The Warring O'The Apostrophe
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Today is St. Patty's Day, and as pretty much anybody could guess, I celebrate the day — within limits. I have never drunk green beer, nor will I ever drink green beer. I do have several green sweaters, so I can usually pull out a sweater and commence the wearing o' the green. All in all, being Irish is pretty cool, but there is a dark side to being Irish, and that is – bum, bum, bah – the apostrophe.
Officially, there is an apostrophe in my name. It is on my birth certificate, my driver's license, my passport, but my social security card? Nope. The U.S. Government, at least at the time of my birth, didn't like the apostrophe.
There's a ton of online forms that will not recognize an apostrophe, which creates a quandary. The field "Name:" becomes a game of Russian Roulette. Should I chance it and enter the apostrophe and watch it error out and have to start all over again, or do I feel lucky today? (We watched Dirty Harry this weekend.). Sometimes it works, and sometimes you get a "Error in Field Name". It's the height of frustration when a computer tells you that you don't know how to spell your own name.
I dream of the day when computers will understand the concept of punctuation in a name. I always think, if there had been a Bill O'Gates, or Thomas J. O'Watson or a James O'Gosling, would this still be a problem? Probably not.
Also today, on March 17th – Day O' The Irish – I will be approaching the musical confines of Kansas City to listen to my daughter's chamber orchestra compete in the ASTA National Orchestra Festival. I believe the actual competition is Friday, but along with the competition, there are workshops and clinics, where professor adjudicators listen to each group and then work with them directly. It's a going to be a great experience for my daughter and we'll see how they do. Wish them all the luck O'The Irish!
So, how about everyone else. Anybody celebrating St. Patty's Day today? Whatcha doing? And remember, you do not need the Luck O'The Irish in order to win a Nook, you must only comment, comment, comment (and yes, we do take apostrophes here). Anybody else suffered from a bureaucratic nightmare?
