Misplacing an apostrophe isn't a federal offense, but fixing one is -- at least when it involves a historic sign inside a national landmark.
Benjamin Herson, 28, of Virginia Beach and Jeff Deck, 28, of Somerville, Mass., learned that lesson the hard way. Federal officials in Arizona charged the self-described "grammar vigilantes" with defacing a nearly 70-year-old hand-painted sign in a watchtower along the Grand Canyon's South Rim.
The two men, Dartmouth College graduates whose friendship was forged in a creative writing class, pleaded guilty this month to one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to vandalize government property. In their plea, they acknowledged using error-correcting fluid and a marker to conceal a misplaced apostrophe, insert a new one and add a comma.
They added an apostrophe in "women’s" and added a comma in a list, both in the first paragraph of the sign's text (see large photo). The location of the concealed apostrophe is unclear.
Herson and Deck made the correction in March during a road trip across the country to "stamp out as many typos as we can find" on behalf of the Typo Eradication Advancement League, according to court records. The pair drew national media attention and chronicled their efforts on a blog. Investigators submitted those posts and photos as evidence.
As part of their sentence, the men were ordered to post a statement on the league's Web site discouraging vandalism of public signs. They also were ordered to pay $3,035 in fines for the estimated cost of repairs to the sign, described in court records as "a unique historical object of irreplaceable value."
They also received one year of probation, during which both are forbidden from visiting national parks or modifying any public sign.
Herson, reached by phone Friday, said he and Deck didn't know the significance of the sign or the watchtower, which was listed in 1987 as a national historic landmark. He declined to talk about that incident, but said he, Deck and others fixed mistakes on 231 signs.
He also offered a bit of advice for others who feel passionate about proper punctuation:
"Ask politely if people will correct their typos, but don't be a vigilante because there are consequences."
Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com
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Ever Changing Grammar...
From the time I was in First Grade through my first stint in Collage I was taught that you used commas for lists like this:
I bought Apples, Grapes, and Pears.
However; I enrolled for a BS in Computer Business Info Systems and had to take another English Course. In this course we were taught that the following was okay:
I bought Apples, Grapes and Pears.
Now this little change in proper grammar happened over the last 10 years. But the funny thing is if you go by the doctrine that The first is correct then the second means you bought a Fruit called Grapes and Pears.
So grammar changes, just like language.
Ira ,dude!
Just yesterday you libeled me.
Don't be so thin skinned.
You could use a sense of humor too?
Constructive critisism
IRA
Submitted by George K on Sat, 08/23/2008 at 5:13 pm.
It was a joke, stupid.
Luckily we were not face to face. There doesn't seem to be much room for a difference in opinion in your world. I'll admit, I let asner's outlandish and incorrect postings bother me, but easy on the senseless bashing. It certainly will not change my view.
The tone of Twain's writings require such grammar. He is a national treasure.
Mark K.
Oh, yeah, those guys were bad boys to deface that 70-year-old sign--no disagreement here.
I love the Mitford Series of novels by Jan Karon, in which much of her writing is conversational, in North Carolina mountain dialect. That is how the flavor of a culture is conveyed, IMHO, by using quotation marks. People who have grammar backgrounds expect things that are not quoted to be grammatically correct, at least for the era in which they were written. But we as a nation are not terrifically strong on writing right now either. So many college kids can make a wonderful video presentation but not write a good paper. Cheers, MGM
Mary
From writing video scripts for years, one of the things I have learned is that people don't typically speak in grammatically correct sentences. That, and taking into account dialects and regional nuances, using correct grammar all the time can completely remove the correct flavor of what a writer is trying to express. Often, the people that wrote historical notes or accounts didn't have the education people have now. To correct their grammar destroys their writing and the sense of the time. These are not excuses for bad grammar but solid reasons for the fact that there are situations where it is necessary and understandable to skip it.
Mark K.
Have you heard the one about the best writers breaking grammatical rules but breaking them in the *wink, wink* way that shows that they actually knew them first??? Grammarians *love* Mark Twain. Pls, pls put me in a quiet place (not jail--I haven't defaced any signs, hee hee!) and let me read Mark Twain as I go through chemotherapy right now!!! Cheers, and thanks for the reading suggestion, MGM
Good grammar over done
People should be taught good grammar, yes, BUT messing with historical items? WAAAAYYY out of line! Heaven knows what they would do with Mark Twain's 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' Books that use authentic lingo such as that must drive people like this crazy. Now there would be a great sentence for these guys: stick them in jail with nothing but books like 'Huckleberry Finn' that are loaded with bad grammar - and make certain they don't have any writing instruments at all.
Hi, Mary
Please don't let a naysayer bother you. I'll bet most people understood your phraseology perfectly -- nothing "ironic" about it. No one could have made your point more succinctly than you did.
You're so right that punctuation and spelling can affect meaning, sometimes drastically, even libelously. But there'll always be some who take pride in scoffing at "grammar police" because then, when they write badly, they can rationalize it by saying, "Who cares?" The problem? Nobody understood what they were trying to say.
IRA
It was a joke, stupid.
The corrections
Editor's note: More details on the corrections made, as well as a large photo of the defaced sign, have been added in the story above.