Did you spot the two errors in the title? If so, skip this tip because you do not need it.

At my day job this week I got emails from two different people, both extremely powerful and successful in their respective fields, yet woefully ignorant of the it’s/its distinction. Here they are, edited to protect the guilty:

I got this information from the Immigration office. Therefore, we don’t
have to worry about it’s accuracy.

The X Society of B.C. is hosting it’s annual conference at the Coast Plaza Hotel and Suites in Vancouver.

Then my dad wrote me this anguished email:

Sign at my apartment building: “Downtown living at it’s best.” I had to cover the apostrophe with a piece of white label.

(Isn’t my dad the best ever?)

OK, time to lay down the law (not “lie down the law”– see Tip #2).

Here is a simple way to make sure you use the right one. “It’s” is short for “it is” or “it has.” So try replacing “it’s” with “it is” and see how your sentence sounds.

I got this information from the Immigration office. Therefore, we don’t
have to worry about it is accuracy.

Downtown living at it is finest

See what I mean?

“Its” is the possessive form of “it.” So it means “belonging to it.” So the title of this tip could be read as:

The Back Belonging to It! The Confusion Between “Its” and It’s” Rears It Is Ugly Head!

And that is clearly not what I meant.

I’ve been thinking a lot about old dykes ever since my friend Arleen’s 60th birthday party. (I was going to say “older” dykes, but then I read this great thing by Old Lesbians Organizing for Change. They use “old” instead of “older” to “refute the lie that it is shameful to be an ‘old’ woman.”)
Read the whole column on the Xtra West website.

Eve Corbel and I shed copious amounts of blood, sweat and tears preparing for this year’s WUTS, and it was worth it! We sold a lot of zines and fridge magnets and met tons of great comics lovers. The only not great things were a) never meeting Joe Sacco even though we “adopted” him for the festival–not that we ever figured out what adopting meant and b) people stealing two of the tiny notebooks I made and a number of bookmarks. Ah well. I am going to put the stuff I made for WUTS up on the site as soon as I figure out how to do a copyright watermark in Photoshop.

Here I am with all our stuff, hanging out with Jackson, who came to visit for a little while.

Eve graciously allowed Jackson to lick her eyebrow.