The Dude's Friend's Apostrophe

Spotted this wonderfully humorous take on an apostrophe error at a blog called Catalog Living. It is a creative and amusing blog that gives a fictional behind-the-scenes look at "the exciting lives of the people who live in your catalogs".

Feeling Possesive...

Gary had no idea who The Mather was, but he got the message loud and clear not to mess with his iced tea.

I wonder if The Mather is friends with The Dude?

Doctor's Appointment or Doctor Appointment

I often wonder why it is so common to hear a person say, "I have a doctor's appointment."


The noun phrase "doctor's appointment" is possessive. It is an appointment that the doctor possesses, not the patient.

So technically when a patient is speaking about his or her appointment with a doctor, the patient should say I have a doctor appointment. "Doctor" modifies "appointment" and tells what kind of appointment the patient has.

A "doctor's appointment" could be an appointment the doctor has with his girlfriend, his psychiatrist, or his dentist (or any other person for that matter).

Think of it this way, do you ever hear a person say I have a dentist's appointment?

Unfortunately, "doctor's appointment" still seems to be the preferred phrasing as exhibited by the screen shots and by Grammar Girl's take on the situation.

The following is a comment from Grammar Girl in response to a question about this subject on on4/30/2007 4:49:09 AM.

I've looked this up in a bunch of different places. I found conflicting answering, none of which seemed definitively convincing. I prefer "doctor appointment" because it makes more sense to me (it's my appointment with the doctor, so doctor is modifying appointment), but "doctor's appointment" seems to be more common.Sorry I can't be more helpful!

Here is my personal favorite of the screen shots (note the name of the web site).

How will people ever get it straight when a site named Health in Plain English can't even get it?

Apostrophe Errors Part 2 - Ladie's Room

The sign for the women's restroom at one of our local taverns is a plaque that reads "women", unfortunately, a holiday wreath is covering the regular sign so the sign pictured below has been placed on the door temporarily. I have stopped having a beer with my burger during the holidays.

For more on restroom apostrophe errors click here.

Apostrophe Errors - Boys and Girls Restrooms

The signs on the restrooms at my sons' middle school read BOY'S and GIRL'S. Pictured above is the boys room (as one of my sons was with me, I was unable to get a picture of the girls room because he was about to "die of embarrassment."). At any rate, I wonder who the one lucky boy and one lucky girl are that each get to have their own personal restroom.

Thankfully, the Language Arts teachers at the school are always among the first to point out this apostrophe error.