Headlines: Real but Ridiculous Samplings...

1989, undated later edition, from Warner
Compiled by Jay Leno
Headlines: Real but Ridiculous Samplings from America's Newspapers
Original price $6.95, bought used for $3.95
Very worn paperback
B-

Still funny (if not hilarious) all these years later, these headlines are for the most part timeless.  (However, the ad with a picture of O.J. Simpson, holding a turkey when it should be a ham, of course would be even stranger five years later.)  I'd misremembered one of my favorites, "Trees can break wind," without the "can," but it works either way.  Nearly every headline gets a sarcastic comment from Jay (often accompanied by a picture of him), so it captures the feel of him doing this routine on The Tonight Show.  (He started performing it as guest host back in '87 and is still doing it as host.)  I'm less happy with the cartoons that open each section.  The caricatures of Leno (prominent jaw and all) are fine, but the background people are needlessly grotesque.  I was going to mark the book down to a C+ for the cartoons but I decided that the book overcomes them enough to merit a B-.