[Magdalen] Sect?

Jim Guthrie jguthrie at pipeline.com
Fri Jul 3 13:01:55 UTC 2015


> I notice that the Huffington Post news subsidiary of AOL
> has an article covering the vote of TEC General Convention,
> and it is under the headline, "Christian Sect Votes for Same-Sex
> Marriage."
>
> Sect?

Sect also works better in a headline than "Denomination" or anything else, I 
think. Can you think of a description that fits in fewer than five letters?

And, of course, the complaint (and the line about Mormons)  is exactly why one 
doesn’t see serious religious news in the mass media. No matter what you write, 
someone will complain.

People of faith have no concept of "just make sure my name is spelled 
correctly."

Which reminds me -- speaking of headlines -- Vincent Musetto died last month. He 
wrote one of the classic tabloid headlines of all time -- probably ranked at the 
top along with the NY Daily News's "Ford to City: Drop Dead."

Musetto, working then for the NY Post, wrote the great

"Headless Body in Topless Bar"

When I was running the Zipper in Times Square, the desk where I worked had a 
framed copy of that front page for "inspiration."  But whenever I was inspired 
to write something as, uhmmmm accurately succinct --  my boss would complain.

See:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/06/09/us/ap-us-obit-headline-writer.html?_r=0

Cheers,
Jim



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