Britain’s Apostrophe Protection Society: lost fight against “ignorance and laziness”

[jaF0]

LONDON (AFP) — Britain’s Apostrophe Protection Society is closing down, its founder announced, saying sadly it has lost the fight against “ignorance and laziness.”

Former journalist John Richards, 96, started up the society in 2001, to preserve the correct use of what he said was the “much-abused punctuation mark.”

Richards spent the last quarter of his career as a sub-editor, preparing journalists’ copy for the newspaper — a task which often involved correcting their use of apostrophes.

When he retired, he kept spotting the same glaring mistakes in daily life and decided to take action, seeing the apostrophe as an endangered species in need of protection.

https://www.courthousenews.com/grammatical-tragedy-apostrophe-society-closes/

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

I just print out Bob the Angry Flower's "Quick Guide to the Apostrophe, You Idiots" and tape it to my office/cubical whenever I start a new job.

https://www.angryflower.com/247.html

Hmm... I wonder if that's why I start so many new jobs.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Hmm... I wonder if that's why I start so many new jobs.

No, that's cos you keep shagging the boss's daughter .

 

[KeithD]

preparing journalists’ copy

I saw what you did there.

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

No, that's cos you keep shagging the boss's daughter .

What can I say? Good grammar just makes some people swoon with desire.

 

[Hypoxia]

What can I say? Good grammar just makes some people swoon with desire.

Punctuation isn't grammar AFAIK. It's its complement. If someone says, "Punctuation get's me hot," would you burn their Strunk & White?

BTW you may know the word 'grimoire' for a book of magic spells and curses derives from the Scots pronunciation of 'grammar' because only warlocks are literate. Sure, a good grimoire swoons-em pretty well.

ObTopic: Does a Society For The Elimination Of Apostrophes exist? Can we write without contractions and possessives? Meanwhile I'm amused by the Apo-Strophe, a chromatically-corrected poetic structure. That'll swoon-em, too.

 

[Inkhorn]

BTW you may know the word 'grimoire' for a book of magic spells and curses derives from the Scots pronunciation of 'grammar' because only warlocks are literate. Sure, a good grimoire swoons-em pretty well.

I think ‘grimoire’ and ‘grammar’ are also both etymologically related to ‘glamour.’