Busted headlines

I recently blogged on my own headline (Suicide Attempt Backfires), and I just read a blog about a messed-up newspaper headline. I won't go into details, but the headline in the Saturday paper said that a Gaston man was being held in the death of a missing North Carolina woman.

The following day, the drop head (not the main one) amended that to Gadsden man. Oops. The paper finally ran the correction on Tuesday.

You can read the blog entry, Gaston, Gadsden, what's in a name, at Common Sense Journalism.

More what's in a name? Years ago, I was reading a newspaper story about the new basketball coach at a local college. The story called the coach Gene; the next day, another story on the coach spelled it Jene. Another oops. ... Several years later, a clerk in our sports department covered a local American Legion baseball game and spelled the coach's name Frazier. The next day, I covered the team, and, to be sure, I got the coach to spell his name. F-R-A-S-H-U-R-E. Major oops.

Blogs to check out: I found a blog today on Misplaced and dangling modifiers. The writer described it pretty well. ... Boomers Write has a list of markets. ... Hope Clark has a blog on would you rather publish or write? Me, I like to write and be published. ... Here's a blog entry on the use of duct tape in headlines. I'm not kidding. ... These Words has a blog on The Writer Re-Organizes. It sounds like something I'd have to do.

CONTACT: Email me at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.

More EDITOR@WORK blog entries

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!