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I still haven't forgiven the acting chief sub-editor who changed my wording in a headline on the obituary of artist Roy Lichtenstein, from "comic-book hero" to "comic-book king". Yes, Lichtenstein died 24 years ago, so yes, I do tend to hold grudges. But WTF is a comic-book king?
Curiously, I am quite happy to forgive people who insert massive errors & spelling mistakes, because anyone can have a brain snap. But it was a CONSCIOUS CHOICE to change "comic-book hero" to "comic-book king". I can't even type "comic-book king" without cringing at its shitness
And yes this is a weird thing to tweet abt 24 years later but sometimes I like to reveal little things abt myself even if they make me look like a petty control freak
In happier news, I can report that I wrote a headline around the same time on a feature about all the celebrities who were wearing Jimmy Choo footwear, that read: "The who's who who choose Choo's shoes", and it was widely praised by my peers
It was on three decks of 72pt too, so quite a tight fight, and it looked superb on the page, still gives me a buzz thinking abt it:
The who's who
who choose
Choo's shoes
How awesome is that
The who's who
who choose
Choo's shoes
How awesome is that
I think the only better headline from that time was in the rival Hong Kong Standard, on a photo story about HK chief secretary Anson Chan, who visited a cosmetics factory in the US (brace yourselves):
"Texas: Chan saw mascara"
"Texas: Chan saw mascara"
It's so stupid yet so incredible
Search-engine optimisation has a lot to answer for, not least of which is the gutting of the headline writer's craft
And also, in response to the snarky DMs, I was indeed writing headlines for newspapers as a 12 year old, you goddamn millennials
