When I wrote for newspapers, a few things frustrated me. Among them were politicians and other officials who'd talk around my questions. Another was the constraints one editor put on me and other writers. So, as I complained to another writer, "I can write about cops and robbers but I can't write about the real crimes."
But nothing twisted my panties or chamois bike short liners (remember those?) more than headline writers. They'd come up with phrasings that, sometimes said something different from, or even the exact opposite of, what my article described. Or sometimes what they wrote things that someone, especially if they came from a different generation, culture or other life experience might hear differently from what was intended.
I saw an example of this today: "Boy Beaten and Bruised in Bicycle Face Attack at LI School Parking Lot: Cops."
Now, perhaps I'm a bit of a geek, at least in this sense: I can say, without boasting, that I probably know more about the history of bicycles and bicycling than anyone who's not a specialist in that field. So when I saw "Bicycle Face," I immediately thought of the rationale conservatives during the 1885-1905 Bike Boom gave for keeping women off bicycles. They believed that the rigors of being out in public, in rain and wind and sun, and of simply being on a bicycle, twisted their pretty little heads into what they called "Bicycle Face."
Now, of course, with all due respect to Long Island law enforcement officials, I doubt that their training includes ways of recognizing Bicycle Face--or that most of them have even heard of the term, even if they are cyclists. And I think it's even less likely that some random thug (the victim is a 13-year-old boy; the perp is believed to be a good bit older and six feet tall) would attack someone for having "Bicycle Face," though, perhaps I can imagine using the phrase as a schoolyard taunt.
Now, I don't mean to make light of a boy being bashed in the face with a bicycle. No one should have to endure that, and it upsets me that something that can be such a force for good and a source of so much pleasure can be used to commit violence against another living being. My heart goes out to that boy and his loved ones.
But, as a writer, I also abhor crimes against journalism and the English language. A much more accurate--and, if I do say so myself, snappier--headline might've been: LI Man Slams Bike Against Boy's Face.
