Monday, July 12, 2010

No Apostrophe Please, We're Captious

No unexpected checks (or expected ones for that matter) in today's mail. Just a couple of bills, a supermarket flyer and...oh, what's this? A brochure promoting upcoming events at the local Evergreen Cultural Centre. I must have signed on to their mailing list during our last visit. I can't remember what the play was now, but I recall being captivated as much by the charm of the cozy theatre and the wine-warmed intermission stroll by the adjacent lake as I was by the enthusiastically earnest amateur production. Let's see what's coming up:


"British humour at it's Best!" reads the tagline for No Sex Please, We're British. Once again, there is the matter of random capitalization (Best but not humour), which for some reason I find as nettlesome as a pebble in my shoe. But of course the real solecism here is allowing the contraction it's to stand in for the possessive its. A very common minor infraction, granted, and an easy one to make. All the more reason for these cousins to be on every proofreader's watch list.