Posted by ERV on September 4, 2010 Well, I think its pretty obvious to ERV readers that I had nothing to do with this 
Leave your bets in the comments for if/how long it takes for the billboard to be vandalized. REMEMBER: Abbie wants to vandalize this board hardcore to get rid of that archaic fleck of spit between the ‘n’ and ‘t’ in ‘dont’.
Abbie wants to vandalize this board hardcore…
Don’t! Just don’t!
archaic fleck of spit between the ‘n’ and ‘t’ in ‘dont’…
and what about that stinking stain of shit between the ‘n’ in ‘in’ and the question mark?
What’s Abbie’s beef with contractions? The only time I get irritated when people confuse between its and it’s… (Yes, PZ, I am looking at you!)
@Aseem, spot on, Brother!! [Bows]
I see somebody got tired of the ambiguity of “you’re not alone”.
Good.
It’s one thing to eschew archaisms; it’s quite another to castigate others for not agreeing with you.
Brian, you seem like a pleasant person to hang with.
Brian: Gesundheit!
I give it two weeks.
It will take at least 10 days and a dozen tries for the average Southern Baptist to stop spraying the paint in their eyes and falling into the bushes.
If you’re too lazy (or dyslexic) to learn the use of the apostrophe then don’t use contractions (or possessives). But don’t complain that the uses are “archaic”.
I thought if you don’t believe in god, you don’t have to join a club.
Ur just itchin’ for me to send ya a copy of “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” by Lynne Truss, ain’tcha, Abbie?
-Rusty
The “Coaltion of Reason”, as you call it(where’s the contraction in that, btw LOL), is to be congratulated for this campaign.In fact, I reckon any such initiative in the USA is absolutely awesome.I think there are a lot of unbelievers out there in your country who just need an opportunity to find some like-minded folks and get some encouragement to leave superstition behind them.
I give it one day before God comes to a fundy in a dream and tells them to climb onto the billboard with a spray paint can, and then the Gravity God will have a good laugh and push them off to the ground.
George Bernard Shaw had a similar dislike of apostrophes and many (if not all) of his plays were published without them. However, it is possible to write sentences identical except for one apostrophe, both grammatically correct, but with entirely different meanings. If you announce you aren’t using apostrophes such sentences are ambiguous. Shaw was a good enough writer that he could recognise and resolve such ambiguities. We lesser mortals are not. So please, Abbie, until you have reached the stature of GBS as a writer, continue to use apostrophes for the sake of your readers.
A plague upon all antapostrophists! The only thing that’s worse in all creation are the benighted morons who write ‘would of’ when they mean ‘would’ve’ (which, for those here who are, is the contraction of ‘would have‘!)
I can’t believe that Abbie has an issue with apostrophes. Or as she would apparently have me imply: “I cant ‘believe that Abbie has an issue with apostrophes!’” Because I would be canting that phrase without my humble apostrophes.
Furthermore, I’ll not be ill.
If you’re going to pick something to attack about the language I’d recommend you beat up on punctuation not originally from a quote being placed inside a quote because it’s punctuation from the primary sentence, everybody lacking their gender neutral singular possessive, and oxford commas.
I never realized someone poking fun at apostrophes could cause such a visceral response. Fascinating.
“I never realized someone poking fun at apostrophes could cause such a visceral response. Fascinating.”
Unfortunately, many commenters on any of the blogs here are aspies who can’t detect humor.
It’s a pretty general anecdotal statement but a lot of atheists I talk to and interact with have very good grammar. And I’ve seen a healthy number of Christians with terrible grammar. Admittedly the Christians are a self selected sample of those silly enough to post on atheist boards and embarrass themselves. So perhaps we take our grammar seriously, because it’s just another thing that makes us so much better than everybody else. Also, we’re humble too. We’re the whole package bitches! Woot.
Obsessive language twits are one of my internet triggers. For realz.
The link between grammar and belief systems was examined recently for a large sample group. Do a search on ” The REAL ‘Stuff White People Like’ “
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