springing a leak

[Mark Mandel]

And I decided after a couple of readings of the headline alone that either
 a) he was *fired*, and Wired was making a bad joke by using "leaked" for an
NSA official,
 b) or his *identity* was leaked to the media
It never even occurred to me to read this as a transitive verb with the
object ungrammatically deleted.

m a m

On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 5:19 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

>  Here's a strange headline.
>
> http://bit.ly/cIuM0f
> NSA Executive Leaked After Official Reporting Process Failed Him |
> Threat Level | Wired.com
>
> Normally, it wouldn't be necessary to assume that it was classified
> information (or documents) that was leaked by an official, but, in this
> headline, the object is missing completely. So it sounds like the
> "Executive" may have sprung a leak.
>
>     VS-)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org