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Making the Asterisk Visible

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Spotted a new sign at the Van Wyck Road entrance to the Dutchess Rail Trail:

DCRT at Van Wyck Rd - ATV Patrol sign
DCRT at Van Wyck Rd – ATV Patrol sign

The tiny print on the top sign still reads No Motorized Vehicles, but the bottom sign makes it explicit that that particular prohibition applies only to ordinary citizens.

Which matches up with the Sheriff’s ATVs I spotted a weeks earlier:

DCRT - Sheriff ATV Patrol - Page Park
DCRT – Sheriff ATV Patrol – Page Park

As of late May, the No All Terrain Vehicles signs were still up. Maybe they still are.

According to the New York Times style guide and other reasonably erudite sources, the plural of ATV should be ATVS (or, if you have the luxury of mixed case, ATVs), not ATV’S.

Comments

4 responses to “Making the Asterisk Visible”

  1. tantris Avatar
    tantris

    You could go with the Times’ guide, or use the much more concise version by Bob the Angry Flower.
    http://www.angryflower.com/247.html

    1. Ed Avatar
      Ed

      That pretty much covers my rules:

      • If it’s not a possessive or a contraction, don’t.
      • Fiddle-dee-dee exceptions confuse all parties, so don’t.

      Now, persuading editors with an in-house style guide to agree, that’s another matter. [sigh]

  2. Ken Davidson Avatar
    Ken Davidson

    You won’t find this editor arguing with you. People who routinely use apostrophes to create plurals annoy the crap out of me.

    1. Ed Avatar
      Ed

      Yeah, well, you’re an engineer, so … [grin]