Mad About Apostrophes

Yesterday afternoon we had to go into town, so I asked Big Daddy if we could also pop in WalMart.

I am not sure why I "asked" except to be one of those great wives I've heard about. You know the ones. Asking was actually a moot point as I was the one doing the driving. All I had to do was pull into the lot.

On second thought, I do know why I asked. It was more of an, "unless you have an exceptional reason why I can't, I will be stopping at WalMart," than needing permission. If I pull into someplace that was not on the agenda he will ask, "Why are you stopping here? What do you need?" This annoys me. Not because he is bossy or overbearing. Just because.

Speaking of things that annoy me, which is also the point I was getting to, as we are driving into the parking lot, there is a truck with the bed open, a cage on the ground, and a sign that reads, "Puppy's 4 sale."

I say rather loudly, "'Puppy's' for sale? REALLY?" With a definitive emphasis on the "s." Then I said, "Can I please turn around and inform them that their sign is wrong? They need to know. People may be ignoring them because of that sign."

Big Daddy just looked at me and said, "They are selling puppies in a WalMart parking lot. They don't care."

Before you write that hate mail and point out all my grammar mistakes from the past, hear me out:

I am not perfect in my grammar. Seriously though, I try. And mistakes are going to be found anywhere. I found one a couple of days ago in a book I was reading about writing.

But the apostrophe, it is the most abused punctuation mark. Even more than the overzealous exclamation point. The poor apostrophe has been so cruelly abused that entire websites have been set up in its honor.


Here and here as well as here ....

You get the idea.


My fear that the apostrophe abuse it is only going to get worse before it gets better. People were probably confused about the puppy (ies).

"So the puppy is for sale?"
"Only one puppy is for sale? Why did they come here for one?"

I saw a sign a couple of weeks ago that read, "Hot Iron's $6.99"

Maybe I am just jumping to conclusions. Or conclusion's.