Categories: Need to know

Punctuation “vandal” runs afoul of apostrophe police

“Language is worth standing up for,” says British accountant

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 12:04pm - 2 Comments

After residing in “St Johns Close” in the west Kent town of Turnbridge Wells for 14 months, Stefan Gatward couldn’t live with the punctuation laxity any longer. So the 62-year-old accountant bought a can of paint and corrected the signs to read “St John’s Close,” the Telegraph reports. Response from neighbours has been mixed. Some praised his initiative but one called him a “vandal and graffiti artist.” Gatward remains unrepentant: “I think one should stand up for things and language is worth standing up for. The trouble is that everything is dumbed down now.”

The Telegraph

Tags:
Print Story PrintComment Comment
ShareDelicious

This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

2 Responses to “Punctuation “vandal” runs afoul of apostrophe police”

  1. fuddle duddle says:
    Nov 12, 2009 at 5:13 am
    Report Abuse

    if he visits Canada he is going to run out of paint fixing all the Tim Horton's

  2. Patrick Sawer says:
    Nov 12, 2009 at 9:58 am
    Report Abuse

    I interviewed Stefan Gatward, the Apostrophe Man of Tunbridge Wells for The Sunday Telegraph. He was kind enough to show me round his home town, pointing out all the erroneous street signs.

    My story prompted our readers to submit hundreds of photographs of badly written and ungrammatical street and shop signs, providing an extremely amusing and successful running joke for the paper.

    Patrick Sawer
    The Sunday Telegraph

From Macleans

>