To Kevin, et al.

Subject: Capsulizing history in three or four words

I generally need about 800 words to my point across. No way I could do it in just two or three words, which is part of the reason why I have such admiration for newspaper copy editors, who pen the headlines you see on our stories. In covering a huge event, there’s a lot of pressure to capture the enormity of it all. Below you'll find how some of the nation’s newspapers did it following Michael Phelps’ historic Olympics. Many had to do with "eight" or "gold." I tried to avoid repeats.

Arizona Republic: The 8^th wonder

Fresno Bee: 8 is Enough!

Los Angeles Daily News: Grrrrrrrr8!

North County Times (Escondido, Calif.): New Gold Standard

La Opinion (Los Angeles): Phelps, el Inmortal

Oakland Tribune: Solid Gold

Sacramento Bee: Phelps’ perfection etched in 8 golds

San Jose Mercury News: Eight for eight

Stockton (Calif.) Record: Eighth world wonder

Washington Post: Phelps earns eighth gold

Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger: Mighty Michael

Nuevo Herald (Fla.): Gloria Olimpica para Phelps

Orlando Sentinel: He did it!

The Tampa Tribune: Worth his 8 in gold

Sioux City (Iowa) Journal: America’s Golden Boy

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Phelps makes history

Boston Globe: A shining feat, a golden future

Baltimore Sun: Solid Gold

Baltimore Examiner: The gold standard

Detroit Free Press: EIGHT!

Kansas City Star: What a gold rush

Omaha World-Leader: King Midas

Carson City (Nev.) Appeal: Phenomenal Phelps

Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger: Eight for the ages

Newsday (N.Y.): 8

New York Post: GR8EST!

N.Y. Daily News: Solid Gold!

New York Times: Phelps’ epic journey ends in perfection

Times Reporter (Dover-New Philadelphia, Ohio): Precious Mettle

Cleveland Plain-Dealer: Golden Rule

The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.): Phelps Does It!

The State (Columbia, S.C.): Great x 8

Dallas Morning News: Broken Record

Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City, Utah): Phantastic!

The Virginia-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.): Gold rush

Seattle Times: Perfect 8