There’s been a debate in the comments recently about whether or not apostrophes are really necessary. Check out this timely article on About.com, entitled The Campaign to Abolish the Apostrophe.

Rep. Steve Harrelson, a Democrat in the Arkansas legislature, yesterday introduced a resolution to declare the correct way to write the possessive form of the state’s name. That would be, he says, “Arkansas’s.”

(Link)

From This is London:

With its cute message, Marks and Spencer’s sleepsuit was just the thing for a new baby’s first Christmas.

There was only one problem – that bane of grammar-aware shoppers, an unnecessary apostrophe.

The suits have emblazoned across the chest the phrase “Mum’s dreaming of a quiet Christmas just like the one’s she used to know”.

A little southern-style grammar for y’all this morning:

“Y’all,” being authentically Southern, does things differently. It adds an apostrophe and “s,” as though “y’all” were a noun. So the proper possessive of “y’all” is “Y’all’s.” The first apostrophe signals the omission of the letters “o” and “u” in “you all.” The second signals the possessive case.

(Link)

As one of its final acts last term, the U.S. Supreme Court issued Kansas v. Marsh, a case involving the constitutionality of a state death-penalty statute. The 5-4 decision exposed the deep divide that exists among the nation’s intellectual elite regarding one of society’s most troubling issues — namely, whether the possessive form of a singular noun ending with the letter ‘s’ requires an additional s after the apostrophe.

(Link)

This press release about Lands’ End founder Gary Comer’s death mentions that the apostrophe in Lands’ End was “a typo that became part of the firm’s history”.

From the Lands’ End website:

Incidentally…

…a lot of people ask why the apostrophe in Lands’ End is in the wrong place. There have been some silly explanations along the way, but the truth is, it was a mistake.

It was a typo in our first printed piece, and we couldn’t afford to reprint and correct it.

In the years since, the misplaced apostrophe has continued to grace our name and our label. And while it has prompted some raised eyebrows among English teachers, it also sets us apart as a company whose continuing concern for what’s best for the customer is unmistakably human.

Well, at least they admit it’s wrong. Now if someone could just explain the subtitle of the next Pirates movie. The lack of an apostrophe is even being blasted slapped by one of Disney’s own divisions.

Anyone want to try to explain what that might mean?
Is it some Aussie-ism, or just some random alliteration?

It’s a catastrophe

One of TFF’s eagle-eyed, if slightly pedantic, readers makes a very interesting point. He addresses it to you leaguies, particularly you blokes who were staring longingly out the window at the playing fields when Mrs Smithers was trying to teach you proper grammar. He notes that when a try is in dispute and the referee on the ground calls in the video ref, there is a very interesting display on screen when the video ref decides he can’t properly decide and it is best left to the man on the field. For the screen says: REFS CALL, and I think we can all see the reader’s point.

Look!
Up in the sky!
It’s a bird!
It’s a plane!

No, it’s … why it’s … Apostrophe Man! Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, more grammatical than a goat, Apostrophe Man is sworn to put apostrophes in their proper place, and before our very eyes he has done it again! It should be: REF’S CALL.

Thank you, Apostrophe Man, your work here is done.

(Via the Sydney Morning Herald)

It’s old, it’s useless, it’s annoying and according to one linguist, the Internet bell doth toll for the apostrophe, among and other arcane punctuation.

‘People are absolutely confused about punctuation, particularly about apostrophes,’ says Naomi Baron, professor of linguistics at American University in Washington, D.C., and author of Alphabet to Email: How written English has evolved and where it’s going.

(Link)

As for the assertion that Google “doesn’t care” about punctuation, compare searches of “it’s” and “its”, “side’s” and “sides”, or your own combination. There are plenty of differences in the results lists.

I hope you can settle this dispute. I teach high school and the cheerleaders painted a banner for the hallway. It reads, ‘Lady Q’s drown the opposition.’ ‘Q’ is short for Quarriers; the town is known for its quartzite quarry. I maintain that there should not be an apostrophe after ‘Q.’ After some research online, in the school library and a couple of textbooks, we were unable to come up with a conclusive answer. Can you resolve this?

(Link)

On a late spring morning in 2005, a group of grandmothers from Pensacola, Fla., appeared on television in a Times Square crowd outside the Good Morning America studio. On a sign borne by one of the ladies, the following appeared:

GRANNYS’ GONE WILD

(Link)