How Many S's In Arkansas?
Sometimes we come across a story that we desperately want to air ... and there's just no room for it. Our day is pretty well set today (we're going from Kurdistan to sportscasting legend George Michael) but the story that got us all giggling, we unfortunately haven't got a minute for today. The state of Arkansas has passed a bill declaring that the correct possessive of Arkansas, is not, as the AP Style guide that's chained to my desk says, "Arkansas," but "Arkansas's." (I just had a brain spasm trying to punctuate that.)
The thing that kills me about not doing the story today is that if we know anything about y'all (is that the correct punctuation for y'all????), it's that you love grammar! You adore punctuation! You thrive on correct pronunciation (Padilla, Padi-yy-a, Tomato, Tomaahto, you NEVER want to call the whole thing off)! And if you want to know the truth ... we do too. If someone has a question about how to spell, punctuate, properly construct, hell, even diagram a sentence, it doesn't matter what kind of deadline we're crashing on ... everybody wants to weigh in. Literally, "Hang on, Senator ... I THINK THE PLURAL OF CONUNDRUM IS CONDUNDRA!!!!"
So, please. Do it here. Tell us, what you think about Kansas' and Arkansas's chances in the NCAA tournament ... and more importantly, how you'd like to spell it if they win.
P.S. My favorite part of this story is Representative Steve Harrelson's chagrin at how much time was spent on this, saying, "I know a lot of the attention that has been given to this resolution has reflected poorly on us as a Legislature, and for that I apologize." I'm sure there are some folks who would dearly love the legislative process to reflect their own grammarphilia.
10:07 AM ET | 03- 6-2007 | permalink
