Laundromat Jackpot

I'm going away tomorrow, so I have to do laundry. Luckily, there are laundry facilities in the basement of my apartment. My landlords were even kind enough to put up this helpful sign:


English isn't their first language, so I won't rag on them too much for the apostrophe catastrophe.

I didn't have enough quarters, so I decided to stop at a laundromat on my way home to get change. Clearly, someone forgot to press the shift key when making this sign:


Good thing I wasn't planning on staying very long!

Someone tried to fix this horrendous sign, but he/she forgot the apostrophe:


Oh, check it out! If you bring some guys named Matt, you can wash them here!


And, finally, we have unnecessary quotation marks:


I feel like I hit the jackpot in this laundromat! Let's hope my luck continues in Vegas.

Memorial's Day Sale

My friend Carrie's boyfriend, Rich, got an e-mail from www.mertiline.com even though he's never purchased anything from them before. The e-mail said you could get 10 percent off for Memorial's Day.

Here's an image that's posted on their site:


Lord help us.

Dave & Buster's Suck's

My friend Merry, who also noticed the missing apostrophe in the sign for Charlie's Kitchen sent me this screenshot from the Web site of Dave & Buster's:


Check out the ad for gift cards on the left side of the page. Appalling! But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a place Bret Michaels visited on Rock of Love 2 is stupid.

The nearest Dave & Buster's is in Providence. I might have to drive down there and protest.

Show Me the Hyphen!

Missouri's nickname is the Show-Me State. But its new license plates are missing the hyphen! According to this article, some residents are showing their dismay.

A spokesman for Missouri says that the error will not be corrected because the hyphen wasn't there when voters chose this design:

Perhaps the state's reputation will be repaired if Missourian David Cook is crowned American Idol this week.

Time to Stock Up!

This sign has been posted at my local Hess station for the past month or so:


I'm so tempted to walk in there with a 20-ounce soda and hand them a penny and then ask for change.

My favourite park's are car park's.

Why do people think that it is necessary to add an apostrophe before an "s" to make a word plural? Why?!?! Alan from Essex, England, sent me this photo that he took at the Rayleigh Rail Station:


Alan, who works as a taxi driver, told me that he was so disgusted by the sign that he sent a letter of complaint to the company that owns the car park. He even used the phrase "apostrophe catastrophe" in his letter! Way to go, Alan! The world needs more upstanding citizens like you.

No Hiatus for Bad Punctuation in L.A.

My friend Tiffany (a.k.a. Tiffers) sent me this sign that was posted all over the TV studio where she works:


The errant apostrophe in the middle of the word "hours" is the most glaring mistake here, but there's also some random capitalization and lack of periods going on. I asked Tiffers if Hiatus is the name of the TV show that's being shot at her studio. If not, that part doesn't really make sense either.

What does the salad own?

The Cupcake Cafe has gorgeous and delicious cupcakes, so I was disappointed to see that its chalkboard contained an apostrophe catastrophe.


But look how cute those cupcakes with legs are! I forgive you, Cupcake Cafe.

I have posted examples of apostrophe catastrophes and other punctuation errors from New York, Bermuda, and various other locations, so I'm changing the subhead of my blog from Boston's Worst Punctuation to The World's Worst Punctuation. We're going global! I'm a jet-setter thanks to Google Adsense. (Kidding!)

Mothers Day, Mother's Day, or Mothers' Day?

My brother and my dad cooked a delicious Mother's Day dinner last night. The top of the menu for the event read Mothers' Day. It's a holiday for all mothers, right? While the men in my family were grammatically correct, they were not historically accurate. According to this article from the Vancouver Sun, Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother's Day, insisted that the apostrophe in the holiday's name be placed between the "r" and the "s," indicating a singular possessive, "for each family to honour their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world." But, in this day and age, where non-traditional and blended families abound, I think it makes more sense for the holiday to refer to more than one mother. Thoughts? Incidentally, my mother is the best.

How do these people get jobs?

Remember the horrendous fax that my friend Carrie received a few weeks back? This sign that was posted on the fridge in her office is even worse:


Among the many problems with this sign: wan't?!? Now I've seen it all.

Incidentally, Carrie recently started a blog about customer service. Check it out!