The Apostrophe Vandal of Royal Tunbridge Wells

In a move only Grammar Girl could love (well, not ONLY Grammar Girl), Stefan Gatward has taken to vandalizing the signs on his own street with - gasp! - apostrophes.

After 14 months living on St. Johns Close the 62 year old accountant and Gordon Highlanders veteran took matters into his own hands and corrected the name to St. John's Close. For their part, the borough council blamed the developers for the grammatical mistake and promised the error would be corrected should the signs ever be replaced. In the meantime Gatward's apostrophes remain a symbolic dumbing-up rebellion in a dumbing-down world. Earlier this year the Birmingham Council dumped apostrophes from street signs for "simplicity".

But Gatward's fight does not end there. He still rails at the "five items or less" checkouts (it shoould be "five items or fewer"), and the casual omission of "Royal" from Royal Tunbridge Wells may well cause him to vandalize again.