WHO WANT'S TO KILL APOSTROPHE'S?

I think there ought to be books of apostrophes with no words at all. It just might open new vistas to the aspiring writer in search of a theme.

' ''' ' ''''' ' ' '''''''''''''''' '' ' ''' '''''''

I feel that way about signs in supermarkets which read: "Ten items or less." Fewer, goddamn it, fewer . . .

I am most fond of the apostrophe, when properly used. I have a near compulsion to go around and correct menus on chalkboards etc. Perhaps I ought rather to say menu's on chalkboard's.

I feel that way about signs in supermarkets which read: "Ten items or less." Fewer, goddamn it, fewer . . .

Ha! Reminds me of the joke about why Australian men are like wombats.

Because he eats, roots, shoots and leaves.

Setanta is right: "Less bacon, fewer pigs."

I strongly recommend this book:

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation[Paperback] by Lynne Truss

BAD COMMA
Lynne Truss’s strange grammar.
BY LOUIS MENAND

...

Why would a person who is not just vague about the rules but disinclined to follow them bother to produce a guide to punctuation? Truss, a former sports columnist for the London Times, appears to have been set a-blaze by two obsessions: superfluous apostrophes in commercial signage (“Potatoe’s” and that sort of thing) and the elision of punctuation, along with uppercase letters, in e-mail messages. Are these portents of the night, soon coming, in which no man can read? Truss warns us that they are—“If we value the way we have been trained to think by centuries of absorbing the culture of the printed word, we must not allow the language to return to the chaotic scriptio continua swamp from which it so bravely crawled less than two thousand years ago”—but it’s hard to know how seriously to take her, because her prose is so caffeinated that you can’t always separate the sense from the sensibility. And that, undoubtedly, is the point, for it is the sensibility, the “I’m mad as hell” act, that has got her her readers. A characteristic passage:

Quote:

Lynn Truss: For any true stickler, you see, the sight of the plural word “Book’s” with an apostrophe in it will trigger a ghastly private emotional process similar to the stages of bereavement, though greatly accelerated. First there is shock. Within seconds, shock gives way to disbelief, disbelief to pain, and pain to anger. Finally (and this is where the analogy breaks down), anger gives way to a righteous urge to perpetrate an act of criminal damage with the aid of a permanent marker.

I wonder if any of the anal here in this thread can see themselves in the above paragraph?

Some people do feel this way, and they do not wish to be handed the line that “language is always evolving,” or some other slice of liberal pie. They don’t even want to know what the distinction between a restrictive and a non-restrictive clause might be. They are like people who lose control when they hear a cell phone ring in a public place: they just need to vent. Truss is their Jeremiah. They don’t care where her commas are, because her heart is in the right place.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/06/28/040628crbo_books1

Your deception is noted, McTag.

It is becoming a regular habit for you. You could have explained why Set was "right", but you're much more comfortable with deception.

You two are nothing more than ignorant prescriptivists, McTag. That became apparent in the peeves threads, though it must be noted, you pretended to have an open mind.

You two are, again, completely divorced from reality. I guess now you'll head off on a million and one tangents and diversions, never addressing why Set is "right".

I don't understand this.

But I'm quite happy about that,

I feel that way about signs in supermarkets which read: "Ten items or less." Fewer, goddamn it, fewer . . .

Setanta is right: "Less bacon, fewer pigs."

I am most fond of the apostrophe, when properly used. I have a near compulsion to go around and correct menus on chalkboards etc. Perhaps I ought rather to say menu's on chalkboard's.

All this about apostrification?
Must be important.

I replied: Your deception is noted, McTag.

It is becoming a regular habit for you. You could have explained why Set was "right", but you're much more comfortable with deception.