Hello, and welcome to 2025. Is it that time already?

The possessive apostrophe (or rather, the abuse of the possessive apostrophe) is a recurrent guest star here at Shady Characters, but usually in the English language. Recently, though, the Guardian reported that unneeded apostrophes are infecting German, too. The so-called Deppenapostroph, or “idiot’s apostrophe”, appears when a German-language expression uses it to indicate a possessive — despite the fact that it is more correct to add an “s” on its own rather than “’s”.

It’s that time of the year again!

You: a discerning reader of books about unconventional information technologies (unusual marks of punctuation, say, or pocket calculators). Your friends and family: the same, naturally. But what gifts to give them this holiday season?

I know, I know; these days, everyone and their five-legged, three-eyed dog is writing a piece about AI. I can’t promise that this one will be more insightful or educational than any of the others, but I can promise that it will invoke humanity’s undimmable hubris, the atomic bomb, mad cow disease, and, to keep us on brand, books.