Something for Everyone

This flyer, submitted by Robert, features just about every kind of punctuation mistake, plus a few random errors thrown in.


We've got capitalization and spacing problems, random periods and semicolons, apostrophe catastrophes, and even a misplaced hyphen. Yikes!

Thanks, Robert!

That Fried Oreo Is Deep and It Owns Something

Stephanie, who I can only assume is from the midwest somewhere, sent in this photo of a rather appalling sign:


Besides the apostrophe catastrophe and missing hyphen, thinking about deep-fried Oreos kind of hurts my stomach, and my arteries. The sign makers managed to spell Twinkies right, but deep-fried Twinkies sound even more obesity-inducing.

Thanks, Stephanie!

Let's Find the Catastrophe

It's not the inconsistent hyphenation in makeup (or make-up) in this ad that bothers me; it's the apostrophe in the word let's.


Check out the gray print in the middle to find the catastrophe.

Thanks to Jace for sending this one in!

Thanksgiving Catastrophe

Readers, I hope you all had a wonderful, properly punctuated Thanksgiving. I am thankful for all of you! I am especially thankful for J.A. who found a Turkey Day-themed apostrophe catastrophe.


Based on the apostrophe placement in seating's, it appears that the restaurant will make you sit in your seat for five hours. Oh, and that hyphen should be an en-dash.

Thanks, J.A!

America's #1 Selling Ball. Period!

My friend Rich e-mailed me this photo with the subject "This is not a sentence."


He's right. Also, what's a "selling ball"?

Thanks, Rich!

Unstoppably Bad Grammar

My friend/former co-worker Fiona sent me a link from one of the most poorly written web sites I've ever seen. Are you ready to be horrified?


Two apostrophe catastrophes (three if you count "TV's" as a catastrophe -- depends on your style guide), random capitalization, subject verb disagreement, spacing problems, a spelling mistake, no periods, missing hyphens, run-on sentences ... this web site has it all. My brain hurts.

Thanks, Fiona! Way to carpe diem! (She's a Latin teacher.)

Chinese Food on Xmas

Merry Christmas to everyone out there in the blogosphere! For those of you who celebrate the birth of Christ, you'll probably be chowing down on some ham or fowl in a few hours. Non-Christians, on the other hand, traditionally eat Chinese food on Christmas. And The Christmas Story tells us that Chinese food is a good back-up plan if your turkey gets eaten by dogs.

In the spirit of the season, Brent uploaded this photo to the Apostrophe Catastrophes facebook group:


It's acceptable to use a hyphen between the "x" and "mas," but an apostrophe is inappropriate because the word isn't a contraction. "Chris'mas" would be OK because the apostrophe is in place of a "t."

Anyway, regardless of your religion or food preferences, I hope you have a wonderful, correctly punctuated holiday!

We Couldn't Have Said It Worse

Domicile Furniture, which is a pretty funny name in and of itself, ran a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune that featured "two wonderfully different types of errors," Winona writes. In the first photo, they add apostrophes to words that are already possessive.



Oh, and if we want to be really picky, that hyphen should be an en-dash. They also don't seem to understand the phrase couldn't have.


And, finally, cutting edge should have a hyphen. Thanks, Winona!

You Get What You Pay For

I love the Boston Metro because it's free. Also, it contains a lot of errors, which I enjoy mocking. This free paper recently started a program called the Metro Life Panel, which is also free. You fill out surveys about current events and have the opportunity to receive free best-sellers and other swag. But, man, are their e-mails poorly written. Check out this one that I received yesterday encouraging me to fill out a survey about the NBA Finals (Go Celtics!):


They misuse a hyphen in the first paragraph, misspell "special" and "edition," and commit an apostrophe catastrophe ("Thursdays editition [sic]"). Metro, if you give me some more free stuff, I'll help you proofread.

Show Me the Hyphen!

Missouri's nickname is the Show-Me State. But its new license plates are missing the hyphen! According to this article, some residents are showing their dismay.

A spokesman for Missouri says that the error will not be corrected because the hyphen wasn't there when voters chose this design:

Perhaps the state's reputation will be repaired if Missourian David Cook is crowned American Idol this week.

Pour Some Splenda on Me!

Jess came over to my desk yesterday with a giant box of Splenda from our office's kitchen. "Look! It has a punctuation error on it!" she exclaimed.



I protested at first. "Noooo, it's fine," I said. But I then realized that I was letting my love for Splenda cloud my vision. There should be a hyphen between the No and the Calorie since No Calorie is a compound adjective. Alas.

When I went into the kitchen to return the box of Splenda, I noticed that the packaging for Sweet 'N Low (sic) contains an apostrophe catastrophe! When N is used to represent the word and, it should have an apostrophe both before and after.



This error is very common. Stay tuned for my entry about the Cask 'n Flagon.

One other mistake: Merriam-Webster doesn't recognize foodservice as a real word.