Yes, when you say “things can’t get any worse”, it only shows your failure of imagination.
Part of the reason for posting this is that if you subscribe to GoComics, the Sunday lagniappe panel is not included. I don’t understand the reason for this. It’s there in what the syndicate gets. I’m a paying customer. Jef posts it on Facebook, so he clearly wants it out there. Why not show it to me?
Haven’t we always suspected this?
Comics I Don't Understand 
Even though it wouldn’t have been “incorrect” (just hopelessly out of date), I wish Blazek had used the old “to–day” spelling, rather than the spurious apostrophe.
P.S. I had an MRI on my knee this past spring, and was pleasantly surprised that the noise wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone said it would be.
My dad the linguist “invented” the Apostrogun. You’d point it at a sign and it would add or remove apostrophes as appropriate.
I’m continually amazed at how much trouble people have with apostrophes. What’s interesting to me is that they almost never omit them: it’s extras that are the modal error. Why?
@ Phil (2) – In Germany there are multiple problems with apostrophes. First, German possessives are normally formed simply by adding “s” (without any apostrophe at all), but then there are a few special cases that do require an apostrophe (such as terms or names that end in “s”). Second, there is a certain amount of linguistic contamination from English that leads some Germans to use an apostrophe where none is necessary. And finally, even when it is clear that an apostrophe is necessary, there is the technical hurdle of getting the correct symbol out of a standard German keyboard, which is surprisingly difficult, for multiple reasons. Professional typesetters always get it right in books, but in any kind of text that was prepared by amateurs (especially online), it is not uncommon to see an inverted comma (‘, like a “6”) or even the dreaded backquote (`), instead of the correct apostrophe symbol (’, like a “9”).
@kilby Ok, so the Germans get a pass. Americans, not so much.
we have three dog’s
the store’s are all closed
etc.
i can almost accept “DVD’s” or “WFR’ed” because they’re neologisms/initialisms. But still I don’t get what possesses people add random apostrophes even in those cases. Just leave well enough alone…
I agree there are way too many misplaced apostrophes out there. Ads are the worst. You’d think they would have someone to check them before printing. They represent your business, for Pete’s sake.
And I also agree that I want to see the headers of comics — lagniappe panel? — I learned a new word.
My thanks for the word ‘lagniappe’. I’ve seen it several times before, but didn’t stop to look it up.
In one book on English I read, the author mentioned a mailbox that said “The Green’s”. He wondered who “The Green” was, and how he/she/it came to own that.
The thing about superfluous apostrophes is that the usage is the opposite of laziness. Extra work to get it wrong.
Might as well post the guide from Bob the Angry Flower:
The Oatmeal had this to say:
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe
@Kilby (3): You may not have seen the news, but the group that functions as the grand arbiter of correct German orthography (I forget the name) has decreed the possessive apostrophe to be acceptable under limited circumstances. It’s OK if and only if it’s part of a proper noun, like a shop name. Thus, Rosi’s Blumenladen (Rosi’s Flower Shop) is all right if that’s the name of the shop, but not under any other circumstances.
@ DemetriosX (8) – That’s merely descriptive rather than prescriptive orthography. Effectively, it simply condones the mistakes that already exist. However, I can see the logic, since Germans are fanatic about preserving anything that has been codified into official documents (such as names in commerce department records).
P.S. Small shop owners are among the worst offenders in the battle against errant apostrophes. Even more significant than Frau Rosi is the case of “Andrea” vs. “Andreas”. If a woman named “Andrea” owns a shop, it is perfectly correct for her to name it “Andrea‘s Shop” (with the apostrophe), because if she leaves it out, one might think that it belongs to a man named “Andreas” (for which the correct form would be “Andreas’ Shop“). This exception is even mentioned in Duden’s rulebook, but its legality adds to the confusion of the ordinary, orthographically challenged small shop owner. (Let’s face it, if these folks were brilliantly intelligent, then they would not be running small shops.)
P.P.S. Even when those shop owners know where the apostrophe needs to be placed, then they go out and order their shop sign from the Acme Online Shop Sign Emporium, typing the shop name into an online form (or even worse, an MS-Word document), which means that the chances of getting the correct apostrophe symbol are (much) less than 50%. Walk down any street in Berlin or any other German town, and you will see more inverted commas and backquotes than true apostrophes.
phsiii (4): What bugs me even more is the mailbox syndrome, as in “The Smith’s.” I guess that mailbox belongs to the Smith.
Kilby (3): Just a few days ago, I heard on NPR that the official German language authority has given limited approval to apostrophe-S store names, like “Schmidt’s Bäckerei.” That story even included the Andrea/Andreas situation. It mentioned the name of that German language authority. Of course, I can’t find that story now.
they go out and order their shop sign from the Acme Online Shop Sign Emporium
This reminds me of something else. I don’t know if others experience it, but I have the situation where I read a story or novel and remember one thing about it and nothing else.
One of them from many years ago had a bit where the main character was the coach of a baseball team, named the “Hellcats”. He would try to order uniforms and get back ones that said “Hubcaps” or “Hepcats”. I remember nothing else about the story. I don’t even recall if this was important to the story or just indicative of his life or something.
In the United States, a Federal rule prohibits the use of apostrophes in place names. Thus we have the town of Angels Camp, California and the well-known Devils Tower in Wyoming.
But there are five exceptions:
Clark’s Mountain, Oregon, as a tribute to Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Carlos Elmer’s Joshua View, Arizona, because if it said “Carlos Elmers Joshua View” you wouldn’t be able to figure out whose what it is.
John E’s Pond, Rhode Island, because there was no such person as John Es.
Ike’s Point in New Jersey because the person’s name was Ike, not Ikes.
And finally, Martha’s Vineyard, because the residents of Martha’s Vineyard raised hell for forty years until the Federal government finally gave in.
Brian (11): I don’t recognize your “Hellcats” story, but do let us know if you come up with it. It sounds interesting.
Then there is the weird case when the “‘s” is at the start, as in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (‘the forest of the duke’, but it’s dutch so it’s weird by default….
@ DemetriosX (9) & Boise Ed (11) – Even though the name was removed from the “official” German rule book as part of the last orthographic reform, there is one and only one “Authority” for anything relating to the German language: Duden. However, the rule book is officially in the hands of the “Conference of Culture Ministers“, which may be the hard-to-remember name that each of you heard.
Nevertheless, since an apostrophe exception already existed, this recent change can only be a further “relaxation” of the existing rules.
P.S. I looked it up, and was highly amused. DemetriosX was exactly right, it covers only official proper (shop) names, and not other possessive forms in normal text. The change was recommended by the “Rat der Deutschen Sprache” (the “Council for the German Language”), and will take effect in 2025. The hilarious part was that the reports on this subject in the German news media were nearly unanimous in calling it the legalization of the “Deppen-Apostroph” (idiot’s apostrophe).
P.P.S. On a positive note, one summary quoted a paragraph that defined the correct typographic form of the apostrophe, specifically forbidding the backquote and inverted comma (and also the standard ASCII single quote mark, but that only applies to text in which typographic quotes are available).
My brother-in-law sent me this text today: moved the baby’s inside tonight!
The “babies” are their potted tomato plants. They gave me some tomatoes last week, so I’ll not think too badly of him. My sister, an English major back in the day, would not likely have made that mistake. One thing I will miss about the suburban house is my yearly crop of tomatoes. I’ll be looking into some pots on the balcony next year.
Brian in STL – re your first post – :-)
Boise Ed (11) — spotted today at a hospital:
Edited to embed the photo, instead of the long link: