This week, a blessing was sent from the headline gods to writers across the globe. It arrived disguised in a strategic partnership between two cities, one semi-small town in Oregon and a tiny village in Scotland who were both looking to drum up a little publicity and maybe drive tourists to their locales. The towns are named Dull and Boring.
Dull and Boring struck a deal! As The Oregonian has reported, Boring, Ore., pop. 8,000 (too-good-to-be-true motto: “the most exciting place to live”) and Dull, Scotland — pop. 86 — have formed an unofficial partnership to become “sister communities.”
“I have always had fun with the fact I’m from Boring, Oregon,” said Steve Bates, chairman of the Boring Community Planning Organization, to local paper The Sandy Post:
“So when there was the opportunity to have more fun with Boring, Oregon and Dull, Scotland, it only made sense to me that it was something that would attract attention to Boring and help our economy with tourism.”
That’s all well and good for those towns, for they are now getting a whole lot of press they wanted. Also fun was to see how headlines morphed the story into every sort of humorous commentary.
Behold: the semi-scandalous sounding “Dull Embraces Boring“, the serendipitous “Dull and Boring: Separated at Birth?” the business wire-parody ring of “Boring and Dull form strategic partnership,” and our favorite, for its brevity and why-would-you-even-want-to-read-this pluck, “A Dull & Boring Story.”
See? It’s fun! Our hats are off to you, you Dull and Boring people. You’re actually kind of genius.
Got a better Dull and Boring headline? Let us know in the comments.