How to get a head in journalism

"BOISE, IDAHO-A Boise woman and her four year-old daughter were killed Thursday when their car was rammed by pickup being operated by a man who had his wife's severed head in the truck." Now THAT'S the kind of topic sentence that makes journalism worthwhile.

That's what I love about American local news: it's often better researched than any big city paper, but just sometimes, you get the impression that the hacks are having just a bit of fun before they get all serious and apply for jobs at the New York Times. I mean, "...when the truck operated by Alofa Time, 50, crashed into them head on, sending the severed head of his wife airbound onto the roadway."... the way the sentence makes it sound as if Time could have gotten away with it ("Her head came off in the crash, Officer!!!") and the plausibly-deniable 'head on' insertion.

Even the headline - Man Driving With Wife's Severed Head Causes Fatal Crash - sounds just that little too horrendously funny, as if he's mistaken the severed head for the steering wheel, or that he's just taking it for a drive much as you would a pet dog. Lucky unnamed North Country Gazette journalist: when he's in his darkest moments, he's now got one of those thoughts that'll return him to cheerfulness forever.