Apostrophe with that?
Friday, April 11th by carlaApostrophe with that?
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Daniel Dyer
Cleveland’s Plain Dealer
Normally I’m not abnormal. I don’t grind my teeth, celebrate Lizzie Borden’s birthday (July 19, 1860), murder an old man in his sleep because his filmy eye annoys me. I leave well enough alone. Let sleeping dogs lie. Etc.
But a recent contretemps with Starbucks nearly set my teeth-agrinding and got me reading Edgar Allen Poe again. I was at the drive-thru, waiting at the window for delivery of my grande decaf (”no room, please”). And then I saw it. A hand-written sign inside: “Skinny Latte’s.”
Apostrophe S.
When the little glass door slid open, I smiled, thanked the partner, and said (gently, calmly, amiably, sanely): “You know, there shouldn’t be an apostrophe on ‘lattes.’ It’s just a plural.”
She looked at me as if I’d told her I’d found a booger in my brew. But I pressed on: “Why don’t you just, you know, erase the apostrophe?” I smiled.
A horn honked behind me, and I pulled away, satisfied that I had, in my little way, improved the environment.
A few days later. Back at that same window. I looked at the sign: “Skinny Latte’s,” it insisted. I couldn’t be sure, but it seemed as if someone had darkened the apostrophe. Made it bigger.
Special thanks for Mark for this one!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Finally, somebody who shares my feelings about the devolution of the language! It has to be a conspiracy. First we have impactful forced on us. Then the words everyday lost their meaning. Now simple little plurals become complicated with apostrophes. What are we to do???
April 11th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
If unnecessary apostrophes make you “crazy” you need to read this “blog” to see one of my “pet peeves.”
http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/
I also made the bold move of telling someone in my doctor’s office that on the sign-in sheet there were unnecessary quotation marks around the word changed in the Has Your Insurance “Changed” column. The response was that the lady who crfeated the document no longer worked there.
What was the point of telling me that? The unnecessary quotation marks were still there. The young lady I spoke with was completely unconcerned. Maybe I should have mentioned it to the doctor. It cannot help his practice to have errors like that sneak through to where customers can see them.
April 14th, 2008 at 9:05 am
ARRRRGGGGHHHHH! Is anyone else bothered by the constant misuse of their, there, and they’re? What about your and you’re? And don’t even get me started on whether and weather!!!!!!!!
Glad there are others out there who notice these things!
June 25th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Amen!
How about “dosen’ot?” A triple whammy written by one of my Pre-AP students!(student’s, students’…) Thanks for sharing.