Apostrophe Catastrophe

Attention all English-grammar fanatics: Birmingham, England has gotten rid of the apostrophes on its street signs and other public places. The punctuation mark used to make things possessive and found in contractions will not be found around the town.

Birmingham, England’s second-largest city, decided to drop the apostrophe, saying it is confusing and old-fashioned, but some “grammarians” are downright possessive about the punctuation mark.

City officials have been taking a hammer to grammar rules for years. They have been quietly dropping them off street signs since the 1950s. Many residents have been protesting to have the mark restored to places like “St. Pauls Square” and “Accocks Green.”

The decision to drop the apostrophe completely happened last month after an endless debate about whether “Kings Heath”, a Birmingham suburb, should have the apostrophe in its name. Many city officials said they have better things to do than to keep debating about a punctuation mark, but city residents, especially teachers, are still protesting. One man named John Richards said,” ”All over Birmingham, and in other cities, teachers are trying to teach children correct grammar and punctuation. Now children will go around Birmingham and see utter chaos.” Other people like Marie Clair said that apostrophes “enrich the English language.”

I don’t know about you, but the United States does not have apostrophes on all the street signs and maps that should have them, and the U.S. is not in utter chaos. Maybe we could be a good example for these people and show them that a missing apostrophe is not a big deal.