"State Police Enforcing Reckless Motorcycle Driving." That is the headline flashing on the lighted sign above the lanes of the Kennedy Expressway heading into downtown Chicago.
Does the headline writer really mean that police will be making sure that motorcyclists drive recklessly in the 55+ mph traffic? Or, is this Jay Leno Tonight Show-worthy headline yet another in a series of comical word order choices by people who are proof reading-challenged?
One of the most entertaining aspects of loving words and paying attention to their use is that scarcely a week goes by when I don't see a public relations issue arise because of careless word order or words that might have been better left unsaid. My job as a public relations consultant specializing in public affairs in Chicago gives me the opportunity to help clients avoid such mishaps.
The state police motorcycle headline reminds me of the infamous quote by the legendary Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic Convention. He is widely quoted as having said, "The police are not here to create disorder. The police are here to preserve disorder." brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/richard_j_daley.html
When I was a newspaper reporter for The Daily Herald, dailyherald.com covering the Cook County Board of Commissioners in the late 1980s, a commissioner made a similar gaffe. Railing at what he saw as a lack of emergency preparedness for the county (this is 15 years BEFORE 9-11, so maybe he was prescient), Commissioner Carl Hansen of Mount Prospect said that when American Airlines Flight 191 had crashed near O'Hare International Airport a few years earlier, emergency response teams were woefully inadequate. "Fortunately, everyone died," he said of the plane crash.
How many times do we chuckle each day as someone speaks words in an order that is unintentionally humorous? How many silly signs and goofy headlines will we see this week? Which elected officials will think they are saying what they mean, but not mean to say what they really do? While all of this is funny, I prefer that people laugh with my clients, not at them.
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