and their 4 children - the quarter's

Back to the first post, I would have thought it is better to say it is you who are being pedantic, not 'it'?

It's worse than that. The pub is actually called "THE TWO HALF'S". At least as bad is a cafe in Kirkdale called "CAF'E JASMINE".

Some years ago, when googling "Sydenham", I became increasingly irritated by a site called "Sydenham Tattoo's". Eventually I emailed the owner to explain politely that "tattoos" doesn't need an apostrophe. We had a vigorous exchange, but eventually agreed to differ. He explained patiently to me that it did need an apostrophe because it belonged to Sydenham!

However, several months later I noticed that the apostrophe had been removed from their website, and from the shop itself. So, a small victory for the pedants.

Are any fellow pedants annoyed by the London Underground announcements at Honor Oak Park train station? "I am pleased to inform you that London Underground are reporting..." - since when is London Underground plural!?

My current 'fun-on-the-pedant-stool' game is to spot the bad use of reflexive pronouns. I've lost count of the times some cold caller has said, "I'm just phoning yourself to ask..." or on the news somone says, "Myself and the wife..."

Oh, and if the pub belonged to Mr and Mrs Halve, the pub would be , so they'd still be wrong

In my opinion the route problem is that half is spelled incorrectly.
It should be harlf because it needs a soft 'a' as in cart.

So I think the apostrophe belongs here: ha'lf
to indicate a missing letter.

The Two Ha'lf's - there, much better.

.. of course the ROOT problem is that if you are going to be a pedant you cannot simply rely on spell check otherwise you undermine your own argument

Perryman - Interesting you should use 'spelled' Both spelt and spelled are correct (I had to look it up) but I prefer the irregular 'spelt'

spelled...spelt. Tom-ey-to, tom-ah-to

Always wondered about that song.

*Nobody*, as far as I'm aware, says po-tahh-to.

Isn't there a shop at Kirkdale called 'Payless'.
I've never been in there - is everything free?

... os staffed by volunteers I suppose

Couldn't careless

ouch. I am transparent.
I do indeed mindlessly let spellcheck correct words, and yes I changed spelt to spelled so as not confuse anyone that I was writing about wheat.

Interestingly my spellcheck (which should be one word imo) suggests "half's" rather than "halves" if you enter "halfs". And I suspect that is the real rou cause of the problem.

I would like to report Roz to the apostrophe police for her last post in the children in pubs thread.