Any number of normal newspaper stories have gotten butchered by a strange headline usually placed above the article hours after it’s written. The Union-Tribune has a story up today with this headline:
Bill for inaugural may raise some taxpayers’ eyebrows
Since there weren’t any elevated-eyebrow taxpayers actually in the story, the staff here at SLOP decided to test whether, indeed, the headline was accurate. Would the bill described in the story raise my eyebrows as I absorbed its magnitude? They are some big, heavy eyebrows after all.
Here is a photo of me when I first started reading the story.
There I am reading along with this:
When Mayor Jerry Sanders was sworn into office last year, he cited San Diego’s myriad financial problems in doing away with the normal pomp and circumstance of a fanciful inauguration.
Twelve months later, with the city facing a $24.6 million budget shortfall in the coming year, the city threw an inaugural party Dec. 4 to celebrate the victories of four council members who bested nominal challengers.
Cost to taxpayers: $6,546.
Apparently, the headline worked.