raybear | More pop culture goodness and a grammar lesson

1. Did anyone alive actually buy Natalie Merchant's last CD (Motherland) and if so, was it any good?

2. The following songs seems to play in every grocery store in the Chicago area when I'm there shopping: Jewel's Standing Still; Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight's "Love Is"; something from Rod Stewart circa 1993; Phil Collins's "Groovy Kind of Love".

3. Was TLC really working on an album, or did they throw that isht together this summer using outtakes and answering machine messages recorded by Left Eye?

4. I hereby ban the phrase "this is the remix". No artist is allowed to title an album with it, nor are they allowed to say it an any point in a song.

5. How long do you think the trend of people buying CD's based on car commercials will last?

Today's Grammar Lesson: When making a word possessive, the rule is to use an "apostrophe s" unless the word is already plural AND ends in "s". If the word just ends in S, but is not plural, you add an apostrophe S, not just an apostrophe. (e.g. Venus's, Mr. Jones's, bus's) Think of it phonetically. You say both S's, so write both S's.

I thought this lesson was covered very early on the American grammar career, but I think people forgot it the year after and I've been fighting this battle since middle school. Of course, I had a rather fascist and highly passionate drill sergeant of an English teacher for most of my schooling. But I won't give up. Tomorrow's lesson: the predicate nominative!