Found on Geek.com, two examples of Bad Apostrophes.
First, a Non-Apostrophe from writer Ryan Whitwam (who claims to be a “lover of the em dash and defender of the Oxford comma.”) in his story about using physics to beat the odds at roulette.
... in the players favor...
Next, while I was checking out Ryan’s page, I saw a headline for another story (by writer Natalie Shoemaker) that troubled me:
... let's you to play...
True geeks wouldn’t write this sort of stuff, or allow it on their web sites.
Comedian Louis CK ran an interesting experiment a few months ago — he started selling a comedy special video on his own web site, at a reasonable price, without digital rights management restrictions. And lo and behold, he made a lot of money doing it. This prompted him to add a few pieces of older content to his store page… which is where I come in. In the “Details” section of the “Shameless” product, I found this:
... its DRM-free...
I congratulate Louis for his success at comedy, and ask him to pay a little more attention to the written English on his site.
Source: LouisCK.net
Spotted on a replicated site advertising Xocai chocolate:
This first-of-it's-kind, cocoa-based, anti-aging supplement
If I were paying money to have one of these sites, I’d make sure that whoever was in charge fixed this error. I do commend them, however, for getting the hyphenation right in “first-of-its-kind.”
Source: Xocolatllife.com
Reader Katherine Thompson writes:
The company “Illoom Balloons” make light up balloons, if you hadn’t guessed. They have one range of balloons which say “Lets Party!” which are available in most supermarkets and department stores. I emailed them a few weeks ago and I’ve recently got back an email saying they’re adding an apostrophe to their range, and are sending me free balloons!
Unfortunately I don’t have a picture, but someone else might do considering they’re widely available, however the corner of this website shows the offending balloons: http://www.illooms.com/
I’d never heard of light-up balloons before — the video on the company’s web site makes them look pretty cool, though. And Katherine’s correct — right there on the home page, there are four balloons that say “Lets Party”.
Lets Party
Thanks for passing that along, Katherine, and thanks for contacting the company! You’re making my job easy!
Source: Illooms.com
I read a story on Hollywood.com by Matt Patches, ‘Avengers’ Composer Alan Silvestri: Bringing Heroes Together with Music — EXCLUSIVE, and found three non-apostrophes. I wonder if the apostrophe key on misterpatches’ keyboard is broken.
derail an audiences reaction
that clocks ticking
its very small
Standard disclaimers about BAs in quotes apply. (Did he incorrectly transcribe an interview, or did Silvestri email him a written quote? I’m guessing this one’s on the reporter himself.)
The sad thing is that Matt Patches’ Twitter profile lists him as the Movies editor for Hollywood.com, so I’m guessing that there isn’t much oversight on the stories he writes himself. (“Here’s my story, Matt.” “Good job, Matt! I’ll put it online right away!”)
Source: Hollywood.com (page 1 and page 2)
Update: Matt quickly responded to my tweet and fixed all of the Bad Non-Apostrophes. Thanks Patches!
Alex Papadimoulis sent us this photo with the following comment: “One more for ya! These bags are all over the SEGA UFO Catcher places.”
Caught it cause I did'nt give up on it!
I’d never heard of SEGA UFO Catchers (apparently, they’re a specific brand of crane game in arcades). Alex has provided us the first “Badly Placed Apostrophe” on our site. Thanks, Alex!
Spotted at the “Best in Music” store in the Provo Towne Centre mall.
Ukelele's
Reading the article Is 2012 The Year Of Sci-Fi/Fantasy? (by LoquaciousMuse on Film.com), I found a couple of BAs — one extra apostrophe, and the removal of one that needed to be there.
We have The Wachowski’s returning...
There are multiple Wachowskis, and they don’t own anything…
haven’t even mentioned Amy Heckerlings jump into genre
… while there’s one Heckerling, and she does own something.
Source: Film.com (our second BA from that site, which makes me think that their editors need some grammar help just as much as their writers).
We picked up this milk at Albertsons in St. George, Utah (a store different from the one with the “frozen entree’s” sign debacle last year) and I spotted this on the label:
Our Farmers' Pledge
This label could conceivably be correct if you interpret the text as talking about a pledge owned by many farmers: “Our farmers’ pledge.” As I interpret it, however, the text says that “Our farmers (noun) pledge (verb).”
While in St. George for the weekend, I was looking for information about the city’s park and splash pad. I found this page, a blog entry by a local realtor selling herself as an expert on the town. She has a tenuous grasp on the written word in general, and I found three apostrophe-related errors on the one page.
"it's own theme" and "it's rock waterfall"
My advice to Erika Rogers is to get a copy editor to look over her content before she puts it online.
Source: ActiveRain.com
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