The Grouchy Editor

I'd call this the first in a series of posts about grammar and punctuation and usage mistakes that annoy me, but I know better.

We'll be lucky if there's a part 2, let alone a series.

And with that disclaimer, let's rock and roll.

We could also say, although I wouldn't, let's rock 'n' roll.

What we should never say? Let's rock n' roll.

Or rock 'n roll.

We need a lovely matching set of apostrophes here or it makes no sense. The apostrophe indicates that letters are missing -- without two, it's like saying "rock nd roll" or "rock an roll".

I saw this type of apostrophe misuse in a company's name last week. It's even codified in the company's logo, so I couldn't chalk it up to a typo. My entire body twitched.

Today's takehome message: To prevent me from twitching, remember your bookend apostrophes.