When "Northwest Nap" entered the lexicon it wasn't exactly with the highest source: it was on Urban Dictionary.
Now "crash blossoms" has entered the lexicon, this time with a more reputable, or at least pedantic, group: copy editors. But what are "crash blossoms"? To the copy editors, the phrase now refers to headlines with double meanings. Here's the back story, courtesy of the NY Times:
Now "crash blossoms" has entered the lexicon, this time with a more reputable, or at least pedantic, group: copy editors. But what are "crash blossoms"? To the copy editors, the phrase now refers to headlines with double meanings. Here's the back story, courtesy of the NY Times:
Mike O'Connell, an American editor based in Sapporo, Japan, spotted the headline "Violinist Linked to JAL Crash Blossoms" and wondered, "What's a crash blossom?" (The article, from the newspaper Japan Today, described the successful musical career of Diana Yukawa, whose father died in a 1985 Japan Airlines plane crash.) Another participant in the forum, Dan Bloom, suggested that "crash blossoms" could be used as a label for such infelicitous headlines that encourage alternate readings, and news of the neologism quickly spread.
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