When it comes to words, Less is often More

Headline writing is an art form. Having grown up in a five-generation newspaper family and being a former print journalist myself, I know how difficult it is to write a headline that captures the essence of an article in a defined space. The skinny one-column heads are the hardest -- they're almost like haiku.
Well, no one writes headlines as well as The New York Times, and their one-column heads are generally poetry. In an arts section last week they posted a review of the movie "Country Strong," in which Gwyneth Paltrow plays an alcoholic country music star trying to save her career and love life.
Here was the one-column headline in the Times:
I am woman,Hear mecry, y'all
It tells us everything. We know that the Times did NOT like the movie -- and that they considered it to be sappy and over the top. The review was horribly written, but whoever wrote that headline (reporters never write their own; the job generally goes to the page designer), deserves a pat on the back. In these days of verbosity, succinct, well-thought-out messages should be appreciated and savored.
In an unrelated note: Here's a shout-out to my readers in and around Estevan, Saskatchewan, who are reading my novel "Househusband" in their Book Club in a Bag program.