"Play it again, Sam"

Two major Winnipeg newspapers were thinking the same thing on Wednesday night. They watched as Sam Katz defeated Judy Wasylycia-Leis to retain his mayoral position for four more years. So they decided to grace the front page of their respective newspapers with a very creative and original phrase that would help them sell papers the next morning.

Play it again, Sam.

And sure enough, as the Winnipeg Free Press and Winnipeg Sun were distributed Thursday, there was the exact same headline on the front page of each paper.

Can you imagine the scene at the newsrooms on Thursday morning. Did the WFP writers have to hold Margo Goodhand back from storming down to the Winnipeg Sun offices? Did the Sun have to do the same for their editor?

I have so many questions regarding this occurrence. First of all, has this ever happened in the history of Winnipeg newspapers? I find that hard to believe.

My other big question is: Could this have been prevented? Probably not. I think this whole thing was just a fluky occurrence and we probably won’t see it again. Who knows, maybe Margo will send down spies to the Sun headquarters to make sure this never happens again.

All I know is that the first thought in my mind and probably many other Winnipeggers when seeing the duplicated headline was “Come on, guys.” You’ve got a bunch of creative minds in each newsroom. Couldn’t somebody have come up with a more unique headline?

So let’s help the editors out a bit.

Here are three headlines that popped up in my mind as possible alternatives to "Play it again, Sam"

Winnipeg Sam (A play on Yosemite Sam)
Katz one of the mayoral greats
No more waits, It’s Katz

Ok, I’m going to stop right there before I embarrass myself even more. But I do know there are tons of headlines out there that could have been used.

I’ll open the floor to anybody who wants to take their best stab at a headline.