A few years ago, Birmingham City Council in the UK decided to take a firm stand on what it clearly regarded as one of its most pressing issues. It was time to take action against… the apostrophe. Suddenly, apostrophes were to be banned from its signs. It was clearly too much like hard work to decide whether or not to insert one and, if so, where to place it. So “St Paul’s Square” became “St Pauls Square”. More recently, the UK’s leading bookseller, Waterstone’s, announced it would be dropping the apostrophe from its logo. This … Continue reading