BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
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See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
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Wednesday, April 28, 2004
COMMON USAGE. Not long after
writing a piece on the rivalry
between the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, I
received a message from inside Wingo Square. My informant complained
I hadn't noted that the title of the redesigned Boston Globe
Magazine's front-of-the-book
section - "Boston Uncommon"
- was already being used by Herald sports columnist
Howard
Bryant.
Fair enough. But it turns out that
"Boston Uncommon" is about as original as "it was a dark and stormy
night." Click here
and you'll see what I mean. "Boston Uncommon" has been
used to describe wedding and honeymoon packages, attractions for
students, and crab cakes. It's the name of a vocal group, the title
of an article about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and the headline on a
story about a Palm Beach County gardener who moved there from
Boston.
The Christian Science
Monitor used it for a things-to-do piece. TCPalm.com, a Florida
website, used it for an 82-year-old guy who was planning to run the
Boston Marathon. The Cincinnati Post used it to describe a
former Ohio State football star named David Boston.
Titles are often used to evoke a
sense of the familiar rather than dazzle with originality. They also
can't be copyrighted, although they can be trademarked for certain
limited purposes. (Very limited, as Roger
Ailes learned when he went
after Al Franken.)
Does any of this matter? No. Just
thought I'd share.
posted at 12:01 PM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
