Resurrection: Usborne's Classic Books On Ghosts To Be Re-Published

[Yithian]

the other books have been given the green light!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1193270596676837380

I'm very pleased about this and will obviously buy both when they're published, but my desire for as close as possible a copy of the original is competing with my disgust at the apostrophe in UFO's.

(To be honest, that's my least favourite of the three titles despite some good illustrations).

 

[DrPaulLee]

Why not contact Anna Howorth - she is very communicative and may be able to help?

 

[Yithian]

Why not contact Anna Howorth - she is very communicative and may be able to help?

I think I remember how to send a Tweet...

She will probably think I'm a dickhead, but I may give it a whirl.

 

[henry]

... my disgust at the apostrophe in UFO's

there is a case for apostrophising plural acronyms

 

[Yithian]

there is a case for apostrophising plural acronyms

There is, but UFO is not an acronym.

I'd still like to hear this case, mind you.

Even those (respected) sources that use them (I do not), only use them when the initialism has full-stops/periods after each initial: U.F.O.'s (or U.F.O.'S in a headline) but UFOs.

Usborne's book has no stops. And, indeed, they corrected their mistake in later (otherwise uglier) editions:

 

[henry]

https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...want-to-hear-again.54907/page-29#post-1735423

 

[DrPaulLee]

I think I remember how to send a Tweet...

She will probably think I'm a dickhead, but I may give it a whirl.

I don't think she accepts messages but you can tag her, and she does read the tweets and responds (she did to me). I think she'll listen and be receptive. She doesn't come across as dismissive or hostile. Try it!

 

[Yithian]

https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...want-to-hear-again.54907/page-29#post-1735423

I have that book at work.

Swan is a descriptivist. He thinks that if enough people make an error, it isn't really an error.

My alternative for He writes his b's as d's. is He writes his 'b's as 'd's., using inverted commas instead of apostrophes.

The only sympathy I have is when you are writing initialisms/acronyms in ALL CAPS for headlines:

MULTIPLE UFOs SEEN OVER LONDON

That looks incongruous.

 

[henry]

in that respect swans right ... when punctuation starts to obscure rather than illuminate its time to retire it

 

[sherbetbizarre]

Petition to republish Guide To The Supernatural World -

https://www.change.org/p/usborne-publishing-bring-back-usborne-s-guide-to-the-supernatural-world

 

[Yithian]

Here we go (to be published on 1/10/20):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/World-UFOs...rld+of+the+unknown+ufos&qid=1592480733&sr=8-1

Note the apostrophe has been removed from UFO's.