headlines – Page 11 – don't confuse the narrator

fire and rain

Some readers will remember the fraught few days last summer when I wondered if the house was to be burned to a frazzle by the Gredos fire. It’s hard to believe that with all the rain that’s fallen recently.

Anyway, I still have a “Google alert” set up that tells me when any relevant news appears on the web. Which is why I’ve just seen this headline from the catástrofes y accidentes section of ABC online:

Yes, the re-forestation has been put off because of the weather.
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plus ça change

The BBC are running a story under the headline, “Middle-aged targeted in Change4Life health campaign“.

The report says that people in the 45 – 65 age group

are to be urged to downsize their plates and dance to the radio as part of the government-backed Change4Life advertising campaign.

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it’s all Greek to them

An interesting story on the BBC website under the headline Spanish hairdressers rebel against radio tax. It’s all to do with the fact that here in Spain the SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores) is determined to protect the intellectual property rights of its members.

The SGAE are the people responsible for the Canon por copia privada, a tax imposed on recording devices (both storage media, such as cds, and reproduction devices) in Spain.
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totally rad

Maybe it’s just me, but this headline, from the BBC website a few days ago, bothers me:

Plane bomb suspect "radicalised after leaving UK"

I think there are two problems. First the fact that “radicalised” could be either active or passive – “he radicalised”, or “he was radicalised”. And then the verb itself, “to radicalise”. It may be the correct usage, but it sounds strange. And it immediately makes me think of “free radicals”.
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