my pet peeve is that not only are the people who thought of the sign too stupid to spell correctly, but the people making the sign are too stupid to catch the mistake - or notice that they have also made the sign before without an apostrophe. I'm with you Andrea - perfect the skill.

Yay Cheryl!!! Us Grammar & Spelling Police should unite!! Can you imagine how annoying that would be to so many offenders out there?! Love the thought! :-)

Andrea

Andrea, I assume you're being subtly funny by saying "Us" instead of "We" in your comment just above mine. Yes?

I, like you, detest apostrophe misplacement. And I also loathe spelling errors on signs. Today on Fifth Avenue, I saw a vendor with a handwritten sign advertising SHAL'S. That word was crossed out and underneath the corrected version read SHAWL'S.

This stuff rankles the hell out of me! Down with it!

Welcome to the dark side.

Now that you mention it, this has been eating away at me (de-odor-ant)

http://www.andreaharner.com/archives/000303.html

Andrea Harner is so very pretty, though, so I will forgive her any spelling transgressions. Heck, even if she misspelled ANDREA wrong, I'd still think she's the bee's knees!

P.S. I made a MISTAKE. I meant "Even if Andrea *spelled* ANDREA wrong ..." (not "misspelled").

Fortunately I am pretty too and can get away with errors.

Thank goodness for prettiness!

Ladies,

Thank you for the pretty compliment and the spellchecking-see how I keep all you readers on your toes?!?!

Yours truly,
Andrea

Dissenting viewpoint.

I believe the sign-makers knew EXACTLY what they were doing. They made Saturday POSSESSIVE over the hours 8AM - 1PM. Saturday OWNS those hours.

It's logical; it works.

My particular peeve are signs with "quotes" around "things" that don't "need" to be quoted. Those signs are generally hand-lettered.

(And I thank Jobs for the Safari browser which can spellcheck these little web forms or I'd be sunk.)

Incidentally, there's an apostrophe protection society you might like to take a look at. I don't know why common mistakes annoy me so much, I make more than my fair share, but they do. Not just apostrophes, but also misuse of 'their', 'there' and 'they''re', also 'then' and 'than'. Usually I can control the urge to pass comment, but still I think I need help =(. --

Apostrophe Protection Society: http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/

Hi, Kids--

I urge you to think a bit. Before you turn yourselves into a police force, make sure you've mastered your subject. I am a member of the Real Grammar Police, and I may have to arrest a few of you.

Andrea writes, "The sooner I realize I'm one of those annoying people that always points out when something is grammatically wrong or spelled wrong, probably the better huh?

Grievous grammatical error here, Andrea. Should be, ". . . annoying people who always point out . . .," (plural noun, "people," pronoun that refers to persons, not things, "who," plural verb form "point" to agree with the plural noun).

And Cheryl, you write, "My pet peeve is that not only are the people who thought of the sign too stupid to spell correctly, but the people making the sign are too stupid to catch the mistake." There is a rule governing the "not only . . . but also" conjunction. If you start with not only, you have to finish with but also. You should have written, "My pet peeves [you do, of course, list two] are that not only are the people who thought of the sign too stupid to spell correctly, but that the people making the sign are also too stupid to catch the mistake."

Using a possessive instead of a simple plural is an ignorant error, and the people who do it are ignorant, not stupid. It might pay you in the long run to be a little gentler in your judgments.

Maurice Naughton, Ubersturmbannfuhrer der Grammatik Polizei

Grammar is a complicated and delicate study. Don't set yourselves up as its guardians until you have thoroughly mastered it yourselves.