Apostrophe-impaired?

Is there a shortage of apostrophes at Yahoo Lifestyle? Or is it just a shortage of editors who know how to use them? Here’s a headline and teaser that has me questioning if Yahoo hires only apostrophe- and spelling-impaired editors:

OK. So that was just a careless mistake (or two or three). The actual article must be better, right? Wrong. Those folks at Yahoo are still apostrophe-impaired, unable to put them in two places in one sentence:

Let’s take the charitable view that this is just a typo and not the result of a writer’s unfamiliarity with a common expression like “fill it up”:

I’d overlook this mistake (just like the writer overlooked the word to before walk), if it were the only goof, but alas, it’s not:

Another apostrophe goes missing here, but maybe it’s just the result of a malfunctioning keyboard:

But, wait! There’s more! After I wrote this post, the headline and teaser were corrected. Somewhat:

It looks like the editors noticed the missing apostrophe and the typo. Good job! Maybe next time they’ll learn to use a spell-checker and proofread before publishing. If not, I may just harass them some more.

Is this a Brendan Fraser conspiracy?

When I read this on yahoo.com, I thought the missing word may have been a careless error:

But now I’m not so sure. There may be a conspiracy over at the Internet giant to ruin the actor’s career. Why else would the editors run another story about the star of “The Mummy”?

The actor who may have been blacklisted and who may have been sexually assaulted is Brendan Fraser.

Would not be first time

This would not be the first time a word has gone missing on yahoo.com:

A lost win

I know virtually nothing about American football, but I do know that this tidbit on yahoo.com is wrong:

Philadelphia isn’t looking for its first Super Bowl. It’s looking for its first Super Bowl win. That’s kinda different.

Roy Moore is not the Senate

In spite of what you may read on Yahoo News, Roy Moore is not the Republican Alabama Senate:

Obviously there’s a word missing and maybe some words out of place. Was Roy Moore the Republican Alabama Senate candidate? Or the Alabama Republican Senate candidate? Or the Republican Alabama Senate page? Or something else? I’m sooo confused.

Just trying to help

Sitting here in my room in Miss Lilli Mae’s Boarding House and Bowling Lanes, I’m just trying to help Yahoo! News with a little proofreading:

Those writers and editors are under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines, I guess. So there’s no time for proofreading and missing words just stay missing.

Barron Trump to attend exceptional school

Barron Trump, the youngest son of the current occupant of the Oval Office, is 11 years old. Next fall he’ll be attending a school for students aged up to 12, according to Yahoo! Style:

You might think it odd that he’ll be attending a school for just one year. But, it’s an exceptional school, for students in grades 9 to 12, also according to Yahoo!:

So, it looks like students complete grades up to 12, graduating from high school at the age of 12. Now, that’s an exceptional school. Unless… the writer got it wrong. The school serves students from age 2 to grade 12. Oops. That’s a  little different.

Not a high school graduate?

I’m questioning this Yahoo! Style writer’s education. Do you think he graduated from high school? I’d expect that someone with a high school diploma (or even a GED) would know that you can’t graduate high school, or college, or even kindergarten.

Students graduate from school; schools graduate students.

Follow my dreams?

Yahoo! Style wants to tell you something about following your dreams. “Follow my dreams?” I ask. “I can’t even follow your sentence.”

I just can’t go on

I tried reading an article on Yahoo! Style, but I just can’t force myself to read beyond the first paragraph. It is so stunningly awful in its grammatical mistakes and ignorance of basic English, that I gave up. Here’s what I found with just a cursory examination of the ‘graph; I’m sure I missed a few things that merit attention:

My experience tells me that this writer is not a native English-speaker. Her mistakes are ones that are common with people who did not grow up speaking and writing English. But there’s no excuse for not providing her with a competent editor, if only to save her from embarrassments like these:

• 18 years old should be 18-year-old. He is 18 years old, but he is an 18-year-old model.
• instagram follower should be Instagram followers.
• on first name term seems to be a bastardization of on a first name basis.
• to loose his cherries for the first time is not just a vulgar expression, it’s kind of a stupid metaphor. First, she means lose, not loose. And one can only lose one’s cherry (which is singular) once. So I’m really confused as to what this is purported to mean. Maybe it just means the writer is both careless and ignorant.
• There’s a missing the in at Coachella music festival.
• will also be is redundant when one ends a sentence with too.
• been to famous music festival needs a the.

I’m sure I missed something, and I didn’t even touch on the run-on sentences. Please, Yahoo!, get this gal an editor!