"FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD."

The man who penned the ultimate tabloid headline, William J. Brink, has ... well ... dropped dead.

Set in huge bold letters, the headline screamed across Page 1 of the paper on Oct. 30, 1975. In six taut syllables, it brought home its message with the power of a knockout punch: At the height of New York's fiscal crisis, President Gerald R. Ford had declined to bail the city out.

Those six syllables, as Mr. Ford later acknowledged, almost certainly lost him New York State in his 1976 race against Jimmy Carter, and with it, the presidency.

Powerful. The pen is mighty.

The NYT, which had to resist saying Brink "dropped dead," does poke fun at itself:

The corresponding headline in The New York Times that day, FORD, CASTIGATING CITY, ASSERTS HE'D VETO FUND GUARANTEE; OFFERS BANKRUPTCY BILL, remains unsung.