Why would any editor — print, online or broadcast — allow the words “beats off” to ever appear in a headline? This example from wonkette.com shows how silly those words can make what is otherwise a serious story.

And get your minds out of the gutter. Even my 80-year-old grandma knows what “beats off” means, and in this day and age, you can’t blame a person’s eye for being caught by those two words (especially when “woman,” “burglar” and “gnome” are all in the same sentence).