The Greenbelt

Language Liberalism Freethought Birds

Verbing Weirds Language only if you're expecting it to work in a simple way. This is a special case of the more general truth that Language Weirds.

Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time.

The church says Earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence in a shadow than the church.

If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Helped?

Again, I kinda feel like I'm stepping on fev's territory, but this really jarred me. It's a case of some slight confusion here over the arguments for "help" at Reuters. The headline reads

California fires helped by slowing winds

but the story starts

Firefighters battling 15 fires across Southern California got a break from slowing winds on Wednesday, but major blazes burned unchecked for a fourth day after forcing the largest evacuation in California's modern history.

Okay, sure, it's pretty clear what the headline means after you read the lede, but ... until I clicked through I thought I was going to find out that the slowing winds were in some way aiding the fire to spread through more territory.

A verb like "eased" or, gosh, "slowed" - and yes, then you'd need a different adjective for "winds" but what's wrong with "dropping"?

2 comments:

fev5:40 PM, October 24, 2007
Hey, heds are a big territory. Lots of room for all. (And no lines at many of our fine restaurants!)

I'll look around for similar argument-drops, but I can't think of any offhand in that pattern. Pretty neat.

And probly worth mentioning tonight in a pre-midterm sermon: If the smart people can't figure out your heds without a chart, what do you expect the rest of us to do?
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Q. Pheevr7:45 PM, October 24, 2007
I vote for "ameliorated."
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