Enough already about the Southeast Michigan township of Hell freezing over.
Gizmodo UK (left) and Time magazine
We get that it's almost funny -- if you're from elsewhere and don't hear it pretty much every winter. For headline writers and broadcast producers, it's like catnip -- a phrase to grab for. (These folks, mind you, have loved wordplay since discovering in fourth grade how to use bust, boob, prick or Dick with mock innocence.)
What's more amusing, actually, is seeing how widely the phrase is repeated this week. The frozen four-letter community in Livingston County is considered newsworthy in Melbourne, Dublin, London and across this country, a scroll through more than two dozen Good News links shows.
The Sun, a tabloid paper in the U.K., ran "HELL FREEZES OVER" in big type as its main cover headline Tuesday.
Even WDIV in Detroit couldn't resist the addictive phrase, which had been a staple of late weatherman Sonny Eliot's shtick on Channel 2 and WWJ. He'd surely be amused by its global popularity now.
Michigan Radio reporter/producer Mark Brush posted on this topic Wednesday morning.
