Every time I talk about Pi it seems like some new method of misquoting it pops up. I mention the aphelion and within days a video pops up and immediately gets it wrong. I create 'pythonyms' and specifically mention that ancient astronomers couldn't possibly measure the distance to the sun accurately. Two days later Aristarchus is credited with measuring that distance when he was waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy off. (Maybe my comic tone in the pythonyms post lead them astray.)
Now Dan immediately misuses the 's in a possessive incorrectly after I mention it. Isaiah Thomas has a sister. She was in a car crash. Her name was Chyna. Dan is looking for clues because China must be important, and reminds us of Isaiah Thomas' sister, Chyna.
AAAARRRGGGHHHH!
Here's the way it works. Thomas is not a plural form of a noun, Thoma. There's one Isaiah Thomas. He, presumably had parents. They are plural. If they have an anniversary it's his parents' anniversary, not parents's anniversary. Autocorrect screams in agony on that. But Isaiah, being one person other than his evil doppleganger moonlighting working for the NIPTUCKS has a sister, Isaiah Thomas's sister.
You would be better off wording things without possesives. Stick to "the anniversary of my parents" and "the sister of Isaiah Thomas" to save us all a lot of grief. Unless, as I suggest, the intent IS to annoy me. Congrats, it works. And spelling things out instead of using contractions and possessives would have saved you from this boner.
I would like to think that nearly infinitely powered super beings that created our language to hide numbers in it would like us to use the language correctly. You know, so the astute researchers who report on it don't get things wrong so the uninitiated don't get confused and bollox things up spreading the word. I'd also think that if they guided our civilization to create wonderful toys to play with like computers, smartphones and those wonderful machines that give us money at the mall that we wouldn't call them by the wrong name. "I created IBM, what are you doing calling it FRED! I had plans for that! Now LeBron has to miss *two* dunks next week to right the cosmic balance!"
Dan did the numerology on ATM machine yesterday. Despite putting up the screenshot where the news article correctly drops the redundant "machine".
I can be forgiving to a degree on using it's instead of its. Common mistake. "The site at Little Roundtop is in disrepair despite it's historical significance." Sounds okay until you remove the contraction and spell it out, "The site at Little Roundtop is in disrepair despite it is historical significance." Now you sound like an idiot. But the letters and numerology are the same.
Now spell out the abbreviation in ATM machine. You get "Automated Teller Machine machine.". Now you sound like an idiot AND the numeology has changed because of the repetitive redundancy duplicating multiple times saying the same thing more than once unnecessarily replicating ..... I ran out of different ways to phrase redundancy.
For now, I'm still in a bit of a generous mood, so in addition to ATM machine I'll list some other common redundancies in the same style. And give you the concept so you can look up more on your own.
While on the subject of ATMs it's PIN, not PIN number.
GOP party
APR rate
HIV virus
AC current
You'd be better off PhraseShopping like you recently did with Society of Jesus in recent posts, doing the numerology on both "Society of Jesus" and "The Society of Jesus". Less obvious. The Niptucks would be pleased.
Update: Watching CSI, Recipe for Murder. HIV and ATM used in the dialogue. Correctly. Real science - real grammar. The Niptucks are confused.
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