Between late summer hurricane alerts, our CrowsNest team marvels at small mysteries.
Like, how did two athletes (Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers) from hockey-mad Canada win gold medals in the Olympic hammer throw? Isn’t the sport properly dominated by suspiciously muscled giants from former Soviet bloc nations?
And why are baseball’s Blue Jays emulating the hapless example of hockey’s Maple Leafs? Is it something in Toronto’s water supply – or in its soul?
When it comes to summertime stories of little matter, however, we take our greatest pleasure from the Kamala Harris debate.
No, not the chatter about whether she’s got the right presidential stuff, but the fiercer discussion about how to spell the possessive form of her last name.
To wit, is Tim Walz Harris’ running mate? Or Harris’s running mate, with an added s after the apostrophe?
Legions of grammarians are weighing in on both sides of the issue.
Foremost in Harris’s camp is Benjamin Dryer, author of ‘Dryer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style.’ Dryer insists you always add an ’s to the possessive form of names that end in s.
Keepers of proper American English at the Associated Press disagree. The AP style book says it’s Harris’ vice-presidential pick, and Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale. None of this s’s nonsense. This “long-standing policy…has served us well,” sniffed an AP honcho.
As for the CrowNest crew, we let our ears and our tongues find the proper possessive form of names ending in s.
Wouldn’t we all say, “Harris’s campaign”? Say “Harris’ campaign” instead and the possessive form silently flies out the window and no one knows what the heck you’re going on about.
Mind you, sometimes the possessive works better with an s’ ending. Everyone knows what you mean when you say, “Louis’ lobster boat”. But “Louis’s lobster boat” doesn’t exactly lift off the page. Speak it aloud and half the world hears “Louise’s lobster boat”.
In short, you should write it the way you say it, as sensible philologists argue.
Guess that’s enough about the dear old language for now.
Next summer, if you can wait for it, we may publish another unlearned article on English usage – this one entitled ‘The Oxford comma: Use it or Lose it?’