Dopers, how can I track down the origin of a xerox I have of a Morning Herald (?) newspaper photo with a caption that says, “Though a shitload of snow fell Saturday, snowplow crews had most major streets cleared by Sunday.”… I don’t know where it came from. It looks totally authentic, but I never knew the source. Could be 20 years old. Any ideas on determining provenance?
Are you sure it’s not a gag newspaper article someone had made up? That sort of thing can be printed just about everywhere.
What QED said. You can get newspapers with gag headlines at lots of boardwalk variety/amusement shops.
What QED said. You can get newspapers with gag headlines at lots of boardwalk variety/amusement shops.
This is a photo with a caption, more complete than my quote. It shows people shoveling snow, it has a photographer attribution, and it looks for all the world like a legitimate newspaper product. I have thought that it may have been a dummy made up as a gag in a newsroom someplace, that somehow slipped past editors. Definitely not a gag headline. So - any ideas on how to track it down?
More info needed. Morning Herald? Which country, city? Is there a date? Have you googled and phonebook searched the photographers name? Contacted the Morning Herald and asked if they have heard about this? Etc.
Was the term “shitload” used 20 years ago?
It only says Morning Herald. No city. No date. Photographer’s name is very common, maybe Joe Young, or Jon Young. Lots of Morning Herald’s. Yep. “Shitload”'s been used a long time.
Have you tried searching by the photographer’s name?
Gee, does it look more realistic than this?
Christ, you couldn’t find a slightly less eye-searing page to link to? I think my retinas are scalded now.
Wow, that was a slow reply on my part. I did read the thread first, I swear.
I don’t care how “realistic” it looks. I can make up a newspaper that looks more realistic than some “real” papers I’ve seen.
Oh come on. How seriously would people have taken me if I’d said, “Warning: page is green.”
Newspaper photographer here. I have no doubt that the photocopy CC describes is authentic. Every now and then some bored staffer will write a joke caption, or a designer will type out something humorous to fit a space in their layout, and for whatever reason nobody catches it until it gets into print. I’ve never witnessed it first-hand, but I’ve seen enough examples to make me think the one described here is real.
As for the Morning Herald, my guess would be that it came from the Hagerstown (Md.) Morning Herald - aside from a Morning Herald in Titusville, Pa., that may or may not still exist, it was the only Morning Herald I could find in the US. There is the Sydney Morning Herald, but I don’t think they’ve ever gotten a “shitload of snow” in Sydney.
I should add that if it’s 20 years old, it may have come from one of the many many small-town newspapers that have folded in the last couple of decades. In which case, good luck trying to track it down.
CC - any chance of putting a scan of the paper up anywhere? Don’t rule out the Sydney Morning Herald - although snow in Sydney might not be that common they do get plenty in the (duh) Snowy Mountains in southwest NSW. Although if the spelling used is “snowplow” I think it’s more likely to be a US paper. They write “snowplough” in Australia, I believe.
I think the fact that the lone line “A shitload of snow” gives the impression that it’s real. One would expect a fake article to be littered with untruths and larger-than-life tales.
The photo/caption you are referring to ran in the (then known as) Crystal Lake Herald, March, 1984…Crystal Lake Illinois. This was not a hoax–rather, a prank pulled by a former copy editor who assumed the person coming behind them would catch the creative caption and edit back. Obviously it was missed and ran as is–lending to local lore and lots of laughs since. This message board was active in 2003–not sure if you are still looking for the information but there you go.
So if that’s true, do we have only your word for it, or can you provide a link to a source?
Especially since no one has come forward in 8 years with the information you just supplied.
No hits on Google News Archive, Google Images, or Google Books that match that.
However, Google came up with a Facebook discussion page with old newsies reminiscing. They remember a Crystal Lake Morning Herald prank and the photographer who did it.
No solid sources or dates. But another search brought this up, and you can’t ask for more - short of an actual picture, of course.
Dopers are the most skeptical, “Show Me” folks on the Internet, which is why a mere assertion automatically gets doubted. But the answer appears to be exactly right and we thank you, Lee Ann, for clearing up this old dangling mystery.