Last Updated: May 26, 1999
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The Write Stuff: Winning heads
and leads
When toys become news, heads become fun
Vinylsaurus, writer’s own name make it into winning
leads
By Brian Cooper
Rich Gotshall of the Indianapolis Star wasn’t playing around when he
came up with these two headlines for stories concerning toys:
A dis-tressing phenomenon
(On a local family’s encounter with the Cabbage Patch Snack Time
Kid doll, which was designed to eat toy food but was also known to chomp
children’s hair.)
The toy story has a really warped cast
(Over a wire story revealing a clergyman’s annual list of toys that
send the wrong message.)
***
Also from the toy aisle:
Public not so tickled now with Elmo doll
(By Kris Valk, of The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla.)
***
There aren’t many occasions in which a reporter can write himself into
the lead. Here’s one:
"Another old-fashioned moniker will reappear among America’s most popular
given names soon — or my name isn’t Ray Bachar, by George!"
(By Ray Bachar, The Daily Journal, Kankakee, Ill., on trends in names.)
Showing he can also handle the hard stuff, Bachar wrote this lead on
a story about elder abuse:
"The vile language of the man gnawed at the woman’s mind, even as the
pain seared the nerve endings in her hip. She lay on the floor, unable
to move, reliving the agony and humiliation — sure she would die."
For Disney, it’s a case of ‘Unzip-a-dee-doo-dah’
(By Dave Grimm and Dave Johnson, Los Angeles Times, on a revealing
story about women baring their breasts the moment souvenir pictures are
shot on Disneyland’s "Splash Mountain" ride.)
***
The Double Play Award, recognizing the best headline-lead combination,
goes to the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Swan song of the LP
"Centuries from now, archaeologists may uncover the fossils of Vinylsaurus
— the LP record, dinosaur of sound systems since arrival of the CD Age."
(Headline by Melodie Smith, lead by Brian E. Albrecht, on a report
that the city library and a local radio station are unloading their vinyl
collections.)
***
Your pace or mine?
Penders hopes Texas can control tempo against Wisconsin’s deliberate
style
(By Lester Zedd, Houston Chronicle, on an NCAA basketball tournament
game advance.)
***
"New Jersey’s economy these days is like Goldilocks’ porridge ... according
to the pundits: not too hot, not too cold — just right."
(By John Ward, the Asbury Park Press of Neptune, N.J.)
***
Conflict of interest aside, I just had to share this headline from my
own paper:
Dartists in residence
(By Tim Manning, Telegraph Herald of Dubuque, Iowa, on local competitors’
dominance in a regional dart tournament.)
***
"April 15? So what. He won’t race to the post office Tuesday night,
waving Internal Revenue Service Form 1040.
"He doesn’t procrastinate."
"He just doesn’t file."
"Call him Chris, unless you’re the IRS; then, he’d rather you didn’t
call."
(By Patty Ryan, Tampa Tribune, on a self-employed Floridian who,
embittered by a decade-old tax case that left him broke and indebted to
the IRS, operates in cash and submits no tax returns.)
***
Don’t you forget to file your paper’s best headlines and leads to The
Write Stuff. It’s easy. It recognizes your staff’s good work. And, best
of all, it’s tax-free.
Cooper is executive editor of the Dubuque (Iowa) Telegraph Herald.
Contact him at P.O. Box 688, Dubuque, IA 52004-0688 or bcooper@
wcinet.com.
