A big bunch o’ bloopers was dredged up by our intrepid Grammar Cop this week. Come and see!

1. No sheep or cat’s where hurt in this video.
2. He is one of only seven elected officials who isn’t white, and among those who wants to see a more diverse range of voices at city hall to better represent the community.
3. Once in awhile, or in certain instances … “felt” is okay to use. But…

And the corrections:

1. Two! Two! 2 mistakes in one short sentence! Cats is required, just a simple plural, no apostrophe needed. (“Cat’s” would make it singular possessive.) The second error is this use of “where.” “Where” is either an adverb, conjunction, or pronoun – see here – but never a verb, which is what is needed here: No sheep or cats were hurt in this video.
2. We have a tricky mix of singular and plural here. Who isn’t/aren’t white? Who wants/want to see a more diverse group? The Grammar Cop feels that these corrections make the most sense, and most closely reflect the thinking of the writer (we’ve also tightened it up a bit): He is one of only seven elected officials who aren’t white; they want to see a more diverse range of voices at city hall to better represent the community.
3. This is such a common error that many people think there’s nothing wrong with it. You can’t have something in “awhile.” “Awhile” is an adverb. It would be like saying “once in an often” or “once in a forever.”  Here’s the correction: Once in a while. As the dictionary says: while (wīl, hwīl) n. 1. A period of time: stay for a while; sang all the while.

These stressful times have been going on for such a long while, it does seem like “a forever,” doesn’t it? I wish us all lots of serenity in the weeks ahead. 💝