This award goes to the NYT headline writer who titled Felicia Lee's article on the Laura Slater controversy: Book's Critique of Psychology Ignites a Torrent of Criticism.
[Update: Daniel Ezra Johnson emailed to point out that the etymology of torrent is from Latin torrere "scorch, burn" via French torrent. Well, OK, but all of the OED's meanings or citations, from 1398 forward, are all about rushing water or senses derived therefrom. Sometimes, contra Wittgenstein, etymology is not really destiny.]
Posted by Mark Liberman at April 13, 2004 06:42 AM