Ladie's, All the Ladie's

Thanks to the magic of DVR, my friend Dave was able to capture an apostrophe catastrophe on his TV.


Also, the tagline "The Musical about Love" doesn't sound like a very accurate description of The Color Purple. I read the book, and it was mostly about incest and abuse, if I recall correctly. Not a lot of singing and dancing going on there.

Thanks, Dave!

This Ought to Tip the Scales in Favor of Al Franken

Senator (?) Norm Coleman released a cringe-worthy statement about the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court. Besides being delusional ("When I am re-elected..."), it contains a glaring apostrophe catastrophe in the last line. I underlined the error in red in the screenshot below.


This is from his own blog! Someone needs to hire better proofreaders.

M-I-C-K-E-Y, You Suck at Grammar

Brian writes, "I spotted this t-shirt in a gift shop at a little place you may not have heard of in Orlando, Fla., called Disney World. Yes, Disney World! I'm presuming this shirt is to be worn by women flaunting huge diamond rings on their fingers."


Someone in the Apostrophe Catastrophes facebook group commented that the shirt could also be referring to someone's crack stash. That's more like it. The people who designed and printed this shirt were clearly out of their mind.

Thanks, Brian!

Quelle Horreur!

Ooh la la! This is our first apostrophe catastrophe from France. Avignon, Provence, to be exact. Mark uploaded it to the Apostrophe Catastrophes facebook group.


Why is the sign in English at all?

Thanks, Mark!

Soulless Killing Machines

Stephen Colbert calls bears "soulless killing machines." This cardboard one, spotted by Sarah at Blair Drummond Safari Park in Scotland, is kinda cute, but the sign he's holding contains two apostrophe catastrophes!


There's an extra apostrophe in says, and don't is missing one.

Today's word: illiteracy

Thanks, Sarah!

Catastrophe in Paradise

A perfect April day in Malibu got even better when I discovered this apostrophe catastrophe in the parking lot:


Sunshine, tropical drinks, and blog fodder... what could be better?

Surf's Up!

Apostrophe Catastrophes facebook group member Heidi must be getting ready for summer because this is her second beach-themed catastrophe in the past week!


Channel Island is have hit the floor? Huh?

As an aside, I love that people have been uploading photos to the facebook group, but I'm way behind on posting submissions from there. If you've got a real doozy, e-mail it to me to catch my attention faster.

Thanks, Heidi and all 585 members of the A.C. facebook group. I feel so popular!

Let's Go Celtics!

I've been to dozens of Celtics games during the past couple of seasons, and I've tried at least 10 times to capture the apostrophe catastrophe that appears on the JumboTron during player introductions. Finally, during Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, I got it!


The JumboTron implores, Lets hear it! I say, Let's see some proper punctuation!

This is almost as bad as the Garden's badly punctuated bathrooms.

OK, gotta finish getting dressed for the game tonight. Let's go, Celtics! Hmm... that should have a comma in it, shouldn't it? I don't have time to fix the title.

But You're Not Protected from Grammatical Errors

When I first saw this image that Heidi uploaded to the Apostrophe Catastrophes facebook group, I thought it was an ad for condoms.


But apparently it's for anti-virus software. Bad advertising and bad grammar! Besides the obvious you/you're confusion, I think there should be some sort of punctuation after RELAX. A colon, perhaps? Let's ask Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Thanks, Heidi!

Two-for-One Caribbean Catastrophes

Kim found two apostrophe catastrophes on one sign during a recent trip to the Caribbean. Crab race's happen three time's a day, apparently.


Hey, mon, no problem!

Thanks, Kim!

Camera in the Men's Room

Well, it has been a few weeks since I've posted any mistakes involving the word men, so I think it might be time for another reminder: Mens is not a word. Whoever made this sign that was posted in John's office obviously hasn't been reading Apostrophe Catastrophes.


John would like you all to know that he didn't take his camera into the mens room. He took apart the sign and then reassembled it and returned it to its proper place, column F10. His office sounds really complicated! Also, there should be a period at the end of that sentence.

Thanks, John!

Teacher, There Are Things That I Still Have to Learn

An anonymous reader was dismayed that her children had to wear this poorly punctuated name tag during their school's walk-a-thon:


As George Bush asked, "Is our children learning?" Based on this apostrophe catastrophe, the answer appears to be "no."

Thanks, Anonymous Reader!

Clearly I'm in the Wrong Line of Work

Most people think you need to be a lawyer, a psychiatrist, or a high-priced hooker to make more $100 an hour. But according to this sign, you can make more than 400 times that much working at Taco Bell!


It might not be worth it if you have to eat the food, though.

The punctuation in this sign is fine, so it's a little outside this blog's usual scope, but I thought it was a pretty funny mistake.

Thanks to my friend Kurt for sending this photo to me from North Carolina.

More Apostrophe Horrors

Upon receiving this e-mail from GoAudioLearning, Kirsten decided that bad punctuation is a whole lot scarier than numbers.


Where did they misplace that apostrophe and em-dash? Oh, and there should probably be a question mark after "numbers."

Thanks, Kirsten!

I Guess They Don't Belong to Spinderella

Michelle spotted an apostrophe catastrophe above some salt and pepper shakers in the gift shop of the Tides at the Wharf restaurant in Bodega Bay. She says that several scenes in Hitchcock's The Birds were filmed there, but she found this apostrophe catastrophe just as frightening.


Thanks, Michelle!

Baking Our Own Pies and Committing Our Own Apostrophe Catastrophes

Grocery stores and apostrophe catastrophes go hand in hand. In fact, the errant apostrophe is sometimes called the greengrocer's apostrophe. So I wasn't surprised to receive an e-mail from Keegan in Lexington, KY, with this photo from a Kroger supermarket attached:


Mmm... pie. I need a snack.

Thanks, Keegan!

Bluffin with My Muffin

My friend Michelle, a frequent contributor to this blog, is coming in to town from New York tonight (hooray!), so I decided that it was a good day to post one of her photos that I have sitting in the queue.


This sounds like a pretty good deal! I wonder how many muffin's you get for $2.49.

Thanks, Michelle!

Bad Punctuation Is Never Gorgeous

Another day, another t-shirt apostrophe catastrophe. This one comes from Rob via the Apostrophe Catastrophes facebook group.


Did anyone watch Desperate Housewives tonight? This shirt reminds me of the Gaby/Juanita plotline. Poor Juanita....

Thanks, Rob!

Apostrophes 'R' Us

The Happy Medic's wife spotted this poorly punctuated sign at Babies "R" Us:


What can you expect from a store that uses a backwards R in its branding?

Thanks, Happy!