Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> writes:
you're right. the book of revelations contains very specific grammatical rules for avoiding god's wrath in the apostropocalypse(*).
Sigh, OK, because the alternative is filing timesheets: POSSESSIVE PUZZLES [Fowler 1e, pp 451]: | 1. Septimus's, Achilles'. It was | formerly customary, when a word | ended in -s, to write its possessive | with an apostrophe but no addi- | tional s, e.g. /Mars' hill/, /Venus' Bath/, | /Achilles' thews/. In verse, & in | poetic or reverential contexts, this | custom is retained, & the number | of syllables is the same as in the | subjective case, e.g. /Achilles'/ has | three, not four; /Jesus'/ or /of Jesus/, | not /Jesus's/. But elsewhere we now | add the s & the syllable, /Charles's | Wain/, /St James's/ not /St James'/, | /Jones's children/, /the Rev. Septimus's | surplice/, /Pythagoras's doctrines/. For | /goodness' sake/, /conscience' sake/, &c., | see SAKE. I referred to "in reverential contexts".