Allow me to divert from my normal grammatical, political, and other ramblings for a moment. Many of my friends, acquaintances, co-workers, friends of friends, and former schoolmates are PISSED off about the new Facebook design. They are telling me (and everyone else on FB) about it in their status messages, on their walls, and in the new polls being created to SHOUT to the world about how GOD-AWFUL the new design is. They are going about it all wrong.
March 20, 2009
March 15, 2009
For Fun
Have you seen this blog? It provides lots of laughs for me. I particularly enjoy the absurdity of this entry.
March 8, 2009
Approaching 5K
Hey all readers: I’m approaching 5000 hits! I know that isn’t huge when it comes to blogs these days, but I have to imagine it’s big when it comes to grammar blogs, right? Thanks for your readership and support!
March 4, 2009
Birmingham, UK Suffers the Loss of Apostrophes
I’ve known exactly one native of Birmingham, England: Lynn Simmonds. She was the mother of the family from whom I rented a room during foreign study. My memories of her paint her as matriarchal and angry. I remember once she said “I like being up high and looking down on things.” I think she meant me.
Anyway, Lynn was all I knew of Birmingham, (except that it’s pronounced Birmingum, not BirmingHAM) until its city council made a decision in late January to remove apostrophes from city street signs. That’s right, no apostrophes on city street signs. According to The Telegraph, “The council said the move had been taken for the purposes of consistency and to avoid costs and confusion over whether place names should ever take an apostrophe.”
Apparently there had been a lot of debate in the past over where apostrophes should and should not be on these signs. For example, should Kings Norton be King’s Norton or Kings’ Norton? Well, the city council said it was just going to be Kings Norton from now on. They have no time, they say, to deal with the many requests they receive to add, remove, or move apostrophes. So they just won’t have them.
It reminds me of what a mother might do when two of her children are arguing over a toy. “Fine! Neither of you can play with it!” It smacks of desperation, indecision, and futility. The city council is throwing it’s hands in the air and saying, “We don’t know what else to do, so we’ll just act as though apostrophes don’t exist.”
It’s matriarchal and angry, and Lynn Simmonds might love it.
