Well we solve that one by having pubs instead. We do say "could of" but since it sounds the same as "could've" I don't see any good reason for spelling it the way Cleary does. Sometimes someone might emphasise the "of" in speech but you don't usually hear that.
As for Apostrophe's (hmm!) they give sign writer's (hmm)a terrible time here as well. We had a sign made for our place and the sign writer really wanted to have it read "The Hildebrand's". Just like that. He thought we were illiterate. We won in the end but he was not happy. The whole thing drives us crazy. And I think they're winning.