Tag: moses

Apostrophization

So I had to look up my usage of apostrophies.

All time time, I have been doing the following, and had to know if it was right:

Possessive Singular:
I borrowed Tev’s CDs.

Possessive Plural:
I borrowed the dogs’ dishes.

Possessive Singlar ending in s:
I borrowed Moses’ CDs.

The first two examples I was sure about, the last one I questioned, having seen some people use ‘s even after a name ending in s.

According to the Apostrophe Protection Society, the correct usage would be “Moses’s CDs.”
So my usage has been wrong.

The American Heritage Book of English Usage has this to say:
“The possessive case of most proper nouns is formed according to the rules for common nouns: (singular) … Yeats’s poetry”
Which also sounds like I was wrong, but did you catch the “most” in that sentence? They go on to say:
“…however, certain proper nouns ending in s form the possesive just by adding the apostrophe…” and gives this example: “Moses’ children”. So it sounds like, for Moses at least, I have been right (but wrong if I said Chris’ CDs).

Bootlegging Dreams

Dream Last Night:

A company has somehow acquired all of my and Moses’ childhood toys. I go there to sort through and see if there is anything I want. I will only have one change to go though it, so I want to be thorough.

When I get there, he and I start sifting though things. I find an armload of stuff I want to keep, but the rest of the room (a storage area that seems pretty packed) I don’t really want anymore. I carry the stuff over to a table to set down, and while my back is turned, the company has removed most of the other stuff without warning. Even though I got what I wanted, I am still annoyed they just took it without saying anything.

Moses, it turns out, lives at the company. It is a beer brewing company. He shows me his room. “Isn’t this the bathroom?” I ask. It is. It’s a very large bathroom, a space taking like half or a third of the attic, but he is still in the same room as the bathtub, toilet, and sink. I can only imagine what it’s like when someone stinks up the place.

He goes off to do some work (he works there in some way as well as living there) and I walk around a bit.

I find myself going down some stairs, into the basement. It is an earthen floor, and catacomb like. Sections of the floor are wet, and the smell of damp earth is heavy in the air. There are some brewing tanks in one side of the basement. I hear splashing from the other side.

A woman is there, she is just finishing drowning someone in a pool of water. “Good thing you’re here,” she says when she sees me. “I need help moving the body.”

I don’t remember the rest of the dream.