Those Tricky Headlines 

     The headline said, “New Zealand Fisherman Catches North American Fresh Water Turtle.” My first reaction was, big deal, anybody can do that. All you need is a ticket from New Zealand to wherever in North America that has a good supply of fresh-water turtles, then go there and catch some unsuspecting turtle. 
     After reading the headline I was about to move on, but thought, maybe the headline writer just missed the mark by a little. Sure enough. This turtle was caught in New Zealand, hence its being newsworthy. 
     
     That’s like reading a headline that says, “Redmond, OR Man Shoots Tiger in Backyard.” Well to start with, I’m not up on tiger anatomy, but I’ve never heard of a tiger having a backyard. Or, it could mean the backyard of the man’s house in Redmond, OR, which would be an odd place to find a tiger. But then reading the story and finding out that the Redmond, OR, man was on a safari in India where early one morning he looked out the lodge window and saw a tiger dragging a local man, who was the grounds keeper for the lodge, across the backyard toward the nearby jungle. The Redmond, OR, man shot the tiger with his BB pistol, which he carried for some reason not specified. The BB hit the tiger in the ear, which was completely fortuitous and had nothing to do with the man from Redmond’s skill. The shot to the ear didn’t hurt the tiger in the least, but the surprise distracted him enough for the grounds keeper to punch it on the nose and then escape. The two things so discombobulated the poor tiger that it didn’t pursue the freed grounds keep but loped off into the jungle. 

     Headline: World’s Largest Single Fireworks In Steamboat Springs.” The next line explained that this firecracker weighed 2,797 pounds, and that it set a Guinness world record. I full expected to read next that the folks of Steamboat Springs were going to try an even bigger firecracker as soon as they rebuild the part of the city where firecracker was set off. However, I was happy to find out that they shot this thing off on a mountain outside of town.