Man, I just wrote a longer version of the following post and lost it. I am not going to write as much this time, for fear of losing it all along the roadside of the information not-so-superhighway again, but here's the gyst (sp.?) of what I wrote:
Mr. POSTman
I am starting a new post. As a tangent to the blogging about BnB music, this thread of posts will be for those sticklers and pedants who like to pick posts apart looking for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, typos and omissions (Hi there, KIM).
Here is the riddle for the day:
PLEASE PUNCTUATE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE(S) CORRECTLY WITHOUT ADDING, DELETING, OR CHANGING ANY WORDS:
smith where jones had had had had had had had had had had the teachers approval
Source: The British version of the PRAXIS test, given to would-be teachers of English abroad.
THE FIRST CORRECT RESPONSE WINS A TUNA SURPRISE BEEF TACO TO SHARE WITH SPOONER STREET'S MALIK MCDONALD!
Here is the day's random musing:
OK, apostrophes can fill in for missing letters, as "can't" fills in for "cannot," " '77" stands for "1977," or "don't" shortens "do not." They can also show possession, as with "the lady's nine hats" or "the nine ladies' hats." So WHY do people put apostrophes in the plural of letter grades, as in, "I earned two C's this quarter," when no letters are omitted and the grades are not possessive (of anything but one's future ... he hehe)?
When I once asked this question, one of my students offered the example of the Oakland A's as an exception, but she didn't realize that the apostrophe in "A's" is filling in for the missing letters in "Athletics," so the team does not consist of several letter As running around, although it might have a few type-A personalities.
Now I know there are some words out there where the apostrophe is in the wrong place. Whenever I see one of these rare gems, I wonder whose bright idea it was to contract it as such. I'm asking you to post some of these contractions for me since, try as I might, I can't think of an example. It would be something like "would'nt" (if it wasn't actually "wouldn't"), where the apostrophe is not where the "o" would be, but somewhere else entirely. Hey ... that rhymed!
It wasn't where the "o" would be /
but somewhere else entirely
Just call me Tennyson, hah!
Well, good luck with the riddle and the trivia question. That Malik McDonald taco tastes a lot like it was raised by a cheetah, but it'll keep you warm at night.
/$(0tT
