Craig Brown

The temple of whom (singularly possessive)?

Craig Brown has to mind his Ps and Qs when he goes carol-singing with The Pedants’ Association

issue 13 December 2003

Craig Brown has to mind his Ps and Qs when he goes carol-singing with The Pedants’ Association

It’s always pleasant to go carol-singing, or carols-singing, with The Pedants’ Association, formerly The Pedants Association, originally The Pedant’s Association. I first joined ten years ago with the long-term aim of attracting the requisite number of votes in order to change its title to The Association of Pedants, thus rendering the apostrophe redundant, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. In fact, far from it: Rome was built over a period of a good many centuries. Indeed, the last time I paid it a visit, I noticed a great deal of building work still in progress.

Each and/or every year, an evening of carols kicks off the Association’s Christmas celebrations, though not literally so, as there is the world of difference between a football and a carol. One of them is round, and the other cannot be defined by shape, though our seasonal song-sheets tend towards the rectangular.

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