I am proud to announce I got it right first time. Happy to be grammatically challenged since 1969.

it fucks me up to no end the fuckin English majors who insist on bitching about the grammer on blogs. It's a fuckin blog dammit! Not a goddamned letter to the fuckin editor! Anyway, I love your shit.

You know, it really should be spelled "practise." Bwahaha!

There are a lot of grammar critics out there. Don't worry, if you make an error someone will let you know about it. Personally, who cares!

actually, it's supposed to be "practises" as in "best practices." ;)

And all this time I thought it was "Confessions of a New York Escort" whic takes care of the whole, damn problem.

Like Frank Zappa once wrote, "the crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe".

What does that have to do with anything? Hell if I know. As long as the writing's good, the punctuation takes a back seat as far as I'm concerned.

I had the same problem with my site. I used to write Bibbs Revenge all the time. Then people started pointing out it should be Bibb's not Bibbs. Unlike you it wasn't the way it looked that i didn't like, it's just that i was lazy. :)

Greg is right, it IS just a blog, but the rules of grammar are there to make communication easier. The difference between "escorts," "escort's," and "escorts'" is pretty significant, particularly if what you actually meant isn't clear from context.

Johnny B comments that: "As long as the writing's good, the punctuation takes a back seat as far as I'm concerned." Well, without good punctuation the writing may be extremely confusing. If that qualifies as good, then so be it.

Just like you and just like Bibb - my site is Bacon and Eh's. It should read Bacon and Ehs but I didn't like the way it looked.

Well, I meant the content, rather than the hard and fast rules of grammar.

Blogs are generally regarded as more informal than, say, a term paper. I try to make mine as grammatically correct as I can, but mistakes happen. Last time I checked, nobody's grading us on our little online journals, thank God...

Grammar, as someone else pointed out, is there to make communication easier. There is no excuse for making the rules up as you go along. If you don't like the way it looks with the apostrophe (which I understand), re-cast the sentence so you don't need it. The title of this blog makes no sense since the article is singular and the subject is plural.

Additionally, on this post, I'd like to point out that the song you quote is not a "When Harry Met Sally song," it was merely in the movie. It was written and performed long before that movie.

My point? There is no excuse for inaccuracy in a blog or elsewhere. It just serves to confuse and alienate your readers.

I always think apostrophes look kind of saucy and flirtatious but I support your right to go apostropheless :)

hi charles, thanks for the feedback. while i understand your perspective, i'm keeping it new york escorts for now. hope you don't mind that i'm using no caps.

xoxo,
alexa

by the way, you're right that the song was sung many times before when harry met sally. while looking up the lyrics, tho, i realized that the when harry met sally version was different and i happen to like the newer version better. just call me a sucker for harry connick, jr. :)

There are plenty of peole, bloggers and non-bloggers alike, that believe that grammar doesn't matter. That pointing out flaws in people's writing is nit-picky and rude. To be honest, a few typo's are expected and tolerated, but the more prominent the writing, the more important it is to point out the flaws. At least that's what you'll discover from reading one of the best selling books of the last few years, "Eats, shoots & leaves" by Truss.

I rarely nitpick but maybe we should care more about grammar. Our woeful disregard for grammar is what spawned Ebonics, yo!

lol. if the book were called, "eats bush and leaves," then i might consider changing the title back! :)

I wish I would of read that before I linked you.. haha.. I'll change it later. Just to follow the practices of grammar rebelism. ;)

Ahh, all this talk of grammar the world over. We may be the last bastions of this language in a txt wrld. I like the appearance of lower case when applied to the Internet - it's stylish, but for the hell of me cannot stick to it. So I always revert to trad. I agree with those who allow a few mistakes in this informal setting, haven't come across a weblog host yet with a spelling or grammar checker. As far as the title goes A New York Escort's Confessions I suppose.

This is bullcrap!
The apostrophe is beautiful, and I am mourning its loss.

Ur gramar an your speling is jus fin an thos hoo cant taek itt shud jus liten upp a lillt bitt.

Alexa, seriously ... you moist certainly do rock!

Grin.

Whoever wrote "There are plenty of peole, bloggers and non-bloggers alike, that believe that grammar . . ." needs remedial english lessons. (people THAT wrote !!!!?)

on the one hand i despise grammar nazis. on the other, quite hypocritically, i like the title better with the apostrophe.

I'm sorry, but it's just wrong without the apostrophe. "Escorts" means something different than "escort's." I certainly have plenty of typos on my blog, but it's really grating to keep looking at a title that means something different than what it's supposed to.

I love language and I make my living using language. What would you think of someone who made their living selling people sex (as you do), but insisted that it didn't matter if you did that correctly (that is, paid attention to protecting the health and safety of both professional and client, or made sure the client was satisfied, or did any one of the hundreds of things I'm sure you do to ensure that you are being a true professional)? You'd probably not respect that person much, no?

I don't expect people to edit their blog entries the way they'd edit something more formal, but you are publishing something for readers, and knowingly mangling your words is kind of disrespectful to your audience. In the opinion of this professional communicator, anyway.

Who cares? Its Alexa's blog. She can do what she wants. I get a bit annoyed with missing punctuation too but thats only if someone leaves out fullstops or question marks and runs sentences together. An apostrophe doesn't really matter.
bdieses, we c1n ulualsy rced wthas baon wtrietn aywayny busacee the biran fritles it afl as we rnsd.

