Copy Editors Have All The Fun

Sure, the Post and Daily News have snappy headlines, but they're a tabloid, so we expect that of them. So it's nice to see a non-sensational but still very funny, hitting-our-immature-funny-bone-just-so headline:

"Love Canal Declared Clean, Ending Toxic Horror" from The New York Times.

Love Canal, NY, near Niagara Falls, was the first Superfund site, and has now been declared clean. It's taken more than twenty years to clean up all the toxic chemicals that had been leaching into residential areas and schoolyards, even evacuating the town at one point.

The EPA on the Love Canal.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on March 18, 2004 8:33 AM

Comments [rss]

Jen

That's almost Post-style. Fabulous.

Jane

About 20 yrs or so ago, the Times ran an actual headline: Justice Dept. Sues Hooker over Love Canal. (Hooker was the company deemed responsible for the toxicity.) It ran in the early edition before being yanked. This is not an urban legend; I actually saw it.

Jen

It's a fine line, I must admit, but "toxic love canal" leaves more to the imagination. Had the Times included a rendering of a toxic love canal, Gothamist might be singing another tune.

jen h.

Wait a minute -- "toxic love canal" strikes you funny, but lip-shaped urinals gross you out?

Tom

I caught this this morning as well and thought once, twice, three times about posting - but just couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm glad someone had the snark enough to do so.