Lover of words has been Herald fan for more than 80 years

The Herald

10-05-2025

What is a lollapalooza? Well, many a reader of The Herald would not have known until Pat Titterington discovered the word and used it to help win herself a prize in the newspaper ' s Word Game Competition which used to run more than 30 years ago.
Ninety-year-old Pat Titterington, whose husband used to write motoring articles for The Herald, has been an avid fan of The Herald since she was old enough to read, and her love of words especially unusual ones, was inspired by her father who encouraged her to do the crosswords from a very young age.
This means the nonagenarian has been a fan of The Herald for almost half of its 180-year existence.
Her submission of 894 words for that particular competition, which involved formulating words from a selection of published alphabetical letters, was a record at the time — 532 more than her closest rival.
It took her just six hours over a weekend to compile her list of zany, weird and not-so-oft-used words and 'lollapalooza' was among them.
By the way, before you check Google (which was not an option for Titterington at the time) it means, loosely, 'a real knockout' — appropriate enough since the word, and all the others she managed to compile for her entry, knocked out any competition she had from other participants.
'To be more precise, according to the dictionary, it means a person or a thing that is exceptional or extraordinary.'
The word is actually an Americanism which was in use in the early 1900s.
'Somebody — I can't remember who it was — actually phoned me up from The Herald and said we're querying this one word — we've never heard of it,' Titterington chuckled.
A friend for many years of former deputy editor Bob Nixon, who also wrote a gardening column for The Herald, Titterington was 58 when she won the word challenge in the early 1990s and a prize of a R500 shopping voucher.
'When I was a little girl of about four years old, our house in Sunridge Park had a glass front door and I could see the silhouette of anybody who was there.
'My dad used to pay for his Herald on a monthly basis. And there was a lady [newspaper subscription collection agent] who used to come every month and she would collect the money.
'And she would ring the bell and I could see the silhouette and I used to yell to my father: 'It's the paper lady, daddy, it's the paper lady!'
Titterington remains a loyal reader of The Herald to this day after well over 80 years. Safe to say then — a real lollapalooza of a reader.
The Herald