Week 8

Word of the Week

I found the word Interpol when reading an article titled "Day care operator sought in child deaths surrenders."  A woman from Houston, Texas fled to Nigeria after a fire at her child-care facility killed four children, and was the subject of an Interpol search.

The word caught my attention because it was capitalized and I had no idea what it meant.  Yourdictionary.com says the origin of the word comes from inter(national) pol(ice) and defines Interpol as: an international police organization with headquarters in Paris: it coordinates the police activities of participating nations against international criminals: full name International Criminal Police Organization.




Catch of the Week


For my catch of the week, I have a little personal anecdote dating back to Sunday, Feb. 28, the night of the Oscars.  Let's just say I'm an award-show enthusiasts and I especially like to see what celebrities are in attendance and what they're wearing.  While I did homework, I sat and watched the entire show, from the red carpet pre-show, to the ceremony, to the after-party coverage.


After it was all over, I saw a tweet from the publication The Onion that said, "How rude — not a single character from Toy Story 3 bothered to show up. #oscars"


I immediately re-tweeted, "Wasn't Tom Hanks there?"  I knew he was.  He did an interview a little after he was featured on the slideshow for "Best Acceptance Speeches."


Well, I guess The Onion knew I was right too, because instead of answering my re-tweet, within minutes it merely deleted the tweet.  I had a little proud moment for pointing out a fact error on twitter.  The tweet can be seen on my twitter page (scroll down to Feb. 28).




Headline Challenge


"News Flash!!!!  Prices Rose Last Month!" is a headline I found in Business Insider.  It's an economics piece about how when studying the rate of inflation, the government needs to look at the cost of food and energy instead of considering them as transient costs.  The article is boring, so maybe it's trying to get people's attention with the excess of exclamation marks?  I would take them out or rewrite this whole article.  I could barely get through it.




Passage of the Week


When I clicked on the article "Death toll from Japan's disasters over 8,000; more than 12,000 missing," I thought I was about to read a really heartbreaking story.  On the contrary, the lead was the only thing referring to the death toll, and the article went on to describe a story of an 80-year-old grandmother and grandson who were rescued after being trapped in the rubble of their home for more than a week.  In light of such seismic disaster, these tidbits of hope are extremely necessary for morale.  I think that focusing on the good with the abundance of so much bad is good reporting, good writing and good editing.