(no subject)

[spatch]

Dear Strunk & Web,

I need your help in confirming or denying the validity of the newspaper headline on today's Metro paper. Now I'm sure you're just as surprised as I am that "The World's Largest Newspaper -- In The World!" may have encountered a wee bit of grammatical trouble in its headline-writing today, but their obstensibly haphazard and slapdash use of a single comma is leaving me a bit cold.

The headline (and comma) in question is attached to an article about a group of BU Republicans who are creating a whites-only scholarship in an attempt, they say, to "convey the absurdity of any race-based scholarship." (For your reference, here's the Boston Glob article.)

Now the discussion of the actual issue is best saved for someone else's journal or blog or subway walls (and tenement halls) as I am only interested in pointing out trivial absurdities in our city's fine daily periodicals. So I will let you know that The Metro, then, ran this as their big bad front page headline this morning:

Scholarship, For Whites Only

At first glance that looks like the world's most superfluous comma. What do you think? The only way I could even remotely justify such a comma is if I were to suggest that the comma represents an inherent "but" qualifier, only maybe the newspaper just didn't have enough space what with its large easy-to-read headline font.

Nah.

It's just bad writin', that's all it is.

Isn't it?




Your pal,
Alanis Morrissette

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

It has a different emotional tone. "Scholarship, For Whites Only" feels like a sort of title to a New Yorker essay. "Scholarship for Whites Only" sounds like the title to a news story.

"Scholarship: For Whites Only" sounds like the title to a news story, but one where the reporter does have an opinion about whether it's a good or bad thing.

So:
"Scholarship, For Whites Only" sounds like it's an essay or a column, and that there is no such scholarship, but that the columnist is saying, "what if. . . "

"Scholarship for Whites Only" sounds like the headline of a dispassionate, disinterested news story about a scholarship for whites only.

"Scholarship: For Whites Only" sounds like a headline for an investigative piece about racism in scholarship awards.

[spatch]

I think we can agree that the entire headline stinks and would have been much better re-written, eh ?

[allicat42.livejournal.com]

Scholarship: For Whites Only?

[allicat42.livejournal.com]

(and yes, the ? is meant to be part of teh headline)

[kpht.livejournal.com]

Whites-Only Scholarship Upsets Everyone But Trent Lott?