, was question for Amanda now poor punctuation

[Jennifer Piersol]

The other Jen had problems with bad grammar, too...
<snip>
And then Amanda asked:
> By the way, has anyone else of the apostrophe-s complaint 
> department, other than me, actually accosted someone in one of 
> those wooden sign booths making house plaques, and tried to explain 
> why it shouldn't be "The McMaster's House"? Or worse (I've seen 
> this, I swear)--"The Jone's House." People *pay* for these things, 
> and I have never, ever, ever, in all the craft shows I've been to, 
> seen one of these places doing the apostrophes correctly. Sigh.
> 
> --Amanda

Well, I haven't had the nerve (me being the INFJ that I am) to do 
that, but I remember a specific instance in a jewelry store I visited 
with my little sister.  This was during a period when she was a very 
avid amateur (sp?) gemologist, and she collected loose stones.  Well, 
we went into a small shop in our hometown, and one of the signs on 
their display case caught our eye immediately as violating the 
no-apostrophe rule (and I think they used their for there, too... I 
can't remember very well anymore.  In any case, it was a HUGE error - 
one that made Janet and I just stop in our tracks, open our mouths in 
disbelief, and stare at each other for a couple of minutes).  
Well, my sister and I, after shaking our heads and discussing the 
matter, just started walking out... When the salesperson saw us, she 
said, "Didn't find what you were looking for?" and before I could 
stop myself, I blurted out, "oh, you have what we're looking for, but 
your sign is spelled wrong."  Boy, did I ever feel like a language 
snob (especially after the look she gave me), but maybe once people 
realize that bad spelling, grammar, and punctuation can be a customer 
deterrent, they'll realize they need to pay more attention to what 
they write down on paper.  And if the person Janet ended up buying 
her stones from had trouble spelling... at least he or she didn't 
write it down for all to see. :)

Jen (who just has one class today - computer lab! - and then she gets 
10 whole days off for spring break and staff development!  Hooray!)