Apparently the Domestic Names Committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names doesn't like apostrophes. In the past 113 years it has only granted 5 possessive apostrophes mostly under public pressure (Martha's Vineyard, Ike's Point, John E's Pond, Carlos Elmer's Joshua View and Clark's Mountain). Here is their rationale:

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An apostrophe, the argument goes, implies private ownership of a public place. When names appear on maps, "they change from words having specific dictionary meaning to fixed labels used to refer to geographic entities," the names committee explains in its statement of "Principles, Policies and Procedures."

That's an interesting reason, but I don't buy it.

Neither do I, Kalleh! It's no doubt all about saving teeny weenie fractions of microbits of data.

Saint Mark now finds himself in the company of clones on half the digitally-generated mail addressed to my home. Might as well change it to Saint Marx Avenue. Oh, wait...

It solves all sorts of problems, though. Even if the apostrophe protectors' knickers get twisted. Signs are simpler: is it St James's Park, St James' Park, or what? St James Park. Easy.

I thought this article was funny:

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I was dynamically engaging one of my fellow content marketers in the company brainstorming arena the other day, when I came up with a win-win value proposition for in-house onboarding of new talent to help us velocitize our organic campaigns. It's really a multichannel game-changer!

The APS caused England to back down! Am I right that Bob, arnie, Richard and Tinman all came here from APS?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

I know Bob, Richard and I came here from the APS. We all got fed up with the diktats of the "society"'s "founder". There is only his way of using apostrophes; no other usage is countenanced.

John Richards certainly didn't cause anyone to back down. He is a good self-publicist and has got his name down on several journalists' contact lists as always ready to give a quote on the latest storm in the teacup of apostrophes.

As I sometimes do when a site I used to frequent is mentioned, I went to have a look at how the APS is doing now.
Ten minutes there was enough to remind me of why I left in the first place.

In one thread people were getting their knickers in a twist over "for free", stamping metaphorical feet and demanding that people can't put "for" in front of "free". For real?
(One of the members, rather subversively, I thought, pointed out that at the bottom of that very page there is the message "This Board Hosted For FREE By ProBoards".)

And I also ran across this.

Bewildered and irritated, eh? Sounds like the alzheimer's has set in, to me. I'd probably notice the sign if I saw it but my reaction would be, "Hey, bet the APS members are bewildered and irritated by that."
Personally I can't see any way in which a reasonable person would misread it. Presumably, JR is bewildered because he reads it as meaning only one bay is suspended and irritated because he wanted to park in one of the others.

If we could find a way to run cars on righteous indignation we'd never need petrol again.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

PS

I only stayed for ten minutes* because I found myself becoming bewildered and irritated at how so many self-styled "protectors of the language" could have so little knowledge of what grammar is and how it works.

(*I'll bet that somewhere on the site there will be** someone who says I should write "I stayed for ONLY ten minutes..." rather than "I ONLY stayed...")

(And that this is a wrong tense which should be "is" not "will be".***)

(***And that I can't start sentences with "and".)

I have a solution. Let's declare that ALL words that end in "s" shall henceforth HAVE an apostrophe before it. Then there will be no confusion.
Of course it might incur some initial expense in changing things to comply.

It is so funny that they get all riled up about a misplaced apostrophe. However, in that sign, I wondered, too, if the author had meant "Parking Bay is suspended." It is also hilarious that the site that complained about "for free" had "for free" written on the bottom!

Arnie, I'd not heard of the work diktat before. Nice word! Is it related to dictate?

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
However, in that sign, I wondered, too, if the author had meant "Parking Bay is suspended."

But on signs people almost NEVER abbreviate "X is" to "X's". If they meant one bay they would certainly write "Bay is suspended" or "This bay is suspended".
Sure the sign has a misplaced apostrophe. Sure it would attract no attention from the pedants if it didn't. So what? Any reasonable person (and that includes you ) would read it as meaning the bays are suspended. Especially given that all of them have traffic cones around them.
When you say you would read it as "bay is" I suspect you are second guessing yourself. You think that's how you would read it because you know that that's the "error". In real life you probably wouldn't give it a second glance. You'd get the intended meaning immediately.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Arnie, I'd not heard of the work diktat before. Nice word! Is it related to dictate?

Yes, indeedy. It's from the Latin dictatum, from dictare, to dictate.

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When you say you would read it as "bay is" I suspect you are second guessing yourself. You think that's how you would read it because you know that that's the "error". In real life you probably wouldn't give it a second glance. You'd get the intended meaning immediately.

Yes, I agree, but...are there no limits? That's where I get confused.