P3D Re: 50s

[Peter Davis <pd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:55 AM 6/20/99 -0600, you wrote:
>On Sun, 20 Jun 1999 07:30:50 -0600, Peter Davis <pd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>In message <4.1.19990620092652.00985670@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> thou hast written:
>>At 04:27 AM 6/20/99 -0600, you wrote:
>>>Has apostrophe man struck again? 50s or '50s, but surely not 50's.
>>
>>The Harbrace College Handbook (7th edition) says that either 1950s or
>>1950's is correct.  I don't have Strunk & White or the Chicago Manual of
>>Style, but I'm fairly certain that at least one of them also approves of
>>1950's as correct.
>
>No doubt 1950's is a posessive, i.e. "belonging to the years 1950-1959".  

Wrong.  The book actually says:

"Use the apostrophe and s to form the plural of lowercase letters and of
appreviations followed by periods.  When needed to prevent confusion, use
the apostrophe and s to form the plural of capital letters, of of
abbreviations not followed by periods, and of words referred to as words.

	a's, th's, p.s.'s, Ph.D.'s, P.O.W.'s
	His I's are illegible, and his loss's look like lass's.
		[not Is, losss, or lasss]

Either 's or s may be used to form such plurals as the following:

	the 1970's or the 1970s		his 7's or his 7s
	two B's or two Bs		the &'s or the &s
	her and's or her ands		the VFW's or the VFWs"

This is on page 143 of the 7th edition.

-pd
	
--------
                                Peter Davis
         Funny stuff at http://people.ne.mediaone.net/peter_davis/

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