I just saw another one.
Glamour Hair Studio’s
Inserting the apostrophe in the wrong place is one thing. Allowing it to make it onto something as permanent, and ‘professional’ and checked-and-seen-by-multiple-people-some-of-whom-work-for-professional-sign-makers is another thing. A thing which the mind cannot begin to un-boggle.
[sub](In case anyone is wondering about the apostrophes in the thread title, which would worry me, they are included for comic effect - I know they are not meant to be there)[/sub]
There’s a place around here on the Commons whose sign says
THE COMMON’S MARKET
I point it out to my students in the apostrophe lesson I teach.
Also, in a school where I used to work, there was a sign by the special ed suite of classrooms and offices that said
RESOURCE ROOM’S
Argh. Talk about unintended irony.
We should go in and say “What?”
When they say “Sorry?”
"Glamour Hair Studio’s what? There is an unfinished sentence above your shop. I’m wondering what it is that belongs to ‘Glamour Hair Studio’ "
An apostrophe is shorthand for, “Here comes another* S* !!”
On a similar note, I get annoyed when people misuse the ¢ sign. For example, in a hardware store they had a display of small screwdrivers with a sign that said “.25¢ each”.
No matter how hard I tried to convince them about false advertising, they refused to sell me four of them for a penny.
Mrs. Mercotan was so irked by a large billboard near us that said “Who do you know want’s to buy a car?” that she got together a bunch of friends to write letters complaining about the improper usage.
End result: They removed the apostrophe.
My daughter’s name ends in ‘s’. Let’s say, for example, that it’s ‘Alexis’. Last Christmas my idiot MIL presented us with a nameplate which says “Alexi’s”.
edited to play around with apostrophes. Oh, the irony.
Well, it’s not as though you want signs to be complete sentences, as such. “Glamour Hair Studios” wouldn’t be one either.
In the same vein, although not the same rant, there’s a business on Federal Highway here in Boca that, on its professionally made street-side sign, advertises its business as being “TAROT PSYSICH”
:rolleyes: :smack:
I may be able to explain this somewhat…
There’s a (quite large) shop down the end of my street that makes signs. On their canopy is written “Trade Show Display’s” and “Portable Display’s”
I also submit for both shortest and most business-killing apostrophical error the signs that went up on power poles last year around where I worked; about 2’ square, they read merely:
RESUME’S
555-1234
This really frosts my butt, too. Everywhere I look I see signs advertising tape’s, car’s, margarita’s, hamburger’s, you name it. My guess is that these people are non-grammar minded, got made fun one too many times for leaving out an apostrophe with no subsequent explanation of proper usage, and now put them on the end of every word that ends with an S just to be “safe.”
Not quite apostrophes, and I may have posted it here before, but I drive past it so often that it bears repeating:
“We Have “YOUR” Leather”!
Yes, each of those quotation marks is actually on the sign. It’s on a billboard. Someone wrote it. Someone proofed it. Someone put it on a big damn sheet and glued it to the billboard. Each of those people got paid to make the world a little bit dumber. It makes me sad.
My favorite is at an ice cream shop on the way to the supermarket.
“No Semi’s”
:dubious:
That’s why I love the SDMB. There are plenty of kindred spirits.
My fellow grammar and spelling Nazis will love this story.
My husband sent me the link last week with much trepidation. He assumed I’d leave him for this guy. I’d love to walk around with white-out and markers and pursue this noble cause, but I’m afraid I’d get my ass kicked.
Well no, it’d be a title, not a sentence. But the sarcasm works like this - “Glamour Hair Stuido’s” Looks like the beginning of a sentence, so I would pretend it is one.
One question - How common is it to refer to correct grammar as “King’s English”?
I ask because over here we refer to it as “Queen’s English” for obvious reasons.
That’s a good one. Reminds me of Andre’s Cafe on Harrison Ave., across from Boston University Medical Center. Among all the Greek and Middle Eastern sandwiches on the menu, one can order a “Monte Crisco”. MMmmm, shortening…
Friend of mine says, “I wonder who said that – was it Churchill?”