To be ambiguous

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Robert Ayers writes:

Headline: "Bill's role: To be determined". With a photo of  Bill Clinton looking … determined.

I wonder if I'm the only one who read the headline wrong the first time.



11 Comments

  1. Jerry Friedman said,

    July 24, 2016 @ 5:46 pm

    It was only recently that I noticed that "Sound laws have no exceptions" is ambiguous.

    I'm not sure Bill is looking determined in the picture, by the way. Maybe pleased enough to stay awake for another few minutes.

  2. Martha said,

    July 24, 2016 @ 7:10 pm

    I agree with Jerry Friedman. Determined not to look bored maybe.

  3. Filter Fodder said,

    July 24, 2016 @ 8:05 pm

    @Jerry Friedman

    'It was only recently that I noticed that "Sound laws have no exceptions" is ambiguous.'

    I still haven't.

  4. Jerry Friedman said,

    July 24, 2016 @ 9:07 pm

    Filter Fodder: I was thinking of sense 8. a. of sound in the OED:

    "In full accordance with fact, reason, or good sense; founded on true or well-established grounds; free from error, fallacy, or logical defect; good, strong, valid."

    (The quotation, as most people here know better than I do, is about the supposed laws governing historical changes in speech sounds.)

  5. Reinhold {Rey} Aman said,

    July 24, 2016 @ 11:01 pm

    @ Filter Fodder:

    @Jerry Friedman
    'It was only recently that I noticed that "Sound laws have no exceptions" is ambiguous.'
    I still haven't.
    Simpler than Jerry's explanation:
    Sound laws:
    1: laws concerning sounds (noun + noun)
    2: laws that are sound (adjective + noun)

  6. Robot Therapist said,

    July 25, 2016 @ 1:19 am

    Surely this was a deliberate ambiguity, i.e. a joke?

  7. Michael said,

    July 25, 2016 @ 5:07 am

    @Robot:
    Irony has that problem: Some take it at face value…

  8. J. Goard said,

    July 25, 2016 @ 7:22 am

    Reminds me of the greatest cryptic crossword clue I have ever seen. (On an old message board competition (ca. 1995), which led to my losing the lead in the contest for good.)

    Hillary's challenge as first lady: to do nothing. (7)

  9. Coby Lubliner said,

    July 25, 2016 @ 1:41 pm

    J. Goard: "first lady" = EVE; "do nothing" = REST; "Hillary's challenge" = EVEREST.

  10. languagehat said,

    July 26, 2016 @ 7:36 am

    Surely this was a deliberate ambiguity, i.e. a joke?

    Of course it was; it's a bog-standard punny headline. I guess some people don't read newspapers enough to have become used to the style.

  11. Andrew (not the same one) said,

    July 26, 2016 @ 7:55 am

    When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then a lady? Brilliant clue, nevertheless.

    It reminds me of a clue I once saw in a straightforward American, so theoretically non-cryptic, crossword: Third man (4). Was it a reference to Plato? Cricket? The Cambridge spy ring? Graham Greene? (We tried 'Lime', but it didn't work.) No to all of these. It referred to the third man.

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