Headline of the day comes from The Sun and refers to President Obama's meeting yesterday with the Dalai Lama. Using a technique much favoured by the tabloid press, the headline writer has taken a well-known phrase and changed it slightly to fit the story. Here, it's a song title:'Shama Lama Ding Dong', which becomes 'Obama Lama Ding Dong'.
The clever part is that while the song title just consists of nonsense words, the Sun headline actually means something: 'ding dong' is a slang expression meaning 'a violent exchange of blows or words' (as well as an onomatapoeic word for the sound of a bell ringing). The 'violent exchange' is likely to be with China, which has not taken kindly to the meeting (a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the talks "violated the US's repeated acceptance that Tibet is a part of China").
READ MORE
• China summons US Ambassador over Dalai Lama's Washington visit (Times Online)
• Obama defies China by meeting Dalai Lama (Mail Online)
• Why does the West love the Dalai Lama? (BBC News Magazine)
