There Are Still Copy Readers? (And Remembering Don Bice)

I didn't know there were any copy editors any more (what do they do all day?)--but it turns out they have a web forum (link), where they are discussing the most noted headline of recent times--the one about the high-wire artists who successfully executed a traverse of the Korean River Han. That is:

Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

(link)

Well I thought it was cute, but not everybody is impressed. Anyway, it leads to a diverting discussion of what counts as a good headline, and why.

Which is as good an occasion as any for me to remember the late Don Bice, working as a student newspaper editor at Antioch College when Rod Serling, then an Antioch student, won some sort of writing award that got him a free trip to New York from the old Dr. Christian radio program. Bice wrote:

Campus Rejoices as Serling Goes to Christian Reward

H/T Kottke again.