Sunday, January 11, 2009

HEADLINE SENSE MAKE?

This was my stream-of-consciousness thought process upon seeing this cover of OK! Magazine over the weekend:

OK, OK! Magazine, let's be honest here, I'm only giving you the time of day because you put Britney on your cover. Normally, I pretend you and your infuriating exclamation point don't exist. "WHAT PRICE FAME?" Seriously?! Either I am going crazy (not impossible) or OK! Magazine totally left a word (or a few words) out of this headline. But wait, Dubofficer (this is what I call myself in my head when I'm figuring out mysteries): a national magazine wouldn't mess up on this sort of scale. I gotta be missing something. Hmmm. Maybe it's a sort of challenge directed at the concept of "fame," as in (note the comma)"What price, fame? What price is it going to take to please you? $3,000? $15,000? How much is enough to placate your ceaseless appetite??" Or maybe it's supposed to be read as three short one-word questions, like "What? Price? Fame?" (That makes no sense, Dubofficer.) Or maybe you're supposed to imagine Brit driving around town in one of her pink wigs and asking herself in one of her put-on accents "What price fame?" because in her adolescent mind, the question would actually make sense. Or perhaps the most likely explanation of all: maybe OK! has such little respect for its readership that it actually thinks none of the subscribers (related: do people even subscribe to OK!?) will notice?

[I start to walk away, but then move back to the magazine rack.] You got me, OK!: like Ms. Spears herself, you make no sense, but I just can't look away.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't believe it either until I looked it up on my computer's dictionary.

"what price ——?: used to ask what has become of something or to suggest that something has or would become worthless : what price justice if he were allowed to go free?"

still weird.