Insurance Against Bad Punctuation?

At first it appears that the only problem with this sign, spotted in Davis Square, is that it has a misplaced comma.


But Google tells me that the name of this company is Metro Boston Women's Insurance, so the sign also features an apostrophe catastrophe. Plus, adding "Women's" on a piece of cardboard is so tacky that I think they'd be better off just throwing this sign away entirely.

Girls, what's my weakness? Mens!

The Downtown Crossing area of Boston provides a plethora of punctuation problems. Besides these three postings, I noticed that a lot of stores don't seem to realize that the word men is plural. Mens is not a word. John's Clothing and Tailoring clearly think it is.


And this shop just omits all apostrophes, which makes it look like they are selling girls, boys, and, of course, mens.


$49.99 for four pairs of men? What a bargain!

I'm Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend Punctuation

My friend Ben recently forwarded me a promotional e-mail from Boston's alternative radio station that contains an apostrophe catastrophe, confusing you're with your. WFNX refers to a song by the Black Kids as "I'm Not Going to Teach You're Boyfriend How to Dance." Horrendous! Here's the proof:


Ben says he investigated and found out that the band uses proper punctuation in the song title; the mistake was on WFNX's end. If you look closely, you'll also see that WFNX wrote 80's instead of '80s. Good thing I'm going through a cheesy pop phase at the moment and haven't listened to much FNX recently. My musical taste is damaged, damaged, damaged. God, that song is so terrible.

The Redundancy Award for Redundancy

On the way to the beach (again) on Saturday, my friends and I were baffled by a generic ATM that said "ATMS CASH."


The machine doesn't feature a punctuation error; it's just generally bizarre. I guess the problem is that the "S" in "ATM" shouldn't be there. I wanted to take a picture of it without the random guy in it (sorry, random guy!), but he was standing at the ATM for about five minutes, and I just couldn't wait any longer. He must have been confused by the sign, too.

Mix-in It Up

I stopped at Dunkin' Donuts on the way to the beach yesterday. Standing at the sugar and Splenda table, my friend Stephanie noticed a sign promoting DD's new ice cream products. I was thrilled to discover that it contained an apostrophe catastrophe. Mix-in's?


Did I just use the word "thrilled" in reference to a punctuation error, you ask? Yes, I love it when national chains and other high profile companies screw up. And as much as I love Boston, I have no love for the ubiquitous pink and orange cups containing mediocre coffee.

I Wanna Live Like Amish Peoples

My friend Carrie went to Pennsylvania last weekend for a wedding and went to a restaurant recommended by some lovely Amish folks. But the restaurant's sign was missing an apostrophe!


The even greater catastrophe was that the menu, which referred to the place as People's Restaurant, didn't offer breakfast on Sundays, despite what the poorly punctuated sign said. So most of her starving party was forced to eat gravy-drenched meals at 10:30 a.m.

Read more about the Amish adventure here.

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!

Punctuation for Decorative Purposes Only

My friend Tiffers sent another bizarre punctuation error from the City of Angels. Actually, this one is from Catalina Island:


In case you can't read it, the bottom of the sign says, "This Pictures Do Not Apply To Our Restaurant Drink's Menu / Those are for Decoration Purposes Only"

Clearly, someone drank too much tequila, a word which Tiff says was also misspelled on the restaurant's menu, before writing this sign.

Number Two Baseball Bar in America, Number One in Bad Punctuation

The Cask 'n Flagon has a banner under its sign declaring that it's the #2 Baseball Bar in America. Perhaps if it used apostrophes correctly, it would be #1. Like Sweet 'N Low and Guns N' Roses, its name is short one apostrophe.


At least the name is consistent on the sign and on the Cask's web site. The only place the name is correctly punctuated is on ZAGAT.com. This doesn't surprise me since ZAGAT is classy like that.

Double Whammy

My friend and former co-worker Kate sent me an urgent e-mail a few weeks ago to tell me that a new company called Today's Options had moved into the building where she works. She knew I'd share her dismay that on the sign in front of the building, the company is listed as Todays Option's. Appalling! I happened to be in the area recently and snapped this photo as proof:


Thank you, Kate, for alerting me to this doubly awful punctuation sin.

It's: A Shame

Boston is teeming with tourists at this time of year. People pour into the city in droves for the Fourth of July fireworks and Pops concert. Taking a tour on a trolley or a duck boat are wicked popular, and new companies seem to be popping up all the time. The other day, I noticed a new tourist office across from the Park Street T station. Shockingly, its sign misuses it's!


I almost told the guy working there to fix the mistake, but he didn't look like he would understand what I was talking about. The errant apostrophe in this sign is ironic since it's in reference to Harvard and MIT, two of the nation's finest universities. I've got some Boston pride (Go, Celtics!), so I was kind of embarrassed by this particular apostrophe catastrophe.

Get This Sign a Colon Cleanser!

This is the second submission from Merry this week! She took this photo from a bus:


Impressive! This random colon was spotted in Brighton, MA. Thanks again, Merry!

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!

Drunken Punctuation

My friend Merry took photos of four signs outside a liquor store in Allston. Two of them contain apostrophes, and two don't. Behold!


It looks like they snuck the apostrophe in at the last minute on this one:


And here are the two without punctuation:



According to their web site, the official name of this liquor store chain is Blanchards. Interesting! Before I went to Blanchards' web site, I assumed that the signs without the apostrophes were the erroneous ones.

Merry has previously pointed out mistakes from Dave and Buster's, Macy's, and Charlie's Kitchen. Thanks again, Merry!

A Billboard-Sized Error

For the hundredth time, I would like to remind people that adding an apostrophe to a word or abbreviation does not make it plural.


The text of this billboard in Porter Square is in all caps, so it would be difficult to differentiate TVs from TVS (Turkish vacuuming system?), but I'm sure they could have figured something out.