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Ben Zimmer’s “On Language” column in this week’s New York Times Magazine was about crash blossoms – headlines that have been pared down so far they unintentionally allow for alternative meanings.

The term was coined when an American editor based in Sapporo, Japan, spotted the headline “Violinist Linked to JAL Crash Blossoms” and wondered, “What’s a crash blossom?”

Classics of the genre include:

1. “Giant Waves Down Queen Mary’s Funnel”
2. “MacArthur Flies Back to Front”
3. “Eighth Army Push Bottles Up Germans”
4. “Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim”
5. “Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge”
6. “McDonald’s Fries the Holy Grail for Potato Farmers”
7. “British Left Waffles On Falklands”
8. “Gator Attacks Puzzle Experts”

When it comes to editing, I’m a slash and burn girl – but as these headlines make clear, it’s possible to slash too much. In the case of the McDonald’s headline, for example, the three letter word “are” in between “Fries” and “the” would make all the difference in the world.

In an editing manual University of Oregon journalism professor John Russial wrote, “As the word count drops, the likelihood of ambiguity increases.” In this age of extreme brevity, where brief, pithy blog posts compete for our attention with text messages and 140 character tweets, are we trading brevity for clarity?

These two recent articles are aimed at press releases and other communications, but they have a lot of relevance for leadership communicators as well.

“‘Twas brillig in the slithy toves” they’re not, but David Meerman Scott’s Gobbledygook Index is a cautionary tale of the highest order. While limited to ten words, Robin Wauter’s “10 Words I Would Love to See Banned from Press Releases” is equally squirm-producing for those of us who have used them.

Remember - we’re not communicating if no one can follow what we’re saying, and we’re not leading if no one can understand what priorities we’re setting.