It's Raining Mens (Again)

Well, it's been a while since we've had a mens catastrophe, so here's one from the Copley Marriott (Boston), which my friend John submitted:


If you look very carefully in the background, you can also see the womens [sic] room.

Thanks, John!

Saturday's Alright for Being Open

Walking around Boston on Sunday in search of a decent bar to watch Game 4 of the Celtics-Heat series, I found this apostrophe catastrophe on the window of a cafe on State Street.


Apparently Al's Cafe is not open on Sunday's.

Shout out to my friend Dave whose reflection you can see in the window of this cameraphone pic.

Go Celtics!

Grande Catastrophecinno

Walking home from a Celtics game a few weeks ago, I happened upon this apostrophe catastrophe at a Starbucks near Mass General Hospital:


I usually stay away from posting hand-written apostrophe catastrophes because anyone can make a hand-written sign, but this is Starbucks so it's all corporate and stuff. And what is the deal with that creepy hand that kind of looks like a hoof?

All Polo Is

Smoochiefrog sent me an e-mail with three apostrophe catastrophes, including this one from the Inner Harbor Mall:


Change "all" to "each" and you could make an argument that this is a contraction and not an apostrophe catastrophe, but I'm not giving this store the benefit of the doubt.

Thanks, SF!

Marathon Catastrophe

My friend Mary was out at a bar on Marathon Monday and noticed people wearing this grammatically incorrect t-shirts:


Maybe the your/you're error was their way of getting around having to pay Donald Trump for use of his trademarked phrase.

Thanks, Mary!

I Just Can't Hide My Somerville Pride

In the two-plus years that I've maintained this blog, I've received submissions from places as far away as Europe and Asia and as close by as my own hometown. I was excited to receive this submission from Georgy, who spotted a badly punctuated trash receptacle at Prima's in the Winter Hill area of Somerville, Mass.


While Somerville isn't technically my hometown, I lived there for almost five years after college, and it was there that Apostrophe Catastrophes was born. Through all the madness in life, punctuation is the one thing you can control, and there have been times when I've felt that this blog has kept me sane.

So, to all my supporters out there, and especially my fellow Somervillian Georgy, I say, "Thank's."

Worst Punctuation, Comma, Ever

From Crawley, West Sussex:


Barry is clearly upside-down dyslexic or something. Chris writes, "I might take my wife here for our 20th anniversary."

That would be awesome. But don't listen to me -- I once bought someone a mop for Valentine's Day.

Thanks, Chris!

No Country for Old Apostrophes

Andy spotted this outrageous catastrophe at a truck stop near the Arizona/California border:


Apparently there's parking for one truck, one R.V., one boat, and something belonging to a buse. And they forgot all the commas.

The landscape looks gorgeous, but that sign is just hideous.

Thanks, Andy!

Wicked Smaaht

Today's apostrophe comes to us from one of my favorite people in the entire world ever, my friend Jeremy. Meeting Jeremy was the opposite of a catastrophe. I meant to post this last Thursday to coincide with our one-year friendiversary, but I was too busy partying in New Orleans.

The fact that he texted this photo to me while playing bar trivia is just one of the many reasons why he is awesome.


Anyway, Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square is clearly not smart. It appears that they tried to fix a your/you're error, but only made it worse by misplacing the apostrophe. Oh, the irony.

Thanks, Jeremy!

Adult Entertainment Catastrophe

The Sexy World Megastore in Darwin, Australia, needs to take some of its catastrophic apostrophes and turn them into commas. Or maybe they actually sell "leather cream," as in the stuff you put on a new baseball glove to break it in?


Thanks to the submitter who calls himself Heywood Jabloeme for sending this one in. "Heywood" writes, "What is the world coming to when we can't even rely on pornographers for grammatical correctness?"

Bodacious Burritos

There are a lot of problems with this sign that Darren found at the Oklahoma State Fair. Apparently, Tad's Indian taco is so "world famous" that he only sells one of them. Ever. And do I really to point out the giant apostrophe catastrophe?



Maybe it's because of the fact that bodega is now a euphemism in my world, but the word "bodacious" just sounds dirty to me.

Thanks, Darren!

Jumbo Hot Dog Catastrophe

To celebrate Opening Day, they fed us hot dogs at work today. I'm glad that they didn't come from this guy:


Marty, who appears to have captured this double apostrophe catastrophe while driving (impressive!), writes, "Jimbo had a feeling there should be an apostrophe in Jimbo's Jumbo Dogs; he just guessed wrong. Which, unfortunately, only reinforces the stereotype of anyone named Jimbo."

Brilliant.

Thanks, Marty!

Teabonics Catastrophes

If I had a dollar for everyone who sent me a link to those Teabonics photos, I could buy myself a drink this evening.

The photos feature a variety of grammatical errors, but this one that Lee pointed out to me is particularly relevant to this blog.


I'd like to put a tax on errant apostrophes.

Thanks, Lee!