I love your blog, but I only first visited because I thought it was about a recent York who chaperoned admissions.

"Who cares? Its Alexa's blog..."

Why are there standards of usage in language? Because otherwise, it stops working.

That's why I care.

I suspect that my concern about how I use language is not unlike Alexa's concern for the clothes she wears and the care she takes to make herself attractive.

I have said before, and I will say again, that the English language is a piss-poor way to communicate from the start, and deviations such as incorrect grammar and skewed 'personal' meanings make it all the more difficult. I feel the meat of a post should be as correct as it can be; the author, however, should be allowed a certain artistic license in the naming of her work.

Me not spell gooder either without spelcheck on. me not do good with grammer too. :)

Grammar is arbitrary. Everything you learned in elementary school, middle school, and high school is crap. The English language makes no sense, its rules are based on Latin concepts that no longer apply to modern day language, and if all you have to bitch about is a fucking apostrophe, you need to get a life. I am an English major, an editor, and a writer. Trust me.

I commend you on your grammatical challenge to society's norms. I'm sure our President is deeply moved by your homage.

didn't read every last comment here but i tend to agree with john who isn't too pleased with this deliberate grammar rebellion. certain things are a matter of personal style (like using 's' or 'z' in realiZe) or how you pronounce "potato" but this omission of an apostrophe is just *wrong*. it's as grating as seeing someone write "it's" when they meant "its". i can tell you try to communicate effectively and you obviously know the way your title *should* be to be most communicative. your blog is really entertaining to read but i can't help but think it's ignorant to want want to propagate this mistake.

Was 'Confessions of New York Escort' unworkable? P.S. does anyone wish they had a nine inch pianist? :)

I'm compelled by uncontrollable inner forces to post this comment, even though I'm already 30 minutes late for work and I should really be running to catch the subway...

I have to side with the pro-apostrophe crowd here. There are times when grammar and spelling can be rebelled against successfully, and there are times when a mistake is just a mistake. It's like the difference between doing a little coke on the weekend and doing full on crack every day. Leaving out the apostrophe in a possessive phrase is complete crack rock. And leaving out the apostrophe in the title of your blog is crack every day for breakfast. It's terribly unhealthy. Please correct, before America declines even farther into decay.

Also, you've got a really nicely written blog here. Light and funny and unique (maybe it’s fiction, maybe it’s fact -- it works well either way). And one expects grammar and spelling mistakes to slip into blogs since we don't have proofers working for us, and some bloggers may very well be riding the new vanguard of the idiom, pushing the boundaries....

But when a mistake is obvious -- and it’s not a purposeful and needed twisting of the form, spelling invention, or choice (e.g., writing in all lowercase is a choice that can work without corrupting the logic of the written/spoken word) -- it should really be fixed, out of self-respect, respect for the language, and respect for the reader. The improper use of possessives in the Americanized version of the English language only even seems acceptable ("looks right" being the key phrase) in the first place because of hack ad men and soulless publicists -- grammatical crackheads each and every one -- being too lazy to use apostrophes correctly their campaigns. When they use apostrophes to make a word plural and drop the apostrophe to make it possessive. . . ewwww. I hate to admit it. But. Publicists. Need. Pain. And corporate ad men are devils, washing the minds of the masses for the Man.

Perhaps the author of this fictional work thought his prominent grammatical error was somehow appropriate. After all, hookers are not best known for their faithful allegiance to the norms of English usage -- or indeed to anything. Except crack, perhaps. (By the way, I liked April's comment: "The English language makes no sense". Ha ha. Only in your hands, darling.)

"As long as the writing's good, the punctuation takes a back seat as far as I'm concerned."

You can't have good writing without good punctuation - it doesn't necessarily have to be Strunk & White strict (in fact, it's usually better if it isn't), but there needs to be some knowledge of the basic rules of why you use punctuation to give your writing rhythm and pacing.

Writing is about communication - and so is punctuation.

New to the site, thought I'd start from the beginning, so this probably isn't even relevant anymore, but I'd just like to point out that wherever Michael majors in English, he should probably also pick up a history course. The English language was in fact most significantly influenced by the Norman invasion in the 11th century, and was a Germanic language to begin with. We owe almost all of our current vocabulary and structure to German, French, and Norse, and almost none of it to Latin, with the obvious exception of religious terms, though not even those are immune. I am obviously slightly obsessive about language, and therefore would prefer an apostrophe, but I am far more bothered by people who purport to be experts and spread misinformation than by a concious error that is explained more than adequately.

actually, kate, april (to whom i believe you incorrectly referred to as "michael") is not incorrect in claiming that english grammar rules are dependent upon latin grammar rules. note that grammar rules are not necessarily the same thing as vocabulary and structure. the first widespread attempts at teaching standardized grammar rules for english did not come until the eighteenth century. schools basically applied latin grammar rules to english. this is the reason that split infinitives are "incorrect," for in latin, the infinitive is one word. the grammar "experts" in 18th century england thought it was logical to extend this rule to english despite the fact that the english infinitive is two words and can be quite awkward when not split.

lucas, you carry a mean pen. i'm skipping over to your blog.