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When we were in school in the early 1950s there were the following canons about News:
1. The word 'News' is an acronym for reports coming from N(orth), E(ast), W(est), S(outh).
We believed in it and spread the canard. Everyone enjoyed it and wondered how clever Englishmen are. None contradicted it. Of course it turns out to be one of those veritable myths. I just now Googled for the etymology of 'news'. And found that the word simply comes from the common sense notion of 'reports of what is new'.
2. 'News' is always singular...although the word ends in 's'.
Apparently here our teachers were right, for once. Webster says: 'noun plural but singular in construction'. If you insist on a plural word for 'news', we were taught it is 'tidings'. I don't think anyone, since Shakespeare, had ever asked: "What are tidings, boss?". "What's news?" is so colloquial not only in English but also in the Indian languages. In Telugu, it is generally plural: "kaburlu". But in Hindi, and possibly Bengali, it may be singular: 'khabar' or 'khabor' respectively.
3. Dog biting man is no news but man biting dog IS.
I don't know now. Hyderabadi dogs have become so ferocious that they are in the news everyday for all the wrong reasons. Yesterday there was a news splash that some ferocious but compact Belgian assault hounds were acquired by our Octopus (figure that out yourself). Curiously, one of the dogs is named Rambo. Rambo happens to be the invective Congress chose for its prime ministerial opponent in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. And the smart BJP lady in charge of countering Congress propaganda retorted:
"It is better to be a Rambo than a Dumbo or a Scambo".
Curiously again, three good weeks after the unintended damage had been done, the esteemed newspaper withdrew its original Himalayan story as a hoax.
4. No news is good news.
This idiom didn't mean that all news is bad news. It meant that if you have had no bad news it is understood that all is well. This proverb was extensively used by misers who didn't want to spend that 5 paise on the postcard to inquire after the welfare of their kids in the hostels. Their kids indulged in the inverse proverb: "Out of sight, out of mind", which was translated by an early Japanese computer as: "blind, insane"
King James I is supposed to be the first chap who said: "No news is better than evil news". I don't know what he meant and what was the context. He was the son of Mary, the Queen of Scots (not to be confused with Bloody Mary, the cocktail), who was beheaded (not so cleanly) by the executioners of Queen Elizabeth I, who shouted "God Save the Queen!", with her (Mary's) loose head in their hands...gory these gories are:
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When we were in school in the early 1950s there were the following canons about News:
1. The word 'News' is an acronym for reports coming from N(orth), E(ast), W(est), S(outh).
We believed in it and spread the canard. Everyone enjoyed it and wondered how clever Englishmen are. None contradicted it. Of course it turns out to be one of those veritable myths. I just now Googled for the etymology of 'news'. And found that the word simply comes from the common sense notion of 'reports of what is new'.
2. 'News' is always singular...although the word ends in 's'.
Apparently here our teachers were right, for once. Webster says: 'noun plural but singular in construction'. If you insist on a plural word for 'news', we were taught it is 'tidings'. I don't think anyone, since Shakespeare, had ever asked: "What are tidings, boss?". "What's news?" is so colloquial not only in English but also in the Indian languages. In Telugu, it is generally plural: "kaburlu". But in Hindi, and possibly Bengali, it may be singular: 'khabar' or 'khabor' respectively.
3. Dog biting man is no news but man biting dog IS.
I don't know now. Hyderabadi dogs have become so ferocious that they are in the news everyday for all the wrong reasons. Yesterday there was a news splash that some ferocious but compact Belgian assault hounds were acquired by our Octopus (figure that out yourself). Curiously, one of the dogs is named Rambo. Rambo happens to be the invective Congress chose for its prime ministerial opponent in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. And the smart BJP lady in charge of countering Congress propaganda retorted:
"It is better to be a Rambo than a Dumbo or a Scambo".
Curiously again, three good weeks after the unintended damage had been done, the esteemed newspaper withdrew its original Himalayan story as a hoax.
4. No news is good news.
This idiom didn't mean that all news is bad news. It meant that if you have had no bad news it is understood that all is well. This proverb was extensively used by misers who didn't want to spend that 5 paise on the postcard to inquire after the welfare of their kids in the hostels. Their kids indulged in the inverse proverb: "Out of sight, out of mind", which was translated by an early Japanese computer as: "blind, insane"
King James I is supposed to be the first chap who said: "No news is better than evil news". I don't know what he meant and what was the context. He was the son of Mary, the Queen of Scots (not to be confused with Bloody Mary, the cocktail), who was beheaded (not so cleanly) by the executioners of Queen Elizabeth I, who shouted "God Save the Queen!", with her (Mary's) loose head in their hands...gory these gories are:
...A small dog owned by the queen, a Skye terrier,
is said to have been hiding among her skirts, unseen by the spectators.
Following the beheading, it refused to be parted from its owner's body
and was covered in her blood, until it was forcibly taken away and
washed.[219]
...Good 'news' story from wiki...
5. 'News' is different from 'Views'.
News used to occur in the front page while views were aired in the Edit page. Now of course, this holy distinction is blurred. Every worthwhile newspaper (particularly the vernaculars) is either owned or propped up by a political party. I recall reading (perhaps in Thurber) the first lesson given to a cub reporter by the editor of a newspaper in the good old days:
"Go to the site and file your report on that street fight using bombs. Write a long first para detailing the scenery and the greenery. Then write a second para about what actually occurred in as few words as you can. In a third concluding para give your opinion of the event and the moral, if any. Then take a pair of sharp scissors and clip the first and the last para and submit the middle one"
...a lesson all bloggers ought to follow...
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