athletic department ticket offices. And the Virginia general assembly. And college alumni magazines. And pharmacies. And Borders bookstore. And Tea Party candidates. And city and county Boards of Elections. And Google News’ ‘bots. And billboard companies. And sign painters. And rubber stamp designers. And restaurants, breakfast joints and cake decorators. And the Washington Post, the New York Times, the New York Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Virginian-Pilot, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, CNN and Time magazine. And newspapers in the U.K. And drive-in movie theater managers. And Home Depot and manufacturers of “hoodies.†And T-shirt designers. And road paving contractors.
