“A retired journalist who founded a campaign to preserve
the correct use of the apostrophe is bowing out because ‘ignorance has won.’
“The Apostrophe Protection Society was started by John
Richards in 2001 to tackle misuse of the punctuation mark. The 96-year-old
said: ‘We have done our best but the ignorance and laziness present in modern
times have won.’ . . .
“‘It seems that fewer organisations and individuals care
about the correct use,’ he added. ‘Those who do will get it right but those who
can’t be bothered will just carry on sprinkling it about where they feel it
looks nice.”’
—BBC, “Apostrophe
campaign ends due to ‘ignorance and laziness,’” Nov. 29, 2019.
• Editorial Comment: What about the Save the Ümlaut League?
• UPDATE: News
of Mr. Richards’ despair resulted in “a 600-fold increase in demand,” which
crashed the Apostrophe Protection
Society server. According to the site: “As a result, we
have closed the full site until early January 2020. We apologise for
disappointing you but do come back in the New Year! The APS Website is NOT closing Down!”
[emphasis and color original]
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