Ben loved to make up headlines. Or tell jokes.

The headlines had to be funny. He loved puns and playing with words.

"Oblong man found dead in Sandwich."

This is newsroom humor, by the way, as you sit around a copy desk writing real headlines for real stories.

Ben was editor of the campus paper at NIU and I was learning how to edit copy and write headlines.

The first time I heard his headline it was pretty funny. Of course I heard it many times. Oblong and Sandwich, of course, are both towns in Illinois. And his headline could have been real. In fact, as I think back, that might have been why he loved the headline. It's something he saw in print.

I could be quoting that headline wrong. It's been a long time, but I know I am close enough to make my point.

The copy desk I sat at was a real copy desk — shaped like a kidney bean and inside the curve sat the "slot man" or the copy editor. The slot man would toss a story at me, typed out on a Royal typewriter with canary yellow paper and one carbon (or was it two carbons?).

It was my job to edit the story. I had a special pencil (had to be sharp), erasers tended to be big and separate, a jar of paste and a ruler or "pica pole" (type was measured in picas and points). Stories were tripled spaced, leaving room to write in words and editing marks. There were a lot of editing marks to learn.

If we thought paragraph 10 should be paragraph three, then we plopped the ruler down and ripped the page apart and glued it back together.

The cool part came at the end of the editing. The frosting on the cake was the headline. It was an invitation to be creative and smart with words, a chance to shine. Copy editors fix the works of others. They need a chance to show their own talents and the headline offers that challenge.

In the beginning most students tend to think this means clever puns — "Baker makes lot of dough with new business" — or alliteration, starting every word with the same letter — "Nancy nipped her nasturtiums neatly."

You still see such headlines today. Headline writers still love the word game.

There used to be a lot of headline rules, but many have faded. Heads were supposed to fit the space exact, give or take one or two counts. That's pretty precise. We had to count each letter in the head to see if what was written would fit the designed space. (Cap W was two counts and the lower case l was half a count.)

Like I said, it was challenging. You had to come up with a clever, grabbing headline and make it fit the space.

Actually it was fun, and not that tough. Although this gives you a clue as to why head writers tend to use words like "nab" instead of "arrest" and "irk" instead of "upset" and "set" instead of "scheduled." Headline writers really like those short words, especially when they need to write three lines over a one-column story.

The real challenge with headlines, however, is rooted in their purpose. They sell each and every story they top. The headline is the grip on the reader.

The headline is the first thing you read on a story. And for many it's the last. Most readers scan to find a story they want to read. And that's the point — the headline must make you want to read. "Council slates meeting" does not make me beg for more.

It's also easy to write a headline and then see it in print later, screaming something totally different than what was meant. A friend of mine sucks examples off such heads off the Web now and then and sends them to me, with commentary added:

"Man kills self before shooting wife and daughter" (Not possible).

"Something went wrong in jet crash, expert says" (Ya think?).

"Panda mating fails; veterinarian takes over" (What a guy!).

"Red tape holds up new bridges" (Duct tape?).

"Kids make nutritious snacks" (Probably taste like chicken).

"Typhoon rips through cemetery; hundreds dead" (But they felt no pain).

Such headlines are funny up to a point. That point being when they appeared in print. Chuckle all you want, but somewhere there is an editor groaning.

Except for Ben. I suspect the copy editor in him today would still see the humor — and love every minute of it.

• LONNY CAIN is Managing Editor of The Times. To share thoughts, comments or ideas, please call 815-431-4041 or e-mail lonnyc@mywebtimes.com or attach a comment to this column on our Web site. You are also welcome to stop by or mail to The Times, 110 W. Jefferson St., Ottawa, IL 61350.