Cato's Grammar Grumble

[Jo498]

The really scary thing is that this apostrophe has crept into German. As in German the apostrophe is almost always wrong in that place and there is no proper use (like in the genitive in English), it has been dubbed "Deppenapostroph" (idiot's apostrophe).

The exceptions where it is right in German are the genitive of words ending in s, z or x to avoid a double s (or awkward combination of consonants, we Germans are only sometimes fond of those, not generally): "Brahms' zweite Sinfonie", "Fritz' Fahrrad". There is an alternative but this is rather old-fashioned or obsolete, "Fritzens Fahrrad". There is a song by Pfitzner (after a poem by C.F. Meyer) called "Hussens Kerker" (about Jan Hus in his prison cell, literally "Hus' prison". But if the word does not end in those, it is simply wrong to put an apostrophe. So it would be "Catos Grammatik-Meckerei" in German, not Cato's. Except that you will now find this wrong apostrophe on many small shops...

[Karl Henning]

Oop's!

[Florestan]

Oop's!

Out-of-print´s? Doesn´t make any sense to me. 

[The Six]

At a farmer's market,

So there was only one farmer?

[Cato]

So there was only one farmer?

Yes: an individual  farmer had opened a store by the highway, operated by his children.

Out-of-print´s? Doesn´t make any sense to me. 

Nor to me! 

[Karl Henning]

Much swashbuckling and derring-do ensues.

[Cato]

Much swashbuckling and derring-do ensues.

Hmmm!  0:)  They does, does they?   

Seen around town: "Mortgage Behind? Call xxx-xxxx!"

[North Star]

Hmmm!  0:)  They does, does they?   

Seen around town: "Mortgage Behind? Call xxx-xxxx!"

'Now that the mortgage is behind you, maybe you would like a new one. Call xxx-xxxx!'

[Cato]

'Now that the mortgage is behind you, maybe you would like a new one. Call xxx-xxxx!'

Is that what it means?! 

[Karl Henning]

Chicago, unlike 34 American states, has laws that enforce background checks at gun shows, according to Governing magazine.

I suppose this does technically work.

To my eye, it seems almost to suggest that Chicago is a state, though.

[Cato]

Chicago, unlike 34 American states, has laws that enforce background checks at gun shows, according to Governing magazine.

I suppose this does technically work.

To my eye, it seems almost to suggest that Chicago is a state, though.

Yes: at least it did not state "...34 other American states..."

I know that there are a good number of non-Cook County Illinois residents who wish Chicago could be booted out of the state!   

[Karl Henning]

Say the Opposite of What You (Probably) Mean Dept.

"It's hard to downplay (sic) the significance of this really monumental event, that a state so wedded to history and its symbols voted pretty overwhelmingly to take this flag down and put it in a museum."

[jochanaan]

Say the Opposite of What You (Probably) Mean Dept.

Multiple problems with the grammar in that quote, including what for many used to be an antipathy toward the word downplay.  Who was it who said, "The next time I hear the word 'downplay' I will upget and outwalk!"?

[Cato]

Multiple problems with the grammar in that quote, including what for many used to be an antipathy toward the word downplay.  Who was it who said, "The next time I hear the word 'downplay' I will upget and outwalk!"?

Heh-heh- I liked "pretty overwhelming."

[North Star]

I've always had a soft spot for the overwhelmingly pretty. . .

[Karl Henning]

From a promotional e-mail message:

Emjoy 30% Off Your Stay

[jochanaan]

From a promotional e-mail message:

So what time would we have to get up in the morning? 

Twice in the last 24 hours I've seen online articles in which the writer speaks of feeling "self-conscience."

[Karl Henning]

So what time would we have to get up in the morning? 

Twice in the last 24 hours I've seen online articles in which the writer speaks of feeling "self-conscience."

Oof.

Good morning, friend!

[Cato]

From a book review of a new book by a speechwriter for a former (disgraced) South Carolina governor:

After writing an excellent and highly praised speech, the speechwriter was asked to write an editorial in the governor's name (adulterer and probable lunatic Mark Sanford)...

...The governor told him that it "just doesn't sound like me" and rewrote the op-ed in its entirety. The opening sentence now read: "Legislative sessions represent a way of bringing change to our state—and given that our last one ended a few weeks ago, I write to give you my take on what happened and what it means going forward." A co-worker explained to Mr. Swaim that his job wasn't to write well but to write like the governor. "And this is how he writes?" Mr. Swain asked. "Um, yeah," his co-worker replied. "Welcome to hell."

Mr. Swaim's wife advised him to write badly, like Mr. Sanford, "with clumsy, meandering sentences and openings that seem calculated to make you stop reading." But he resisted. Then the governor made it clear that he was thinking about bringing in a new writer. Still, Mr. Swaim was concerned that if he wrote the way the governor did, he would be fired. Mr. Sanford "knew bad writing when he saw it, except when he was the author."

To an extent, Mr. Swaim gave in. He grew familiar with the governor's syntax and compiled a list of his favorite phrases—e.g., "goes well beyond," "this larger notion" and "speaks volumes." He made sure to include a few of the phrases in his compositions and gradually found that the governor was leaving his copy alone....

...In fact, he was in Argentina with his mistress. Once the facts were out, the governor could not bring himself to apologize to his staff. "I just wanted to say the obvious," he told aides, "which is the obvious."

Mr. Swaim recounts how Mr. Sanford searched in vain for some "larger notion" that "would show the world that his infantile obsession with a foreign divorcée was somehow nobler or more pardonable than the sordid entanglement of an average politician." The result was a series of puzzling statements and wandering disquisitions....

See:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/learning-to-lie-like-a-politician-1437000199

[Karl Henning]

Viz. this headline:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/07/filmmakers-fighting-happy-birthday-copyright-find-their-smoking-gun/

I might have wished that they had said simply "conclusive evidence" rather than "smoking gun."