Apostrophe Protection Society throws in the towel

John Richards, 96, is closing down his society to protect the correct use of the apostrophe. The organization began sending notes of correction in 2001 to people who publicly misused the punctuation mark.

Why is he giving up? Richards told The Guardian that “ignorance and laziness” had won. “Fewer organizations and individuals are now caring about the correct use of the apostrophe in the English language,” he wrote on his website, which has temporarily shut down due to an increase in traffic since the announcement.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read about the apostrophe debates that were going strong back in 2014.