The Multiple Personalities of the Apostrophe

The apostrophe can change the entire meaning of your sign or plaque, and as such, requires some thought. As an aid, here is some good and basic information to consider when ordering from Atlas Signs and Plaques. We like to call this “Sign Language”. However, treat the following as a guide, but not the definitive last word in punctuation. When in doubt, do your own research so you can tell us how you want your sign to read. You have the final responsibility, and we will make it the way you send it to us.

There are two main uses for this often confusing little mark.

One is to show ownership or possession. And the second is as a replacement for missing letters.

Single possession is easy. Bill’s Garage, or Bill Smith’s Garage. Some other examples would be Jack’s Man Cave, or Missy’s Sewing Room. Pretty simple, move on.

Showing plural possession is often just as straight forward. If there are a bunch of Smiths that own a garage, then the rules change to show that there are more than one Smith. In this case the apostrophe is placed after the final “s” in Smiths preserving the fact that there are more than one Smith and they own the garage jointly. In this case the sign should read The Smiths’ Garage. To recap: Smith’s Garage means that there is just one Smith that owns the garage. Smiths’ Garage shows possession by multiple Smiths.

Continuing with the concept of multiple ownership, when two or more persons have ownership, then the apostrophe is used only after the last name listed. Such as Ellen and Bill’s Cottage, or Ellen, Bill, and Ben’s Cabin.

Many times it is important not to use an apostrophe because there is no desire to indicate that something is owned. On a Welcome Plaque where the family is greeting guests, no apostrophe is used because there is no possession. It should read The Lancasters Welcome You. No apostrophe is used to plural a name.

The other use is to show that a letter or letters have been left out. A bit of an abbreviation and a way of writing more like we speak informally. It’s means It is, You’re means you are. Haven’t means have not. Could’ve means could have. Don’t means do not.

In sign-making, the slightest error with apostrophes, periods, or case can change the meaning of your words. Look closely yourself, or have someone else read it before you hit the order button.

Atlas and Shrugged

Would you like your toes cut off?

I don’t think I need to ramble on why it isn’t right. Google the phrase “declawing cats”  and see just what a barbaric practice it is,  and why it should be banned in the USA.

Our cats, Atlas and Shrugs, (pictured above) have all of their claws. They never cause any damage in the house, but do spend time at the scratching post which is a $20.00 item available from pet stores everywhere. They are happy, can scratch their ears, groom, and defend themselves. We can’t imagine mutilating them for our convenience. They are good and gentle  kitties and never extend their claws except to do the natural cat things. They have never drawn blood from us.  We could never cause them the pain of major surgery. Just look at the online photos of how extreme this practice is and you will probably change your mind.

Shrugged, All Boy

We would love to hear about your thoughts and feelings about this post. Just send us an email and we will review with the intent of publishing if we feel it is appropriate. We are not adverse to disagreement, and contrasting opinions will not disqualify your comments. We don’t publish links, shouting, vulgar language, or insults, but honor spirited discourse.

Atlas the Princess Kitty

Update, November 3, 2010. We received this great note from Tracey:

For twelve years you’ve been asking “Who is John Galt?”

This is John Galt speaking. I’m the man who’s taken away your victims and thus destroyed your world. You’ve heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis and that Man’s sins are destroying the world. But your chief virtue has been sacrifice, and you’ve demanded more sacrifices at every disaster. You’ve sacrificed justice to mercy and happiness to duty. So why should you be afraid of the world around you?
 Your world is only the product of your sacrifices. While you were dragging the men who made your happiness possible to your sacrificial altars, I beat you to it. I reached them first and told them about the game you were playing and where it would take them. I explained the consequences of your ‘brother-love’ morality, which they had been too innocently generous to understand. You won’t find them now, when you need them more than ever.
 We’re on strike against your creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. If you want to know how I made them quit, I told them exactly what I’m telling you tonight. I taught them the morality of Reason — that it was right to pursue one’s own happiness as one’s principal goal in life. I don’t consider the pleasure of others my goal in life, nor do I consider my pleasure the goal of anyone else’s life. 
I am a trader. I earn what I get in trade for what I produce. I ask for nothing more or nothing less than what I earn. That is justice. I don’t force anyone to trade with me; I only trade for mutual benefit. Force is the great evil that has no place in a rational world. One may never force another human to act against his/her judgment. If you deny a man’s right to Reason, you must also deny your right to your own judgment. Yet you have allowed your world to be run by means of force, by men who claim that fear and joy are equal incentives, but that fear and force are more practical.
 You’ve allowed such men to occupy positions of power in your world by preaching that all men are evil from the moment they’re born. When men believe this, they see nothing wrong in acting in any way they please. The name of this absurdity is ‘original sin’. That’s impossible. That which is outside the possibility of choice is also outside the province of morality. To call sin that which is outside man’s choice is a mockery of justice. To say that men are born with a free will but with a tendency toward evil is ridiculous. If the tendency is one of choice, it doesn’t come at birth. If it is not a tendency of choice, then man’s will is not free. 
And then there’s your ‘brother-love’ morality. Why is it moral to serve others, but not yourself? If enjoyment is a value, why is it moral when experienced by others, but not by you? Why is it immoral to produce something of value and keep it for yourself, when it is moral for others who haven’t earned it to accept it? If it’s virtuous to give, isn’t it then selfish to take?
 Your acceptance of the code of selflessness has made you fear the man who has a dollar less than you because it makes you feel that that dollar is rightfully his. You hate the man with a dollar more than you because the dollar he’s keeping is rightfully yours. Your code has made it impossible to know when to give and when to grab.
 You know that you can’t give away everything and starve yourself. You’ve forced yourselves to live with undeserved, irrational guilt. Is it ever proper to help another man? No, if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him. Yes, if it’s your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle. This country wasn’t built by men who sought handouts. In its brilliant youth, this country showed the rest of the world what greatness was possible to Man and what happiness is possible on Earth.
Then it began apologizing for its greatness and began giving away its wealth, feeling guilty for having produced more than its neighbors.
Twelve years ago, I saw what was wrong with the world and where the battle for Life had to be fought. I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality and that my acceptance of that morality was its only power. I was the first of the men who refused to give up the pursuit of his own happiness in order to serve others.
 To those of you who retain some remnant of dignity and the will to live your lives for yourselves, you have the chance to make the same choice. Examine your values and understand that you must choose one side or the other. Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps the evil.
 If you’ve understood what I’ve said, stop supporting your destroyers. Don’t accept their philosophy. Your destroyers hold you by means of your endurance, your generosity, your innocence, and your love. Don’t exhaust yourself to help build the kind of world that you see around you now. In the name of the best within you, don’t sacrifice the world to those who will take away your happiness for it.
The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath:
I swear by my Life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man,
 nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.

