Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Apostrophe Mavens

A group for people just like me! That's right, for curmudgeons who get off on proper punctuation and who stop and take photos of misused or abused apostrophes. While I don't go nuts for incorrect online typography (I'm always using "system quotes" rather than the appropriate “curly-q” variety), I'm a fiend about apostrophes, so much so that I managed to get Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots, and Leaves into the book club rotation at my former place of employment. A lot of folks bristled at Truss's unapologetic tome of punctuation apoplexy. Nuts to them, I say.

Certainly, I've made some awful boners over the years (albeit mostly in typos and homonym abuse) but I try my best to get my writing proofread when it's offline and in the pages of Cashiers du Cinemart. I've adopted most of what I can recall from Truss, Strunk & White and try to review Elements of Style at least once a year to make sure I'm putting my periods in proper position and keeping my semicolons and colons straight. Neither punctuation nor conjugation were at the fore in my public education so everything I've picked up has been on my own. When it came to grammar, I simply remember diagramming sentences and being warned off splitting infinitives.

Stay strong punctuation fiends and friends of proper grammar. Keep on rocking out and correcting double negatives when you're singing song lyrics aloud ("I can't get any satisfaction..."). You are not alone.

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