A heds up

Can you spot: the reference to “Home on the Range”; a movie title; two punny headlines?

When I was younger, one of my favorite segments on Jay Leno’s late night show was called “Headlines.” I laughed and laughed at the silly/inappropriate/verbiage-gone-wild headlines from around the country. “Foolish headling writers!” I thought.

Then I became one.

Many people don’t seem to know this, but copy editors usually write the headlines for newspapers. True, editors and reporters do make suggestions, but when it comes down to it, copy editors have final say on what 80% of people actually read in the newspaper. After working as a copy editor, I realized that “those foolish headline writers” had probably written those crazy headlines on purpose.

Copy editing is a behind-the-scenes, usually glory-less task. We write captions for photographs and help tighten up and clarify stories, besides being the grammar/punctuation/spelling police. Our names aren’t printed anywhere in the paper, but they sure are remembered quickly when there are mistakes.

But the job has its perks, like the secret thrill of sharing an inside joke with the special few (alright, probably hundreds) readers who will get it.

For instance, take a look at the paper below:

Holler back, Spice Girls fans!

Sometimes I really love my job.

Jammie Karlman is also the entertainment editor for the Chico Enterprise-Record. Contact her at buzz@chicoer.com. Follow her on Twitter @JammieKarlman