Several years ago, I coined the term apostrophitis after I became more and more concerned, nay despondant ("friends" know I often nay despondantly), at the misuse of the poor little apostrophe.
But why? Why waste energy writing something so unnecessary (I realise I'm on dodgy ground here)? Imagine the entropy created by all those unneeded little wisps of punctuation. The practice seems to have flourished in this age of "email's" and "website's". Will sign writers and copy writers PLEASE pay attention! "CD's, LP's, VIDEO's", indeed. Isn't it about time McDonald's served Billion's?
I think these things are a new virus, probably some kind of retro-virus that crossed over from animals to humans in southern China. Either that or it's the work of Osama Bin Laden and Al Queada.
"You're either with us or you're with the people who can't write right!"
What I find very odd, however, is that a Google search on the term "apostrophitis", even searching sites in English only, brings up virtually nothing but European sites (none in English) about this problem.
I just want it to go away.
By the way, where on earth does the saying "gets my goat" come from?
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