Great Headline

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal ran the following headline in their Marketplace Section:

Loonie Hinders Canadian Firms

Reading that headline you’d think that an escapee from a mental institution was stalking companies in Canada and causing them trouble. Fortunately or unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

The article was about how the rising strength of the Canadian dollar and how it is hindering some exports. To understand the headline, it helps to know that the Canadian $1 coin has a picture of a loon engraved on it. Because of this, the Canadians refer to their dollar as the loonie.

In a way, that is too bad that it is only about their nickname for the Canadian dollar. The story would have been much more interesting if it did involve a mental patient who was upset that the companies were not polite enough or something like that.