Klarinet Archive - Posting 000288.txt from 2000/12

From: Gavin Rebetzke <GRebetzke@-----.au>
Subj: RE: [kl] The Apostrophe's War
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 21:52:17 -0500

Kevin Fay wrote: "For a truly senseless debate, how about whether the
punctuation is to be
placed in or out of the 'quotation mark?'[sic] (We had a meeting on that
one,
too . . . )"!

I hope they put beer on for your discussion on this topic as well! Are you
prepared to reveal the decision of the editorial board in respect of the
"1960's" versus "1960s" debate?
Gavin

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Fay (LCA) [mailto:kevinfay@-----.com]
Subject: [kl] The Apostrophe's War

. . . or, if more than one, the Apostrophes' war. That silly little mark
has caused more editorial controversy than the split infinitive.

I recall -- not so fondly -- a meeting of the editorial board of the Buffalo
Law Review called for the express purpose of determining whether or not
decades are properly denoted "1960's" or "1960s." Two of our articles
editors had done it differently, you see, and had strong feelings on the
subject. The controversy centered on whether we should follow the rule set
forth in "A Uniform System of Citation" (a/k/a the "Blue Book") and include
it, or strike out bravely on our own and omit the apostrophe (which after
all was the proper thing to do -- at least according to our editor in
chief).

Fortunately, we had beer -- so the hour wasn't a total loss.

Bad use of the "greengrocer's apostrophe" is a surefire way to convince
people that you were asleep in English class. Hideous examples abound.
When confronted with them, I try to make a mental picture as if literally
true, and the possessive applied. "Sirloin Steak's -- $6.99" What would
the meat do with the money?

Roger pointed out the dichotomy of spelling "attorneys" versus "attornies."
I prefer "lawyers" -- then you don't have to worry whether it's an
attorney-at-law or an attorney-in-fact. Besides, no one attorns to us any
more anyway.

For a truly senseless debate, how about whether the punctuation is to be
placed in or out of the "quotation mark?" (We had a meeting on that one,
too . . . )

kjf

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