Not only is it “Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen” now, but they dropped the apostrophe in Popeye’s.
In a time when people are adding extraneous apostrophes before every “s” in sight, these people are taking illiteracy in a different direction by omitting the apostrophe where every first-grader knows it belongs.
Comics I Don't Understand 
But will they try to close the Church’s?
Is there where we bring up Walgreens and/or Woolworths?
“these people are taking illiteracy in a different direction by omitting the apostrophe where every first-grader knows it belongs.”
Responsible opposing viewpoint:
These apostrophes appear (or don’t) within trademarks. Trademarks are intended to convey the origin of the goods offered, and thus are neither properly possessive nor plural, so the rules of distinguishing between them should not be applied (in much the same way that spelling rules also do not apply. If you sell “Cheez Goop”, you sell “Cheez Goop”, and the fact that “Cheez” is not a properly-spelled word is immaterial.)
Removing the possessive allows for simplified text in franchise marketing materials and contracts. That probably outweighs the losses in apparent adhesion to grammar norms.
Don’t forget the missing period in Dr Pepper.
Popeyes has never had an apostrophe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeyes
According to every source that I can see, it didn’t have an apostrophe when it was first founded: https://www.delish.com/food-news/a48369/things-you-should-know-before-eating-at-popeyes/ . the founder explained that he was too poor to afford the apostrophe.
You can complain about the lack of an apostrophe, but it’s not a sign of recent illiteracy.
Just to really mess with your minds…PopeYes
It also means they might be able to use their material in Quebec. Reportedly Tim Hortons dropped their apostrophe for that reason.
Quoth Winter Wallaby: “You can complain about the lack of an apostrophe, but it’s not a sign of recent illiteracy.”
Whereas that article you quoted is, and even made me dumber just reading it (especially the last item)…
;-p
Not to mention that Popeyes does not use the cartoon image. The Wiki entry already quoted notes that it was not named for the sailor but rather for the character in The French Connection.
I have to question that, Scott, because there was a Popeye’s Fried Chicken where I used to live and there was definitely a Sailor Man on the sign.
CiduBill: According to the wikipage, it doesn’t currently use the cartoon image, but it used to.
FYI there’s a wonderful documentary about General Tso’s Chicken out there called “The Search for General Tso.” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3576038/)
It was on Netflix at one point but not sure if it still is.
Perhaps Wayno himself can ‘splain it best (and I quote):
Saturday’s gag had to be reviewed by the syndicate’s legal team before we could run it. I didn’t realize that the Popeye’s fast food chain had ended their association with the famous cartoon character many years ago, so there was some question about using him in this context.
Our attorneys ultimately decided that the gag qualifies as “defendable parody,” but we had a backup plan. If we had to drop the gag in its original form, we were going to swap in a Burger King bag showing their weird mascot, and edit the dialog to read, “I believe, sir, that with our combined military expertise, we could overthrow the king.”
Anything to avoid drawing a totally new cartoon.
While this joke was under review, I did some research on the name of the restaurant franchise, and read that the owner claimed he’d named the business after Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, Gene Hackman’s character in the 1972 film, The French Connection. Hackman’s character was a fictionalized version of real-life New York detective Eddie “Popeye” Egan, who was given the nickname by colleagues when he flexed his muscles after chasing down a suspect. The food chain owners can deny it if they want to, but it still comes back to a spinach-eating sailor.
I believe what the franchise owner said.
I also believe the Arlo Page was named after Mr. Guthrie.
On another site, I suggested re this cartoon that if the “we named it after Popeye Doyle” excuse doesn’t fly, they could always claim they had instead named it after Popeye, the degenerate corn-cob-proxy-wielding rapist in Faulkner’s SANCTUARY.
I suspect then sales of their corn side dish would plummet, though.
Place names in the U.S., including Pikes Peak and Harpers Ferry, generally do not have an apostrophe.
There are only five places in the U.S. that do have an apostrophe in their official names:
Martha’s Vineyard
Ike’s Point
John E’s Pond
Carlos Elmer’s Joshua View
Clark’s Mountain
You mean the people responsible for the 5.360 hits on Google for “United State’s of America” are doing it WRONG? I’m shocked.
Oregon has both Mary’s Peak and Mary’s River. We’re also home to one of the only cities with “The” in the name, The Dalles.
Darren, you are correct. Quebec’s draconian language laws prohibit English language signs on the outside of businesses. The apostrophe came under attack because it was English! As French doesn’t make possessives with an apostrophe s, it was a symbol of unbearable English oppression, so plenty of businesses that had apostrophes ditched them. “Tim Hotrton’s” is English and oppressive and a threat to all things French. “Tim Hortons” is just the name of the business.
However, recent changes to the law, lead by big foreign-based companies, mean that you could now probably get away with the apostrophe. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-sign-law-1.3835001
…and then the General is often known as Gau/Gow/etc. among a host of variations.
@ Blinky – Nobody in the UK would miss the period in “Dr Pepper” – it is normal (there) to leave it off (also for “Mr”, etc.) <snark>It’s almost like they want to go back to speaking French.</snark>
Just for the record, one of these worthies provided my dinner yesterday. Yummy!
Kilby, I very much prefer the British style: the periods always feel wrong to me.
Mitch4: “Just for the record, one of these worthies provided my dinner yesterday. Yummy!”
You’re admitting to cannibalism?
Both of those guys look like sort of unusually unhealthy long pig to me. Too much fat, and too much facial hair to pluck off. But I suppose if the heart wants what the heart wants, so does the stomach.
For dessert, have you considered chowing down on a few Keebler elves?
There is also Sloan’s Lake Park in Denver. The park name officially contains an apostrophe, but there is substantial debate about the name of the lake itself. Most people call it Sloan’s Lake, but the nearby City of Edgewater calls the lake Sloans Lake even as they call the park Sloan’s Lake Park. Some sources even go with Sloan Lake, which just seems completely wrong.
James Pollack – but I would assume that Cheez goop does not have actual cheese in it and they do not want to be sued for saying cheese goop when there is none or it would be properly named,
In the early 1970s there was a Popeyes a block north of Times Square in Manhattan. It was the first time we had heard of the restaurant. It definitely had Popeye the sailor on the sign. Reason I know this is that there was an oddity to the sign. During the day Popeye was white. At night the way the sign was lit, he was dark skinned – rest of the sign kept the same colors when lit,but not his skin. It is not known if this was intentional, but it is true.
“but I would assume that Cheez goop does not have actual cheese in it”
You know what happens when you assume?
…everyone knows, when you make an assumption, you make an ass out of “u” and … “umption”.
I like that version because I first heard it in a movie, uttered by a character called Mitch, played by Samuel L. Jackson.
I daresay the Burger King version would have been better, though it lacks the chicken connection.
When I was first working at Megacorp, a fellow engineer was originally from Memphis. He told me about Popeyes and how great it was, but they didn’t have then locally. Some time later, I saw that they were opening one not too far from where I lived, in a predominantly black area. I decided to check it out.
When I got there I noticed that traffic was snarled up. Then I realized that it was because the drive-through line was wrapped around the building and out into the streets. Inside the building it was a solid mass of people spilling out into the parking lot. I elected to wait.
Somewhat later they opened one near the university where I lived close to (still in my college apartment). That was more sedate. It is very good fried chicken.
Add Coeur d’Alene in Idaho to the list.
My apologies – I could not believe that something called cheese goop existed.
I first heard the expression about assumption from Felix Unger on the TV series version of the Odd Couple.