Inspired by Ayn Rand

This passage above is an excerpt from “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand

It is, at least, as relevant today as it was when it was published in 1957. It may be far more relevant today because of the way the producers and productive members of society are being vilified to the point that many are seeking exile, leaving us a nation of takers rather than producers. The problem being, like in “Atlas Shrugged”, the producers will stop producing and innovating, leaving the “moochers” and “looters” with no one left from which to steal from.

We would love to hear about your thoughts and feelings about this post. Just send us an email and we will review with the intent of publishing if we feel it is appropriate. We are not adverse to disagreement, and contrasting opinions will not disqualify your comments. We don’t publish links, shouting, vulgar language, or insults, but honor spirited discourse.

Be Fearless

We All Know the Economy is Tough

Let’s be fearless!

It is not necessary to beat the subject to death. The economy is in a bad way, either in recession, or just officially emerged, depending on which expert you believe. This isn’t America’s first, downturn and certainly not the last. But there are some bright spots. And..if you don’t see any, then make some of your own.  So, make your own news, and make it positive. In our opinion, the best way to help your friends, family, and neighbors economically is to start acting like the economy is, in fact, rebounding. Make something, start a business, buy things. Stop waiting for an election, tax change, stimulus, or other program that is not working.  There are always uncertainties and fear will only sink us farther . We are the Economic Recovery Act!

As former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said in his Oct 6th, 2010 article titled Fear Undermines America’s Recovery:

“Although rising moderately this year, US fixed capital investment has fallen far short of the level that history suggests should have occurred given the recent dramatic surge in corporate profitability. Combined with a collapse of long-term illiquid investments by households, they have frustrated economic recovery. These shortfalls, the result of widespread private-sector anxiety over America’s future, have defused much, if not most, of the impact of the administration’s fiscal stimulus. Moreover, the activism embodied in such programs has itself stoked the degree of anxiety.”

As Mr Greenspan states, there is a degree of anxiety that has defused much of the fiscal stimulus. And we add, that when the fear subsides, the world economy will begin anew, and the cycle will start over again. Let’s start now and beat the rush!

We would love to hear about your thoughts and feelings about this post. Just send us an email and we will review with the intent of publishing if we feel it is appropriate. We are not adverse to disagreement at all so that would not disqualify your comments. We don’t publish links, shouting, vulgar language, or insults, but honor spirited discourse.

We are going back to our blog roots

And this will be a little bit of a change in that we are no longer going to be pure “pablum” in what we post.

In addition to some slightly controversial postings of a political nature, and let’s face it, in today’s polarized climate, everything is offensive to someone. But, we do see outrages, and outrageously funny situations and events from time to time, and just can’t sit silent, so will share them. Be it known that posting to cause outrage or solicit comments is not our intention, and we will share no matter what the political point of view is.

We will also post some of our experiences with businesses, both positive and negative. Don’t start counting the ratio yet, but we are getting a little miffed at what passes for customer service these days and might just like to vent a little. On the positive side, we are thrilled to be treated like “valuable customers”, and when we are, we will plug the business that takes pride in the way they treat their clients.

Finally, we may share a bit of fashion sense or nonsense, humor, good citizenship, and just plain cool things. When we are inspired by items that are so unique, clever, interesting, artistic, or so well-crafted that we wish to share them, we will, but we do so without endorsing or recommending them.

Make no mistake though, we will still shamelessly promote our business and products, but we want to have a little more fun doing it.

And just one more tiny-weeny thing, please don’t call, yell, or email if you disagree with us. You are welcome to write a comment if you disagree. We will probably keep it on, but if you are nasty probably not… Instead, try to remember gentler times when we could have a discussion about politics, religion, or social issues without chanting and waiving signs on opposite sides of the street. Americans have always had diverse and differing opinions, and it made us stronger rather than dividing us.

Janey