"The food factor should always be massive: four Bloody Marys, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crepes, a half-pound of either sausage, bacon, or corned beef hash with diced chillies, a Spanish omelette or eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, a chopped lemon for random seasoning, and something like a slice of Key lime pie, two margaritas and six lines of the best cocaine for dessert. Right, and there should also be two or three newpapers, all mail and messages, a telephone, a notebook for planning the next twenty-four hours and at least one source of good music. All of which should be dealt with outside, in the warmth of a hot sun, and preferably stone naked."

Hunter S. Thompson on breakfast

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