The English Apostrophe Catastrophe

Thanks to all the members of SPOGG who took the time to send us this:

In Britain, it's an apostrophe catastrophe

It's a story about a decision to eliminate apostrophes from street signs. The logic is amusingly twisted.

"We keep debating apostrophes in meetings and we have other things to do," said one of the politicians.

Removing apostrophes seems a silly way to end a debate; now, the signs are all wrong. Grammarians will never let this one go.

Still, what SPOGG really objects to is the sub-headline in the MSNBC story that says "grammarians revolt."

While we aren't proud that it's nearly 3 p.m. and we still haven't taken our daily shower, we generally prefer the term "rebel" in cases like this.

"Revolt" can mean to rebel or defy authority, of course. But it's one of those words that can be easily confused, so we avoid it, much as we avoided the body-odorrific British journalist we met last week on an assignment in Los Angeles.

SPOGG is not revolting! Just a little unclean! We promise!