A good headline builds a picture for the reader

... but sometimes you just wish it didn't.

Don't walk: It is way too dangerous

Woah! Things are definitely more dangerous on our pavements than we thought. Thanks to Andrew Howard from the Express & Echo in Exeter for this daft headline on a Press Release from the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

Headline deformation

Thanks to Mike Watson for drawing attention to this headline from today's Guardian. Deformation is, of course, a legitimate word (although I can honestly say this is the first time I have used it in either copy or a headline) so the spell-check would have let it through. But can there really be a trained journalist in the land who does not know what defamation is ... or how to spell it?

Oh dear ...

Thanks to my old pal George Dearsley for spotting this one. One of the basic rules of headline writing - look at the picture first!  As George says sack the headline writer - or the picture editor. Or maybe both.