Shocked and stunned at myself

One of the ways to battle against apostrophe misuse is to vote with your feet - if a product is incorrectly punctuated, don't buy it. If a shop cannot use the apostrophe - don't shop there.

I was rushing in Asda yesterday and didn't read the loaf of bread I later discovered to have an apostrophe error on it:

There's no way that the word "gold" can appear after "bakers" without suggesting that the bakers own it. If "gold" were a verb, then "bakers" could do that thing. However, since "gold" is either a noun or an adjective (and let's go with the noun here), then surely the only reason we're mentioning the bakers is because they somehow relate to that noun. In this case, the intention is clear - this bread is the "gold standard" of bakery - the "bakers' gold" (if it's a crew of bakers) or even a "baker's gold" (assuming a one-man one-bread system).

I've yet to sample the "Real Home Baked Taste" - I hope it's better than their "Real Poor Use of Punctuation".

09 September 2002
Ashley Frieze