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Gosh you PU members are a tough audience! As a card-carrying carper from the Captious Compilers' Circle, I thought that the MANUMIT clue was pedestrian but sound, making it considerably superior to the FIGURINE one, which reads very oddly and defies sensible parsing.

Thanks Malone - perhaps Rossim should have the honour of initiating a Pedants United thread?

On a similar theme I think I read somewhere that one pedant (who
presumably cannot take any more!) seeks out rogue apostrophes on shop/street signs and paints over them.

ASetter, thanks for looking in. The It/appeal part of Manumit is a running joke (well, a running sore), and that's why I posted it. Like you, I thought the clue was pedestrian - there was no cleverness or craftiness to it.

Tyke51, I overlooked your post. I hope Rossim, you, jigjag, anyone, will start a Pedants United thread.

Yes, I'd heard about the apostrophe hater - more power to his or her elbow!

Asetter

I should like to join Malone in welcoming your contribution. We often note here that it is a pity that setters dont join in too often. Obviously they cant in live puzzles.

Actually I thought the parsing of FIGURINE was OK.

Leaf - FIG. on (attached to)
Wee - URINE
Def - Statuette = FIGURINE

Have I missed something? I agree it read oddly, but I dont mind if it is humorous.

Incidently, my son and I have just returned from a double appointment at the barbers. We talked about what we should do after our haircuts/hairscut/haircut. None of my attempts at the plural of haircut sounded right.

Tyke51

My barber gets round the problem I have just posted about by his sign "Haircut's £9" The phantom apostrophe catastrophe remover has not visited these parts so it remains. The Welsh words used here would confuse him - numerous errors.

I sympathise with your "h" problem. My aunt drops all hers. She has 2 grand-daughters Hannah and Anna. She pronounces both names the same yet insists she does not.

Hi, jigjag - is 'incidently' a new word? It looks interesting. Sorry!

I'd have 'haircuts' - that seems the most logical.

Malone

Well done! Incidentally only a true pedant would have spotted that!!

Spell checker allowed it!

jigjag - I think your barber's apostrophe could save him money. The sign must surely be interpreted as "[A] haircut is £9"; if it read "Haircuts £9", then the plural would surely indicate that a minimum of two haircuts could be had for that total cost. "Haircuts £9 per capita" would I think be best,

Asetter

Yes thats brilliant! I will explain to him what "per capita" means but I think he will say, "Does that mean working on the Head?"

I will advise him to keep the apostrophe in, though Tyke51 wont like it. I paid £20 incl tip.