And Next Week: Healthy Liver Lecture at the Bar!

Spotted at a mall in Watertown, Mass., this sign doesn't contain any grammatical errors, but I found it hilarious nonetheless.


The only lecture topic the Old Country Buffet would be less qualified to address is depression.

It Takes One to Know One

I'm pretty sure that this sticker, sold by STH Body Jewelry, is not meant to be ironic.


Besides the grammatical error, the sentiment of the sticker is douche-tastic.

Thanks to Sam for sending me this catastrophe!

It Takes One to Know One

This is one of the best catastrophes we've had in a while:


Scott, who uploaded this photo to the Apostrophe Catastrophes Facebook group tells us he had to stare at this guy's t-shirt for 40 minutes while waiting in line for baked potatoes at the Big E in West Springfield, Mass.

Oh, the level of stupidity in this world never ceases to amaze me.

Thanks, Scott!

Carving Into Irony

Sometimes there's just so much stupidity in the world that I can barely handle it. Case in point: this carving that someone is selling on etsy:


Yes, that's a semicolon. And of course we have a your/you're error and an it's/its blunder.

Thanks to Helen for sending this one in and thoroughly depressing me.

Being Irresponsible with Punctuation

When I first received this submission from David, I thought the ad was being sarcastic.


But Google research shows that it's the slogan of an actual political organization in England. Being conservative is one thing, but one should never conserve apostrophes when they are so desperately needed.

Thanks, David!

The Childrens Are Our Future

Natalie notes the irony of seeing this ad on her Google Reader while reading Apostrophe Catastrophes.


To recap, children, like women or men, is already plural.

Thanks, Natalie!

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!

It Takes One to Know One

A friend of my friend Merry took this photo at the Tea Party protest on September 12 in Washington:


Oh, the irony.

And see those yellow flags in the background? Those have apostrophe catastrophes in them, too!

Thanks, Merry (and her Republican friend)!

Résumé Typo's Make Me [Sic]

Poor Katie was forced to sit through a typo-filled webinar. I think she deserves a raise for capturing one of the worst (and most ironic) mistakes and sending it to Apostrophe Catastrophes.


She hopes that the moderator is not the one doing resume reviews. Also, could that PowerPoint slide be any uglier? You need not take computer classes to produce better Powerpoint presentations.

While it isn't technically necessary, I prefer to include the accents in résumé so readers don't think I'm talking about starting something up again. If you want to resume working, send in your résumé.

Thanks, Katie!

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

The person who wrote the text of this Internet ad is clearly the dumb one.


Thanks to Lori for posting this your/you're confusion to the Apostrophe Catastrophes facebook group.

From the Irony Files

An anonymous reader sent me a link to a web site called Red Hot Copy that provides tips for writing marketing copy. Sadly, the writer should have taken some of her own advice. Before you hire writers for their article writing services check out their credentials and portfolios first to make sure they won't commit silly mistakes such as the one below. See the headline next to the arrow in the screenshot below.


Mistake #6: perpetrating an apostrophe catastrophe when you want readers to see you as a writing expert.

Thanks, anonymous reader!

In the 19th Century, Perhaps

I think this facebook flair is trying to say that the UK is #1, but, ironically, the bad punctuation kind of makes the statement more true.


Sorry, British friends! You know I love you! Hey, now that Amy Winehouse is reportedly divorcing Blake Fielder-Civil, perhaps the British Empire can rise again. Pirates seem to be making a comeback.

Thanks to my friend Jodi for sending this apostrophe catastrophe my way. Cheers, luv!

Update: People in the comment section have informed me that this is an intentional apostrophe catastrophe. Sorry!

I Should Dress as Lynne Truss for Halloween!

Despite the title, this posting has nothing to do with Halloween. Instead, it's about another badly punctuated t-shirt from CafePress. Alison, who has a blog on PublishersWeekly.com sent me a link to this shirt:


Alison writes, "I'm assuming that it's not an ENGLISH teacher who coined that slogan/created that design, but...? You never know!"

I certainly hope not. Thanks, Alison!

Not Actually Very Honorable

Turi snapped this photo at the University of Nevada, Reno, during the Race for the Cure breast cancer walk/run:


"I can see why no one wanted to stand by the sign," Turi writes.

In the Interest of Nonpartisanship...

For this reason Apostrophe Catastrophes has endorsed Barack Obama for president. But I won't hesitate to point out punctuation errors from any political party. Here's one from the other side:


Several people forwarded me an e-mail with photos from an anti-Palin rally in Alaska, but I never noticed the missing apostrophe in "We're not that stupid" until my friend Ruth pointed it out to me today. It looks like someone may have tried to sneak one in after the fact, but it still looks like a catastrophe from afar.

Thanks, Ruth!

Oh, the Irony...

Today's apostrophe catastrophe comes to us from Vicki in Seattle, and it's one of my favorites of all time. Would you trust these guys to make sign's for you?


Not surprisingly, Vicki says Professional Sign's & Lettering has gone out of business.

Practice What You Preach

The higher-education punctuation mistakes continue. Last week I posted an apostrophe catastrophe from Harvard's web site, and today's catastrophe comes from Tufts, where my friend Claudia is a grad student.


Check out the red writing in the upper right. I would think twice about signing up for an English course that has the phrase "no waitlist's" in its description.

Thanks, Claudia!

Your Invited to Learn Proper Grammar

My friend Ethan forwarded me this e-mail that he received at work:


Ironically, it's from a communications firm and directed at journalists, yet it's riddled with errors. Maybe the survey is a proofreading test in disguise? It manages to get journalists' needs wrong twice -- in two different ways. And confusing your with you're?!? Inexcusable. However, the best part of this e-mail, which Ethan pointed out, is that the company calls itself a pubic relations firm. How did I miss that? Thanks for sharing, Ethan!