My son is listening to the exchange between me and the controller and wants to chime in on the conversation. I said to my son, "Just hang on; I will give you a chance". I never should have said that because now he is all excited to talk on the radio. As I start to turn inbound on the turn, the approach control said "Contact tower when established on the localizer". So I told my young Padawan Learner: "OK, when this needle gets here on the dial, push the radio button and tell the tower that 93 Romeo is inbound on the localizer".

Now imagine this, I am giving basic instrument instruction to a nine year old; I cannot get adults to say this during training. But before I can give him something simpler to say he keys the mike and says

"REBEL BASE, THIS IS RED 5.  WE ARE STARTING OUR ATTACK RUN ON THE DEATH
STAR".

Good God!

Now this is post 9/11 and before I can key my mike and say anything, the tower jumps on and says "RED 5, YOU'RE CLEARED FOR THE APPROACH TO THE DEATH STAR.  REPORTS HITS AWAY"

...

So you see.  This is why I own my own aircraft. You cannot beat this kind of quality time with your kids. And there is no way you can put a price on that.

Jeff Bryant, Southwest Regional Director, Beech Aero Club.
[1975 X-Wing Fighter Model B-19, N6993R]

Apostrophes

I reckon the game is over, the campaign lost. Aberrant apostrophes are now so ubiquitous that one ceases to wonder at the expense that has gone into sign-written lorries and vans, flashing neon signs, corporate annual reports and, instead, one just waits for the first dictionary to declare this common usage and make it official. Does anyone even care that Ofsted, charged with maintaining rigorous standards in schools, sends out letters to thousands of schools where they say zero's when they mean zeroes (or zeros - OED has both) and O's when they mean Os?

Given that you could fill books with examples from people who should know better, perhaps we ought to concentrate on size. What is the BIGGEST aberrant apostrophe you have ever seen? So far, mine is a massive advertising hoarding stuck to the front facia of PC World in Swindon which read "HUGE RANGE OF PC'S IN STOCK". Send in your pics; size matters!

The reason the game is up can be illustrated by the reaction of an accountant who told me that there was nothing wrong with MP3's (as in lots of them), then accepted, reluctantly, that there was but concluded that because "MP3s" didn't look right, he would continue to insert the apostrophe

On another subject: this, courtesy of younger daughter