The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #86772   Message #1617396
Posted By: Nigel Parsons
30-Nov-05 - 02:11 PM
Thread Name: BS: Grammar Police: eats shoots and leaves
Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police: eats shoots and leaves
Wordfella: Those unable to understand apostrophe rules usually employ the mark for all plurals. A good friend's housewarming gift was a beautiful sign (from a company online)reading "The Strong's." I'm trying to figure out how to retouch it.
I suppose it depends what message they wish to put across.
It could be either:
"The Strongs live here" in which case I assume you wish to delete the apostrophe.
Or, "This is the Strong's house", which, as a label, I assume you would wish to add an apostrophe after "The Strong's" to show the ellision of the word 'House'

As to the book title (mentioned earlier). I believe it was a PC version, as the joke I remember was:
On being asked an interview question "If you were not human, what animal would you like to be?" he replied "A panda."
When asked to explain, he stated that he'd heard that "A panda eats roots shoots and leaves".
It is the punctuating of that last sentence which gives rise to the title, and shows the panda as either a vegetarian, or a "wham, bam, thank you ma'am" type of guy.


CHEERS

Nigel