Best news of recent times is that war has resumed. No, not that tragic and brutal one. But after a lull in hostilities, another far older fight can continue. There is a new leader to take up the cudgels against the barbarians. The enemy is about to be pursued with renewed vigour. In short, the Apostrophe Protection Society is back in action. This warrior against incorrect punctuation, but especially the inexcusable misuse of the apostrophe, has recovered from the retirement of its former leader and a new chairman has picked up the reins. And Bob McCalden has already promised to… Continue reading
Grammar notes
WITH Covid and staff shortages becoming the default excuse for poor service and faulty products it is sad to see the malaise spreading to the world of publishing. Errors there are so visible and so irritating to readers. For publishers they are so difficult and costly to correct. In specialist… Continue reading
WAR has been declared. It has long been simmering with spasmodic outbreaks of invective hurled across the Great Grammatical Divide separating the two sides. But now it is out in the open. Apostrophe or no apostrophe, that is the question (as the greatest source of precise English would likely have… Continue reading
SAD times for the pedants among us. To start with, the man who waged a lifelong war against misuse of the apostrophe has met his own full stop. Then, as if to add insult to injury, that weird Californian couple who once were royal have continued their verbose mangling of… Continue reading
PERHAPS this blog post should come with an advisory caution; like those that precede some of the raunchier dramas screened on post-watershed TV. A warning about bad language or offensive dialogue. Displaying an awareness of some readers’ fragile sensibilities. Guarding against young minds being led down sinful paths; the elderly… Continue reading
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It was only a few days ago that I suggested many of the words and phrases that have already become lingua franca during the recent global crisis were sure to be well in the running for selection as Word(s) of the Year. Place your bets … Since then we have heard (imagined) cries of “stop the presses” as the highly respected Oxford English Dictionary (OED) broke into its normal schedule and prepared to rush out an extra print run to acknowledge the pervasive presence of Covid-19 related neologisms. In the words of OED management, this is significant update; a statement… Continue reading