Some observation  '  s - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

You’ve read in this space - at length at times - about the pitfalls, challenges and conundrums of being the editor of a community newspaper. From nasty e-mails or phone calls to the feeling that you can just never get it right, it can be a tough job some days, but, on others, it is downright glorious.

 

One of the aspects of making your life about spelling, grammar, linear storytelling, clarity and factual accuracy is that you can no longer turn a blind eye to transgressions of the above passions of your life. It’s kind of like the horror of war - not to be overly dramatic - but once they are seen, they then cannot be unseen.

 

One night, after a few drinks (an absolute necessity for the task ahead), a few friends and I sat down to watch The Room, the film so notoriously bad that it now has a cult-like, midnight movie reputation as a fun experience shared with like-minded individuals. The film, its creation and lasting impact have since been memorialized in The Disaster Artist, starring the Franco brothers, Alison Brie, Seth Rogan, Nathan Fielder and more. We found our spots on the couch as the blu-ray ran through its obligatory anti-piracy and ratings screens.

 

Then, something caught my eye. (My dear friend Brett Walther of Reader’s Digest and Canadian Living fame was there too, so he may have seen it.) That bright blue screen came on and we soon learned that the film was rated “R” for, among other things, sexualality.

 

Now, for a movie whose reputation is one of being poorly constructed, directionless and largely nonsensical, a typo on the rating screen was just the biggest cherry on top of it all.

 

Long story short, it’s a setting I can’t turn off. A little part of me dies inside every time I see a hastily-thrown-together social media post from a budding business owner asking anyone if they need there lawn rolled or when people look at a perfectly fine plural word and aggressively insert an apostrophe into it. A semi-local restaurant has gone apostrophe crazy on its menu and because of the font the owners chose it feels like the word is at least a trans-Atlantic flight away from its partner “S”.

 

“Would you like some appetizer ’ s, or go straight to the entrée ’ s?” Hard to decide. “Maybe just some drink ’ s for now, thanks.”
I feel just as bad for families with welcome mats or wooden signs proudly announcing the family name to those visiting or preparing to ask them if they’ve heard the Good News, but complete with the offending apostrophe.

 

For those in the dark, here’s a crash course. The Loughlins: a family of people named Loughlin. The Loughlin’s: an implication that someone or something named “The Loughlin” lives there and whatever the sign is on belongs to him or her (apostrophe followed by “S” indicated possession - like, these are Shawn Loughlin’s shoes). The Loughlins’: a veil-thin case could be made for this being correct as the house, presumably, belongs to the Loughlins, though I am of the opinion that a final word is missing there, i.e. The Loughlins’ home.

 

If you’ve been reading the paper for a long time, you know that I’m not impervious when it comes to the odd error or typo, but, long story short, the team and I do our best here.

 

My friend Scott works in fire suppression. When we check into a hotel, eat at a restaurant or see a concert together, he says he can’t help himself from finding fire alarms and sprinklers with his eyes as he sits there. I guess this is my version of that. As I make my way through this world of ours, I can’t help a double-take. Was that spelled correctly? What did that mean, exactly? Wait, that’s in which tense? Is that even true? It’s just who I am.