Time for a contest plug. Head on over to RBI Collecting for a chance to win some packs of Heritage or Gypsy Queen. All you have to do is guess some A's.
By the way, here's a grammar pet peeve of mine: Why is there an apostrophe in A's? I know many people do this when, say, making a letter a multiple, and perhaps this apostrophe is more necessary to avoid confusion, since "As" could read as a different word. However, apostrophes are used to mark possessives or to mark missing letters, such as in a contraction or when writing slang ('em instead of them, collectin' instead of collecting) or with years when you're just too damn busy to write the first two numbers ('80s instead of 1980s). Anyway, I thought this would be a good place to rant about an apostrophe rule that is quite controversial in the publishing world. I stand on the side that the apostrophe used to make single letters multiple should not be used.
Maybe I can justify it here, since letters are being cut, as in Athletics is stripped down to A's.
I'm such a nerd. I love these tidbits of ridiculous grammar rules. Oh, and I love good contests. Go check it out!
Maybe it follows the contraction rule, such as isn't or can't instead of isnt and cant. Its not that apostrophe that bothers me though, it's the ones added to words where they don't really belong. I recall seeing several signs which add an apostrophe in a plural word (even on "professional" store signs). Such as a sign on a hardware store that would advertise "We Rent Tool's". You get the idea. No possible contraction there.
ReplyDeleteYes, you're totally right about those ridiculous signs that add apostrophes with plurals. I think the apostrophe makes them feel special. You gave me a good chuckle.
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