Headline of the Day

The power went out around 5pm last evening and I’m operating on too little sleep. But I’m confident that “A snake fell from the sky onto a woman in Silsbee, Texas, while she mowed her lawn — then a hawk attacked them both” is the most evocative headline I’ll encounter today. (Were I the editor, I’d have omitted the locale.)

Yikes.

FILED UNDER: Tab Clearing,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Kurtz says:

    (Were I the editor, I’d have omitted the locale.)

    I would as well. It almost makes me not want to click on it, because it becomes just another item on a long list of reasons not to live in a Texas small town.

    I also think: Brett Favre mows his lawn more than just about anyone else on the planet. Why couldn’t this have happened to him?

    3
  2. JohnSF says:

    The Mexican flag comes to mind.

    3
  3. Kylopod says:
  4. CSK says:

    The hawk’s thought bubble: “Bitch stole my snake.”

    2
  5. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Heh, the very definition of “Shit happens.”

    1
  6. Sleeping Dog says:

    An improvement and distraction from another trump headline.

    3
  7. BugManDan says:

    Just sent the link to my wife. She had a heart attack.

  8. Kathy says:

    @JohnSF:

    It’s an eagle on the flag.

    I suppose the hawk caught the snake elsewhere, then dropped it en route to wherever it was going. Naturally it tried to retrieve its lunch.

    1
  9. gVOR10 says:

    I don’t believe it. I simply don’t believe it. Silsbee Texas? This has to be a Florida story.

  10. Gustopher says:

    @JohnSF: The Gadsden flag comes to mind for me.

    “Don’t fall on me”

    Add a small eagle in the corner, I suppose.

    3
  11. MarkedMan says:

    @gVOR10:

    This has to be a Florida story.

    Why?
    – The woman was fully clothed
    – She was performing a normal everyday activity
    – She was sober
    – She wasn’t manufacturing meth at the time

    I mean, how could she have been in Florida?

    5
  12. SC_Birdflyte says:

    @Kathy: I thought I heard that the reason the eagle and snake are on the flag was that one of the conquistadors saw just that, way back when. But I don’t have a source for that memory.

  13. Kathy says:

    @SC_Birdflyte:

    The traditional explanation is that the Mexica people saw the eagle dining on a snake on top of a cactus on an island in what would become Tenochtitlan, which would become the capital of the Aztec empire, and then Mexico City.

    1
  14. Pete S says:

    @MarkedMan:
    In all honesty Florida is the only place I have ever seen an eagle flying through the air holding a snake. I was quite glad to be in a car in case the damn thing fell.