Add an Extra 'S' for Savings?

Remember those Mattress Discounters commercials that said to "leave off the last 's' for savings"? Apparently, this mattress place in Aberdeen, Scotland, takes the opposite approach with its branding.


Thanks to Lorraine for sending this one in!

Public Service Announcement: Did you know that you can haggle when buying a mattress? It's just like buying a car. The sticker price of the mattress that I recently bought from Sleepy's was $1299, and I ended up paying $483 for it (plus delivery charge). Readers, it would be a catastrophe to pay too much for your next furniture purchase.

Yankees (and Mets) Suck (at Punctuation)

The Metropolitan Transit Authority is so complex. They are able to use semicolons correctly, but they don't know the difference between its and it's. See the last sentences of each of the blurbs below.


Thanks to my friend John (a.k.a. my friend Stephanie's fiance) for sending this one in!

Who Is Reality?

Vireya spotted an apostrophe catastrophe in the online version of The Age, which she says tends to be Melbourne, Australia's, "better newspaper."


Who is reality is it anyway? That's deep, man...

Thanks, Vireya!

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!

Almost as Painful as Actually Riding on a Greyhound Bus

Someone appears to have stolen the apostrophe from this Greyhound advertisement in Boston's South Station.


In addition, I wouldn't include a period in that catchphrase.

Thanks to Kami, formerly my boss's boss at my previous company, for sending this in via BlackBerry!

Two Catastrophes from Aruba

Brian sent in two apostrophe catastrophes from Aruba. Lucky guy!

If the villa's [sic] where you're staying are too hot ...


... you could go to the cinema's [sic].


Thanks, Brian! Next time, take me with you!

The Opposite of Excellent

Andrew sent an apostrophe catastrophe from Swansea, Wales, with the following introduction, "Excel Parking Services Limited appear to excel in bad punctuation." Look for the word motorist's near the bottom of the sign.


They also appear to excel in verbosity! Could there by any more parking regulations on one sign?

Thanks, Andrew!

Crayola Crayon Catastrophe

Lisa spotted this apostrophe catastrophe in the elevator of the Crayola factory in Easton, Pennsylvania:


Luckily, seeing the word your's at the factory didn't ruin the tour for Lisa and her daughter. Lisa said the factory was tons of fun! Fun with a backwards n, apparently.

Thanks, Lisa!

SkyMall Catastrophe

Charles and his wife were laughing at the ridiculous gadgets in the SkyMall catalog when they came across an ad for this badly punctuated sign:


If only one Jackson lived at this house, it could be argued that this sign is OK. More likely, it's referring to the Jackson family, so it's a catastrophe. If you are talking about more than one member of your family, don't add an apostrophe to make your name plural. Sadly, this is a fairly common error. I even saw it recently on the cover of a photo album in a co-worker's cubicle.

Right: The Jacksons live in that house on the corner.
Right: This is the Jacksons' house.
Wrong: I am going to hang out with the Jackson's. They have a sweet pool!

Thanks Charles and Mrs. Charles!

Cambridge Police: Stupid or Not? Let's Look at the Police Report

The biggest news story in the world today is the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Earlier this week, Cambridge police were called to Professor Gates' home when a passerby reported that two men were trying to break in. Turns out that one of the men was Gates, who lived there, and his front door was jammed. Everyone is weighing in on this issue, even our president. Was the arresting officer racist? President Obama said that the Cambridge police acted "stupidly."

For the purposes of this blog, the important question is, did the Cambridge police write stupidly in the police report about the incident?


There are a couple of missing commas and places where the punctuation should be inside the quotation marks, but overall, this report is pretty well written. The one glaring error is a your/you're confusion in one of Gates' quotes. I'm certain that the scholar meant to say, "You don't know who you're messing with!"

Still, this police report was better than I had been expecting, so, the jury's still out. I'm sure we'll hear plenty more about this story in the next few days. It even made the homepage of the London Times online, along with Amy Winehouse's latest antics.

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!

Shoe's. Oh My God! Shoe's.

These shoes suck!


Well, at least based on their badly punctuated sign.

Thanks to Josh for sending in this photo from Sports Authority in Eatontown, N.J.

If you don't understand the title and first line of this posting, watch this video immediately. By the way, betch, it never gets old.

What Is Wrong with this Picture?

See if you can find the apostrophe catastrophe amidst all the text on this gas station sign from Allentown, Pa.


Hint: David writes, "Read literally, it says, 'Containers should never be filled while inside a vehicle or it is trunk.'"

Thanks, David!

I Don't Think You're Ready for These Jelly's

I bet the jams and jellies at this shop in Portland, Maine, are delicious, but the apostrophe catastrophes take away my appetite.


Thanks to Norman for sending in this photo!