{"id":103464,"date":"2026-10-08T01:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T05:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=103464"},"modified":"2026-10-07T10:58:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:58:35","slug":"qotd-headlines-for-modern-audiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/qotd-headlines-for-modern-audiences\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: Headlines for modern audiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I considered some eye-catching modern headlines for this one.<\/p>\n

Popcorn: you’re making it wrong<\/em><\/strong>. This is a classic formulation that produces both anger and curiosity. It’s confrontational and contemptuous, but you think hey, once I learn the secret, I can smirk at other people who don’t know the true way.<\/p>\n

We talked to popcorn experts. Here’s why they say you should smear butter on your chest<\/em><\/strong>. This style has become the norm, and appeals to people who regard themselves as the sort of people who respect the experts. They trust the popcorn science.<\/p>\n

The FDA has banned this poison from popcorn: here’s what we know<\/em><\/strong>. Then you discover there’s some 1964 rule that forbids using DDT on corn.<\/p>\n

Gut doctor begs: stop doing this with popcorn<\/em><\/strong> (Picture of a doctor pointing at a cadaver with its chest blown out from the inside)<\/p>\n

Sorry. The closest I can come is this:<\/p>\n

If you stop eating popcorn on a regular basis, an unexpected thing happens: it becomes unappetizing. It ceases to be something you consider as “food”. It’s stuff you’d put in a box of plates to keep them from chipping.<\/p>\n

But<\/em>, you say, I make absolutely delightful popcorn with butter and salt!<\/em> I don’t doubt it. Everything is better with butter and salt. You could say that popcorn is just a delivery mechanism for butter and salt. Golden, rich butter, seeping into the tiny caverns of the detonated kernel, salt falling like snow on Christmas Eve –<\/p>\n

Hold on, be right back; I really want some popcorn now.<\/p>\n

James Lileks, “Experts say these are the most overrated headlines; number 4 is scary”, LILEKS (James)<\/em><\/a>, 2026-07-06.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I considered some eye-catching modern headlines for this one. Popcorn: you’re making it wrong. This is a classic formulation that produces both anger and curiosity. It’s confrontational and contemptuous, but you think hey, once I learn the secret, I can smirk at other people who don’t know the true way. We talked to popcorn experts. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[74,57,28,41],"tags":[213,139,593],"class_list":["post-103464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-humour","category-media","category-quotations","tag-newspapers","tag-psychology","tag-socialmedia"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-qUM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103464"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105234,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103464\/revisions\/105234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}