More apostrophe abuse.

Yikes! It's going to be one of those days. I'm going to upload so many pics that I may end up captioning them all wrong. So be it. First up, more apostrophe mayhem. Some of these are really old—I've just gotten around to pulling them off my cell phone. Enjoy! (And I apologize if I've posted them before and just didn't remember.)


No explanation needed. (The apostrophe isn't needed either.)


Just say it out loud before you print it, folks, "I love my country; I hate it is leaders." Nope, doesn't work. Remove the apostrophe. Ahhh. Much better.


Whose affordable garage solution? The Bay Area's! That's right, it's possessive!


...And the coup de grace, found by Hank. OMG, I don't even know where to start. Some of my favorites are Jehovah's Witness's, Sport's Nut's, and even though they don't have misused apostrophes: Loud Mouth Women and High Fullutent. This photo alone is enough to keep the Compulsive Proofreader busy for a year.

Apostrophe-palooza!

An ode to the misuse of apostrophes.
(limerick inspired by Holly)

Plural or possessive, it's confusing
befuddled by whether or not to be using
an apostrophe 'S'
when used at its best
is bewitching, bewildering and bemusing

Okay, so I'm not a poet... I won't do that again. Here are some prime examples, collected by myself lately (and others when noted) on how NOT to use apostrophes. My thoughts: doesn't everyone get taught this in American schools at some point? How can people think that grammar, spelling and punctuation are unimportant? Ugh!


This was at Andy's grandma's retirement home. Old folks respect punctuation. It must drive them nuts everytime they pile into that van.


Liz says:
"We had dinner at Ubuntu in Napa a couple of weeks ago. Excellent food, but the evening was marred by this unnecessary apostrophe. As soon as I saw it, I took this to send to you. That third drink on there? The Bellini with the rose-geranium sugar on the rim? SO AWESOME."


Signs on the freezer cases in Longs Drug in Arcata.


On a taco truck in Arcata. There's also a different restaurant in Arcata that uses a proper name as the name of the restaurant, and their signage doesn't have an apostrophe. It makes me want to get out my permanent marker and do a little helpful graffiti.

Another gem from the T-S. Thanks to Jen for unearthing this one!
"A landmark decision for all Californian's quietly made history on August 20th in a Santa Cruz courtroom."
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_10461558?source=most_viewed

Good kitty.

So, if you don't know about icanhascheezburger.com, here's your chance to get caught up. But don't try to look at all the archived LOLcats in one sitting. That would be silly.

One from Mike and one from Zeke.

Mike reads the newspapers, I don't (except the one I work for, the always stellar and error-free North Coast Journal). This one, as far as I can tell, is actually the Times-Standard's fault. It looks to me like an ad built in-house, and well, spell check just wouldn't catch it.


How many of us actually look at street signs when we're not lost? Zeke does. This upstanding citizen is out proofreading in the city of Eureka, so look out! Yes, folks, these signs are on the same block.

Maybe we should "educte" adults too.

From the July 2, 2008 Times-Standard (a.k.a. Sub-Standard). If it weren't for the wire services, the Times-Standard would be 4 pages at the most. This little opinion piece came from the Contra Costa Times... who knows if the Times-Standard reset the title or if it came from the Contra Costa Times that way. Either way, people really should take the time to look at things before they go to print. Ugh.

I'm back! (sort of...)

And I've been saving it up! Enjoy.


"FALL IS TUST--COZJER" I couldn't agree more. (Thanks, Holly.)


Does anyone know what kind of piants they'll be selling? (Thanks, Andy.)


People, don't try to be cutesy. In certain cases, it just makes you look ignorant. (Thanks, Zeke.)


Thanks again, Zeke. For some reason I have a hard time taking pictures in supermarkets. Otherwise, I'd have one that I saw in Safeway the other day: Fresh Local Flowers grown at SunVally Floral Farms.


Mmm. Cheeze pizza. I hope they use "processed cheese food" instead of real cheese. (Thanks, Zeke.)


You'd think Jesus would give them the ability to proofread their junk mail before printing and mailing thousands of copies. "Who's" is short for "who is." What they need here is "whose."


Last one for now... I went to the fair with some friends today and found this over a 4H kid's goat stall. Sorry, kid. You need to spend more time hitting the books and less time in the barn.

the perils of "Spell Check"

Jay-Z and Beyond Marry

Jay-Z and Beyoncé got married, but Spell Check doesn't know that. Second-guessing the computer is not always a bad thing, people.