[geeks] Apostrophe usage [was: The Dog's Breakfast]

[Michael Parson]

On Sun, May 06, 2007 at 07:28:14PM -0400, John Francini wrote:

<snip>

> Period. Stop.  End of discussion.  NO EXCEPTIONS.
> 
> 
> Oh, but what about the example sentence on the Purdue web site:
> 
> 	p's and q's = a phrase indicating politeness, possibly from "mind your
> 	pleases and thankyous"?
> 
> 	Nita's mother constantly stressed minding one's p's and q's.
> 
> Bzzt.  Wrong.  Thanks for playing.
> 
> I'd propose this rule:  When showing possessives of single letters, 
> force the letters to UPPERCASE before adding the "s":
> 
> 	"Nita's mother constantly stressed minding one's Ps and Qs."
> 
> This eliminates even the *typographical* need for the apostrophe, and 
> preserves the golden rule.

The biggest problem with your example is that the entire point of
minding these two letters is the similarity between the lower-case
versions of the letters.  It's about minding the details, much like
'crossing your t's and dotting your i's.'

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org