Apostrophe Catastrophe

The title is a little dramatic. I’ll give you that. But I’m constantly finding new ways to drive myself crazy. Sometimes I think I just need to close my eyes and let everything go, but of course I can’t do that. That’s one step off death… or watching reality television… I mentioned the capital R earlier, that makes Helvetica wonderful and makes me hate Arial. That’s a pretty good example of what I’m talking about.

(Helvetica in red. Arial in blue)

Well I’ve found a new pet peeve for myself. Thanks to Ms. Julie Elman, I’ll be on a constant look out of the apostrophe facing the wrong way. The example she provides:

Example: I’m really into rock ‘n’ roll, especially from the ‘60s.

’ is a real apostrophe. ‘ is not. Apostrophes can only face one way. The latter is simply an abused single quote. My favorite little gem from Wikipedia on the issue of the misused apostrophe, which Ms. Elman refers to:

Misused apostrophes are sometimes referred to as idiot’s apostrophes, a literal translation of the German expression Deppenapostroph which criticizes the misapplication of apostrophes.

If you’re the same way, sorry I just caused you a new headache for the rest of your life. But maybe now you’ll never abuse that apostrophe again. And now you’re the smart guy that knows the difference between quotes and apostrophes.

Get it right.