[PW] Gentlemen's, etc.

[John P. Dyson]

Quoting "Fuller, Thomas (US - Washington D.C.)" <tfuller at DELOITTE.com>:

> The pluralization of attributive nouns (as opposed to possessives) in
> English is maddeningly inconsistent.  Why do people say "women lawyers"?
> They don't say "boys wonders" or "girls Fridays".
>
> The most embarrassing example of this is 38 United States Code section
> 301,  which on March 15, 1989, replaced the "Veterans' Administration"
> (an honest, straightforward possessive) with the "Department of Veterans
> Affairs", thus creating the only Cabinet department with a grammatical
> error in its title.
>
> I guess that's what makes language interesting.
>
> -- Tom, who fortunately is not plural (though most assuredly singular)


Come to Indiana, Tom. I am convinced that free apostrophes are given 
with the purchase of every roadside mailbox. On those postal billboards 
you will see announcements for Smith's and Wilson's and Perlmutter's. 
Smith's what?, you will ask to a blank stare. And is a residence where 
more than one surnamed Barry lives titled Barrys or Barries? Of course 
here it is inevitably Barry's. No child has been left behind in these 
parts.

John Dyson