Over on the APS there has been a report of the misuse of an apostrophe in McVitie's rebranding of their "Crinkle Cut Mini Cheddars" which are now called "Mini Cheddars Crinkly's".

Today I bought a packet just so that I can post it (once empty) back to McVitie's and ask who Crinkly is and how long ago he bought the company.

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

On the word pirates site there is a posting that criticises the expression "It's raining outside" or, to be accurate, that's what it meant to do.

However the poster is clearly less well aware of the use of the apostrophe than he might be and thus quotes the expression as "Its raining outside"

You will see my riposte if you care to look!

Richard English

Oh, just when I thought the world was doing better with apostrophes--given the recent movie: "The Boss's Daughter."

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Originally posted by Richard English:
On the word pirates site there is a posting that criticises the expression "It's raining outside" or, to be accurate, that's what it meant to do.

However the poster is clearly less well aware of the use of the apostrophe than he might be and thus quotes the expression as "Its raining outside"

You will see my riposte if you care to look!

Richard English

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I looked. I suspect your words will be wasted as I doubt the original poster will understand them.

I also had a look around on the rest of the site and can only say it needs better management. It seems to be attracting troll activity.
There are large numbers of non-entries appearing usually with a joke title. (I couldn't resist a making couple of posts on the entry for "it's" though.)

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

Interesting that the poster on the pirates site suggested that "it's" was used wrongly as a plural which made me realise that "its" indeed is. It can be the plural of the word it as in "...There are two its in this paragraph...".

So that means that there is just one more its/it's confusion for apostrophe-challenged!

Richard English

Sign observed in the waiting room of our car dealer's service department:

"Coffee is for Customer's Only"

Sheesh!

Well, I'm sure the customer's only will be very grateful for the coffee!

Now if "only" I knew which bit my only is, so I know where to apply the coffee...

This is a brewery-backed organisation whose stated aim is to improve standards of beer storage and dispense. In their latest newsletter they reproduced a copy of the "distributor charter" that purports to set standards for various aspects of the beer selling process.

I will not dwell on all the twelve solecisms that appeared in this short document, nor yet its deficicencies of style. Suffice to say that its slogan is "Don't let our customer's become our Quality Control"

In my letter to the editor I asked, to which part of the customer do they refer - the mouth or the eyes? And is it only the one customer they have?

You will be unsurpised to learn that, despite sending the letter addressed personally to the editor, he has not had the good manners to reply.

Richard English

[This message was edited by Richard English on Mon Oct 13th, 2003 at 9:03.]

According to an item in this evening's newspaper The National Canine Defence League has now changed its name because they considered that some people might not understand the word "canine". They have changed it to The Dogs Trust - without an apostrophe !
(It's the missing apostrophe that the columnist is commenting on - we aren't the only ones that care!)

I wonder who it is that the dogs trust.

Glaubt es mir - das Geheimnis, um die größte Fruchtbarkeit und den größten Genuß vom Dasein einzuernten, heisst: gefährlich leben.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

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You will be unsurpised to learn that, despite sending the letter addressed personally to the editor, he has not had the good manners to reply.

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No, I am not "unsurprised"; it doesn't seem to be the style these days. I wrote a reasonable letter to Snopes regarding their online practical jokes, and I, too, have been "unsurprised" that I haven't received a response.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
No, I am not "unsurprised"...

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I guess you must be surprised, then?

Tinman

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Originally posted by tinman:

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
No, I am not "unsurprised"...

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I guess you must be surprised, then?

Tinman

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Unless there is a neutral middle ground between being definitely surprised and definitely unsurprised.

Good catch, Tinman!

Actually, I made that mistake on purpose to prove my point in this thread!

In the Chicago Tribune today I saw the use of "for goodness' sake." Now, I asked Shu if it perhaps was correct since we say: "for goodness sake." Yet, he says that we should say "for goodnesses sake."

Is Shufitz nuts, or am I?

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Originally posted by BobHale:
According to an item in this evening's newspaper The National Canine Defence League has now changed its name because they considered that some people might not understand the word "canine". They have changed it to The Dogs Trust - without an apostrophe !
(It's the missing apostrophe that the columnist is commenting on - we aren't the only ones that care!)

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Dogstrust is all one word, and an excellent new name for a very good charity indeed. Our sponsor dogs, Beavis and Spike, have just sent us a Christmas card.

Today at work I saw a punctuation mistake that dropped my jaw.

I assume the sign was supposed to say "misses coats".
I believe that the signmaker meant to put "missy's coats".

He/She or (quite possibly)It actually put:

"missy,s coats".

"WB? Did you fix it or remove it?"

"Nope, left it up and giggled each time I walked past it."

I think I'd ask what the sign is supposed to mean since, as it is written, it means nothing at all. You have every right to seek clarification and the reponsible persons have the duty to give it.

It's often only by making oneself mildly awkward that things get done.

Richard English

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It's often only by making oneself mildly awkward that things get done.

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And, somehow, Richard, I imagine that you are very good at "seeking clarification!"