Blame It on the Rain

Wendy spotted this apostrophe catastrophe at a comedy club in Seattle.


Not funny, comedians!

Thanks, Wendy!

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!

What Are They Really?

Today we're branching out a little bit from our typical subject matter and presenting a question-mark-and-spacing catastrophe.


Debra, who found this catastrophe at a Dunkin' Donuts in Washington Heights, NY, writes, "I'm not sure if that is a serving suggestion or questioning the legitimacy of the food coloring."

America runs on bad punctuation?

Thanks, Debra!

We Don't Need No Education

Spotted at a fancy Connecticut prep school:


My cousin Joe found this apostrophe catastrophe in the cafeteria of the Pomfret School.

Also, is that supposed to be grilled chicken and pasta primavera? I think we might have some line-spacing problems here, too.

Thanks, Joe!

Hitting My Head on a Rock

When you're painting giant letters on a rock formation, you should probably make sure you proofread the text first. So few letters, so many mistakes...


Eric, who sent us the gorgeous photo above, says he thinks that sign is supposed to say "Hole in the Rock" (not "and"), and the restaurant's web site proves him right. If the quotation mark were an apostrophe, this sign would read, "Hole No the Rock," which doesn't really make sense.

While Eric reports that Hole N" the Rock was consistent with its bizarre quotation mark/double apostrophe throughout, the web site sometimes calls the place Hole "N The Rock and sometimes Hole N" the Rock.

Clearly, the people who designed the signage and web site for this place hit their head on rocks in Arches National Park a few too many times.

Thanks, Eric! You rock!

This Makes My Brain Hurt

Dave from Bristol, England, was horrified when someone slipped this flyer under his door:


Don't look too hard at this image or your head might explode. With the missing apostrophe in childrens, the errant apostrophe in partie's, and the spacing and capitalization problems, this is one of the worst catastrophes I've seen in a while.

Thanks, Dave!

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.)

I Am Not GLAD About the Bad Punctuation in Press'n Seal

This delicious turkey leg came into my life wrapped in GLAD Press'n Seal.


Much like Guns N' Roses and Sweet 'N Low, Press'n Seal is missing the second apostrophe in the shortened form of and. But GLAD also forgot to put a space after Press. Are they trying to call the product "Press on Seal"? That would explain the missing apostrophe, but they'd still need a space before the n.

This apostrophe catastrophe did not, however, stop me from eating the turkey.

No Wonder He's Starving!

The economy is bad, and jobs are scarce. So, if you post an ad on craiglist looking for work, you should probably have someone proofread it for you first. This ad has more mistakes than I can count. I'm not in the math industry, after all!


I blurred out the poor guy's phone number so he doesn't have a bunch of horrified Apostrophe Catastrophes readers calling him.

Thanks to Chris for sending this one in!

Maybe the Writer Was Distracted By Faith Hill's Hot Bod

Seeing Faith Hill in a bikini was apparently so shocking to this writer that he/she forgot to include any punctuation (or a space) in the third line of this blurb:


An em-dash would have been appropriate before "it's." Get it together, MSN.

A 78-Year-Old Catastrophe

Adam of Universal Hub noticed an old sign in Dedham, Massachusetts, that includes the phrase "in early year's."


The spacing on this sign also seems a bit off, and the first part isn't really a sentence, yet it has a period at the end.

See Adam's original posting on about this poorly punctuated sign here.

Unfinished Quotes

Looks like this van, seen in New York City, forgot to finish its slogan.

Thank's for Todays Tips

Let's take a poll, readers. Does it bother you more when writers omit apostrophes, like this:


or add them where they shouldn't be, like this:

?

I saw both of these apostrophe catastrophes at the Metro Cafe on the same day. It was a bad day for punctuation.

A Sign for Literate Dogs

This sign, in front of a dog park in Somerville, lists 14 rules for conduct inside the park. Rule number 7 contains an apostrophe catastrophe (their dogs actions), but number 3 amuses me more because it seems to be addressed at the dogs.


And if we want to be really picky, rule number 1 is missing a space after the period.

The reader's what doesn't work?

Amanda and her husband found this apostrophe catastrophe at a gas station in in Tuscaloosa, Alabama:


So many mistakes are packed into such a small sign. Thanks for sending, Amanda!

Menssuits

I see this guy in Downtown Crossing all the time, and I finally had the opportunity to take his photo.


Obviously, MENSSUITS is the funniest part of this sign, but I just noticed that the sign also spells warehouse wrong. If that were intentional, it would actually be a pretty good pun. But alas, I think it's just a spelling mistake.

Update: An alert reader pointed out that Men's Wearhouse is actually the correct spelling of the store's name. Surprisingly clever! However, there should be an apostrophe in Men's, so that part is still wrong.

If I Could Turn Back Time

Happy Patriots' Day, everyone! Many New Englanders have today off, including our building manager. He put up this sign in the elevator last week:



There are a couple of missing commas, no period at the end, and an extra space in the phone number, but the biggest problem with this sign is that the writer refers to today as April 21, 2001. For a second, I thought maybe I had entered a time machine instead of an elevator! I don't remember if I had Patriots' Day off in 2001, but I'm certainly at work today.