So do they outsource editors here?

[podwall]

OK...I'm an American editor with over 22 years in magazine publishing, and I received the following correction for the phrase "1950’s pin-up era" --
"Years do not need apostrophes - 1950s instead of 1950's"

Whuuuaah? The last time I checked, possessive phrases need...wait for it...wait for it...apostrophes.

So, yeeeah (vocal fry), I'm just going to resubmit the article again and see what happens. If it gets rejected, I'll sell it on a site that uses standard English.

[Lysis]

OK...I'm an American editor with over 22 years in magazine publishing, and I received the following correction for the phrase "1950’s pin-up era" --
"Years do not need apostrophes - 1950s instead of 1950's"

Whuuuaah? The last time I checked, possessive phrases need...wait for it...wait for it...apostrophes.

So, yeeeah (vocal fry), I'm just going to resubmit the article again and see what happens. If it gets rejected, I'll sell it on a site that uses standard English.

Really? I thought the apostrophe after the numbers in the year was a common grammatical mistake? Not an editor here, but got rejected once for it and have since changed that behavior for about 2 years now.

[SJHillman]

I'm not sure 1950's in this case is possessive, I could see a case being made either way depending on what is ultimately meant. As an experiment, replace the year with another word that could fit:

- Dodgers pin-up era (an era in which people hang up pictures of the Dodgers)
- Dodger's pin-up era (an era in which the Dodgers are hanging up pictures)

Considering the years themselves are not doing anything, I think I would (just barely) agree with the editors on this but it's still a pretty gray area in my opinion.

There's an interesting take on it here: http://www.englishforums.com/English/De ... g/post.htm

[Celeste Stewart]

The AP Stylebook says:

Decades - Use Arabic figures to indicate decades of history. Use an apostrophe to indicate numerals that are left out; show the plural by adding an s: the 1890s, the '90s, the Gay '90s, the 1920s, the mid-1930s.

As far as the possessive goes, 1950's would indicate that the year is 1950 and not the entire decade which I think is the intention. So, 1950s' pin-up era could technically be correct though I don't think it is. Is 1950s being used as a subject/noun or as an adjective? This all goes back to the question of: is a farmers market a farmer's market, farmers' market or is farmers really an adjective describing what type of market it is?

[jadedragon]

To me 1950's means it belongs to 1950 - one year only. Not very logical. 1950s means the whole of the decade. Got to agree with the editor on this one.