People seem to have become pretty casual about apostrophes. Possessives, plurals, contractions are all great places to toss around apostrophes, whether or not they're necessary. It
really gets weird when apostrophes are tossed around (or not) for missing letters in vernacular writing. See, for example, the following sports headline from the August 27, 2012
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (NY):
Consider:
- Flying
- Flyin'
- Fly'n
- Flyin
Flying is correct, but doesn't have the casual flair. Flyin' is the way to be casual--drop the "g" and replace with an apostrophe. Fly'n suggests some letter or letters missing between the "y" and the "n." "Fly'n" might indicate a vernacular "and," though it's not the way I would do it, anyway.
Whoever put in the headline didn't bother to read the first paragraph, which got it closer (but not completely correct):
Now all it's missing is the final apostrophe--still wrong, but not as glaring as a giant, bold, capital-letter headline.
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