King's Cliffe, King's Cliff, Kings Cliff, Kingscliffe

I've had another serendipitous Wikipedia discovery: the entry on Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire.

As the entry says, this village is "variously King's Cliffe, King's Cliff, Kings Cliff, Kingscliffe".

I don't have my gazetteer to hand, but both Google Maps and the AA Route Planner opt for Kings Cliffe. I wonder whether the other spellings remain in much use.

The village used to have a railway station; Wikipedia refers to this as both Kingscliffe and King's Cliffe station.

'Birmingham bans apostrophes from road signs'

Just a quick one – spotted a rather interesting article in Metro:

Birmingham bans apostrophes from road signs

The Engine Room, eLearning and the apostrophe

Just a quick one today. One of the photos from The Engine Room's Flickr account has just been used (with permission) in an "eLearning module on the apostrophe".

The module is actually quite fun, if you like answering multiple-choice questions on apostrophe use. OK, maybe not for everyone but I think it's snazzy.

To see it, go to www.writing-kit.com and click on 'Apostrophe Review'. The Engine Room's photo is on slide number 15 (and originally featured on this post).

I feel strangely proud, seeing as I took the snap with my cameraphone and I'm certainly no photographer.

Photo special: whats' happening

As I'm on holiday (again), I've written some posts in advance (again). As before, each post is based around a photo or photos I've taken recently. And once more, please forgive me for any cock-ups on my part, as I won't be around to fix them sneakily before anyone notices.

Here's today's photo:



I'm not really one for misplaced apostrophes (if you are, I recommend visiting Apostrophism or Apostrophe Catastrophes), but what we have here is a rather special case.

I took this shot in my local Sainsbury's supermarket. It appears the sign was printed with a misplaced apostrophe, which was subsequently partially erased - either by the supermarket or by a passing grammar fan, I know not. However what makes me laugh is that whoever tried (badly) to erase the errant apostrophe did not also insert an apostrophe in the correct position.

The Apprentice and the apostrophe

I know that I blogged about The Apprentice only very recently, but today I'm going to do so again – after all, it's not often that you see a debate over the positioning of an apostrophe on prime-time television.

For those who had the misfortune not to see yesterday's episode, the teams' task was to design greetings cards based around a new 'special occasion' of their choice. One of the teams decided to designate February 13 as a national day for single people, but had trouble deciding on the correct punctuation to use (see poll on the right).

At one point during the three or four hours of apostrophe-related debate (which, fortunately, was edited down for the benefit of viewers), team leader Michael Sophocles even attempted to phone the editor of national paper the Telegraph to ask his opinion. The nice lady at the British Library was a little more helpful but not too authoritative.

I've embedded some of the footage here (thanks, YouTube), so you can see what Sophocles finally decides. Enjoy!



BBC Apprentice website entry for week 6

UPDATE: Our friends at GrammarBlog have also been discussing this...

Some other language blogs

Today we have some other language-related blogs you might want to look at.

Firstly, Apostrophe Abuse, which is a photo blog recording inappropriate apostrophes. Or, should I say, apostrophe's.

Secondly, Literally, a Web Log, a blog dedicated to tracking down misuse of the word 'literally'. It's something that literally makes me pull my hair out in frustration. Or do I mean metaphorically?

Thirdly, The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. Again, lots of photos – this time of "unnecessary" quotation marks in signs and so on.