Language Log

Benjamin Cusack, "Sex Quiz Cricket Ace in Hotel Suicide Leap", The Sun, 11/14/2011.

Gene Buckley was surprised to learn that the U.N. is projecting a grade of A- for Iran's bomb work:

From reader Paul Sleigh, the crash blossom of the week: "Mansell guilty of missing businessman's murder", ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News, 11/7/2011. Paul offers a lesson in Australian manners:

Obviously, if you tell someone you're going to be attending a businessman's murder, you damn well better be there on time! None of this "I missed my train" rubbish!

Josh Fruhlinger sends along a sublime crash blossom from BBC News: "Dog helps lightning strike Redruth mayor." Requisite screenshot in case it changes:

"Virginia Beach man accused of decapitating son to stay in hospital", (Newport News) Daily Press, 9/26/2011.

Will legendary beings step in where the politicians have failed?

"Missouri: Flood Damage Dwarfs Repair Budget", NYT (AP) 9/15/2011.

Reader AG, who sent in the tip, hopes so. He's been fantasizing about those flood damage dwarfs, toiling with little fiscal hammers and tongs at their forges in the caverns of the Ozarks.

Well, two, anyway. From reader AH, who wrote "Even though I've been following the (deeply disturbing) story, it took me at least three tries before I parsed the headline correctly":

Amount cheerleader who refused to cheer rapist required to pay reduced

And from reader DM:

Snakes in underwear smuggler fined $400

A recent Reuters headline made Jeffrey Kallberg wonder "What is a 'desk hemorrhage' and why would GS want to rate one?":

Who can doubt that transgenic grass skirts are in dire need of regulation? Certainly not Nature, which published "Transgenic grass skirts regulators" in its issue of 7/20/2011:

When the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this month that it did not have the authority to oversee a new variety of genetically modified (GM) Kentucky bluegrass, it exposed a serious weakness in the regulations governing GM crops. These are based not on a plant's GM nature but on the techniques used for its genetic modification. With changing technologies, the department says that it lacks the authority to regulate newly created transgenic crops.

According to yesterday's Sunday (Irish) Business Post, "Bishops agree sex abuse rules":

Several readers have sent me links to a recent headline: Anthony Shadid, "Qaddafi Forces Bear Down on Strategic Town as Rebels Flee", NYT 3/10/2011.

From Jesse Sheidlower, this headline:

Hooker Overcomes Illness, Slaps Beaver

It's a puzzler. Jesse says:

It's not about what you think it's about. Really. No matter what you think it's about, that's not it.

And then there's something about body scanners: