Okay, I’ve reached an editor’s sanity limit. If you think my rants about ampersands and exclamation marks are crazy, get ready for apostrophe abuse.

Veterans Day

It rolls around every year and no one can seem to figure out how to spell it–Veterans Day. It was mocking me on the Mattress Warehouse insert from my Sunday newspaper. Veterans’ Day. Well, at least they acknowledged such an important day even if they added that apostrophe. I’ve mostly seen it as Veteran’s Day everywhere else, like the HR calendar at my job (even though I fix it every year). According to the AP Stylebook it’s Veterans Day. No apostrophe. From Wikipedia:

The holiday is commonly printed as Veteran’s Day or Veterans’ Day in calendars and advertisements. While these spellings are grammatically acceptable, the United States government has declared that the attributive (no apostrophe) rather than the possessive case is the official spelling.^[1]

DMV offender

I wanna fine the Department of Motor Vehicles for apostrophe abuse, too. In this case it’s the lack of one. Every time I look at my license to admire my fantastic photo, I’m distracted by seeing the words Driver License.

Yeah, I get that it’s a license for one driver, but isn’t it that specific driver’s license?

*takes deep breath*

Wait, I see a pattern here. It’s the government’s fault.