Draught Is My Craft: Troubleshooting Life from the Draught Technicians Perspective

Our's is a living language, obviously. It grows, bends, and flexes. We gain words and lose them. Some are retired. Some are disdained and mocked, falsely labeled and unfairly maligned as improper or incorrect. And then, we have punctuation; which is equally used, misused, over-used or used when unnecessary, out of habit.  One of the greatest offenders is the oft misunderstood apostrophe.   This highbrowed Devil, possessor of all things, well...Im done wasting it where it is no longer needed. Separation or combination of the possessive and the plural is a worthy use, indeed.  However, I feel it is wasted in a few areas, ignored in one specific instance, and forgotten where it might be of great utility.  You, keen observer that you are, may already have noticed the uses of this little beastie, which I no longer wish to indulge.  I find that the most common places, wherein I see and use the apostrophe are in the words "don't", "won't" and "I'm...

     A week or two ago, a Customer reached out to me with a product inquiry, about a CO2 gas regulator.  They wanted to know how much gas it could move.  This is, in my opinion, a pretty simple, fundamental question about any commercial-grade, Mechanical device: what sort of performance can I get out of this item?  Will it do what I need it to do?       Most technical questions are not new.  Someone has already done the math and/or the science.  Someone has the data.  Someone engineered the device to perform to a particular set of parameters[we hope].  I thought " I should just call the manufacturer, and ask.  My counterpart there will surely be able to rattle this off, by heart, or have the data readily at hand."   Buckle up.  I thought wrong, on several levels.     First, this manufacturer was somewhat recently acquired by a large conglomerate.  The informational insert, that came wit...

I came across a headline today on MSNBC/CNBC which read:  A second wave of Russians is fleeing Putin's regime. I would have thought that a Copy Editor might Suggest that: A second wave of Russians are fleeing Putin's regime.   or .... A second wave of Russians have begun  fleeing Putin's regime. Or if the confusion is over the wave or the Russians are the object, we can then make it extra tidy:  A second wave of Russians flees Putin's regime. Or old school: A second wave of Russians now  fleeing Putin's regime!  Besides, the word "Now" pops, and entices a sense of urgency.      I couldn't resist.  While I love all aspects of our Bastard language, including slang and dialect, I have to draw the line somewhere.  For me, written media, Ad Copy, and especially News Copy, should all reflect the most basic adherence to grammar.  Below, is a paste of the comment I made, via the contact portal at CNBC.com.  Let's see if...