Big numbers? Big heads. (But not in gazillion-point type)

Gazillion
finally goes
big time
(By Jeff Nordlund, of the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago, on a wire service story detailing the big-number word - and some 600 others - making their debut in the revised Random House Webster's College Dictionary.)

Here's a lead that helps the reader "see" the scene and "hear" the sounds:

"It's 5 a.m., and the rosy fingers of dawn are snug in the ebony glove of a country night. Here and there, a light glows from a farmhouse window. Somewhere in the distance, an engine coughs to life.
The farm animals begin to stir, the roosters consider crowing. Then, out of the vast darkness cloaking rural Lamb County comes the nasal shriek:
'Soo-ey! Here hawg! Here hawg!'
'Onk-onk-gree-onk!'
Roxanne Ward - the world's twice-crowned hog-calling champion - is awake and on the job."
(By Allan Turner, Houston Chronicle, introducing a woman with a calling - which, she boasts, can be heard up to five miles away.)

This issue's winner of the Double Play Award, recognizing the best headline-lead combination submitted to The Write Stuff, appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Sole proprietor
Polished downtown performer shows how pizzazz gives a leg up on shoeshine success

"You've got to have flash - something like a two-handed, criss-cross, double-brush buff that bobs and weaves in a bootblack ballet.
Sizzle. Make that rag pop like a pistol as it turns oxford shoe tips into gleaming black toe-mirrors.
You've got to know the subtleties of burgundy, cordovan and oxblood; when to grab the reptile skin conditioner or a 'suede bar'; and how to polish bare-handed, massaging the paste into the grain, feeling it into the leather.
You've got to have ... class."
(Head by Felipe Nieves, lead by Brian E. Albrecht.)

"The bride, 64, wore an egg-shell dress and the glow of lifelong romance. Her hands trembled.
The groom's heart raced, betrayed by a heart monitor at his side.
A widow and widower - childhood sweethearts apart for half a century - took wedding vows Friday night in the intensive care unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital, promising love until death does them part."
(By Patty Ryan of the Tampa Tribune, on a wedding made possible when, months earlier, the bride awoke from a dream about him and vowed to find him.)

Also from Tampa, here’s a wedding story with a less-than-happy ending:
"Susan Scourtes and Jerry Gaddis had visions of a waterfall, gazebo and pristine beach for their wedding day in Hawaii.
"They ended up with sweat, a sewage plant and a pack of wild dogs."
(By Rob Shaw, reporting a Clearwater Beach couple's misfortune after they got inside the Limousine from Hell. The couple finally tied the knot three days later.)

Ottaway Newspapers produces a corporate publication which includes headline highlights. Here are three gems:

Mr. Whipple bereft of favorite squeeze
(By Chris Abbey, Medford (Ore.) Mail Tribune, on a story about Procter & Gamble inexplicably ending its lifetime supply of toilet paper to the actor who, for 25 years, portrayed the grocery story manager pleading with shoppers not to squeeze the Charmin.)

Dec. 26: national day of whines and woeses
(By Gary Nelson, also of Medford, on the traditional day-after-Christmas invasion of stores to return holiday gifts.)

Services help marinas raise their sales
(By Susan Seguin, Plattsburgh (N.Y.) Press-Republican, on a story on the business of marinas on Lake Champlain.)

Sox only dream of fielding
(By Bill Stedman, the Sun Chronicle, Attleboro, Mass., on a story about the Boston Red Sox’ shaky season start.)

Don't you drop the ball. See that your staff's best headlines and leads are recognized in The Write Stuff. Send them in today!

Cooper is the executive editor of the Dubuque (Iowa) Telegraph Herald. Contact him at P.O. Box 688, Dubuque, IA 52004-0688 or bcooper@wcinet. com.