An Open Letter

Dear English-speakers:

Please remove the apostrophe from your keyboard. We all use it incorrectly. Argh.

Sincerely,

Cam


If you ever want to add an apostrophe to a noun, don't. One apple, two apples. Not apple's. Apple's means that the apple owns something. Similar to Joe's Truck Stop. Even in a weird situation, like PDA or flea. Cam likes PDAs, the dog might have fleas. Not PDA's. Not flea's.

What about its and it's? Every time you want to type it's, replace it with "it is." If it still works, then it's OK. (see? it is OK.) There's a similar test for "its." Replace it with "her" and if it still works, you're fine.

It's about time. = It is about time.

The dog chased its tail. = The dog chased her tail.


If I made a typo in this bit, I'm sorry. But my mind is on other things today. :-)

More info on this, even though nobody cares about this like I do: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_apost.html

Political Poll

Situation: You wake up, grab your coffee, sit at the computer. Up comes the www.vote.gc.ca website. You punch in an ID number, and then vote on a dozen little issues such as "should your children be taught in both English and French equally?" "should the city repave Mill Street or build a new bike path?" or "Do you want a $100 tax cut in 2006, or should that money go to building 31,000 new affordable homes nationwide?"

a) Is this something you like the sounds of? (separate from technical concerns or privacy concerns, assume those are dealt with)

b) Would you vote every day?