It happens to the best of us.

§ April 28th, 2010 § Filed under Uncategorized § 15 Comments

SNOOPY, NO

NOT THE EXTRANEOUS APOSTROPHE

from The Complete Peanuts 1973-1974

15 Responses to “It happens to the best of us.”

  • Chris McAree says:

    The one that always confused me was “deer.” It’s both singular and plural. So how do you distinguish between the two when reading about “the deer’s hooves?” Nouns which pluralise by adding an “s,” can simply put the apostrophe after the “s,” but this doesn’t apply to “deer.”

    Can you help me Doctor Mike?????

  • Bully says:

    Wow, I didn’t think I’d ever seen the Sin City variant Snoopy.

  • Phantasm says:

    Wait… that’s not extraneous is it? It’s possessive. “It” is in place of the dog’s name.

  • Isaac says:

    Phantasm: possessive pronouns don’t include apostrophes. (Think of his or their.)

    It’s, with an apostrophe, is a contraction.

    But I still say Snoopy spells and punctuates pretty well for a dog.

  • CW says:

    Don’t blame Snoopy … he’s been distracted with thoughts of $175,000,000 dancing in his head. ;)

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100427/ap_on_en_ot/us_snoopy_sale

  • Rob March says:

    In light of the Ol’ Black Joe drawing lesson that Popeye gives in the Plunder Island collection, I think that I’m willing to forgive this one.

  • Blame the editor, not the author!

  • J.W.Rollins says:

    This from one of Fake AP Stylebook’s bureau chiefs.

  • And so I leave you with Great Reluctance!
    Ba-Zinga!!!!

  • Tom K Mason says:

    Isn’t Great Reluctance one of the characters who got cut from Jersey Shore?

  • Bill Reed says:

    Well, he’s a dog. He’s not going to be the best typist.

  • Rich Handley says:

    Phantasm: “It’s” means “it is,” which is a contraction. “Its” means “belonging to it,” which is a possessive pronoun (possessive pronouns don’t get apostrophes).

  • Brian Smith says:

    Well, MY question is, is this the same dog that gets adopted by a couple and named Good Authority? And are any of these people Dorothy “Dee” Fledermaus?

  • "O" the Humanatee! says:

    I was more distracted by the failure to give all the necessary punctuation in “Snoopy, no not the extraneous apostrophe”. (Better: “Snoopy, no! Not the extraneous apostrophe!”)

  • Josh says:

    “O,” a sentence does not take terminal punctuation when it has a comic panel above or below it. This rule does not apply to captions within comic panels. Read your Fowler’s Modern English Usage, willya?