Friar Tuck
by CarolineStanley Fish’s new column is an interesting rumination on headlines and the allusions they contain.
Another recent Post story (April 7) concerns a Staten Island pastor who stole $850,000 from his church and spent it on plastic surgery and botox treatments. (The Post just loves stories about wayward ministers, rabbis and priests.) The front page headline was “Friar Tuck.”
Literally, “Friar” is an adjectival modifier of “Tuck.” What kind of tuck did he get? A friar tuck. But Friar Tuck is also the name of a key character in the Robin Hood legend, and in most versions of the story he is not ministering to a flock, but consuming great quantities of wine and food.
In an episode of Sex and the City there is another play on Friar Tuck but it is not appropriate.
(Perhaps needless to say . . . it rhymes with the original.)
one response
[...] Earlier this week I linked to Stanley Fish’s column on headlines. Later that day, a good example popped up on frog design: Will the Real Brand Owner Please Stand Up? [...]