Saturday 13 November 2010
crash blossoms
I have been using these, and been amused by them, for decades without knowing what they were called. They are plentiful in English but not so much in other languages, and are most often found in newspaper headlines. They come mostly from the use of nouns which could be used as verbs, a well-known example (which I was proud to use and get away with when I was a sub at the BBC) being "Government Push Bottles Up Resistance". One used by the Guardian ages ago was "British Left Waffles on Falklands" which conjures up delightful images of discarded breakfast foods littering Goose Green. Anyway. Examples please.
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4 comments:
General flies back to Front
The headline "Stalin flies back to front" was probably apochryphal (not least because variants of it appear on the interent). But I believe "French minister suspended over forest fire" was genuine.
"Moldovan wine production increased in line with requirements of the Central Committee" was definitely genuine, though not quite a crash blossom within the definition.
"British Push Bottles Up Germans" was a Daily Express headline in 1945.
BBC R4 News: "too many children leave Primary Schools unable to read or write fluently".
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