The VMAs (not the VMA’s) just took place, and already, there are several news stories full of errors about the awards show.
From cnn.com:
To that end, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, Kanye West, Fall Out Boy and the Foo Fighters were each hosting four separate suite parties, where much of the show’s performances would be held.
The Grammar Vandal says that there were many. Many.
That might have been the purpose — to whet the audiences appetite for repeat viewings by promising glimpses of what they missed during the traditional broadcast.
The audience’s appetite. Please use that wonderful apostrophe.
From people.com:
“Was that incredible? Britney Spears, everyone,” Silverman said. “Wow. She is amazing. She is 25-years-old and she’s already accomplished everything she’s going to accomplish in her life. It’s mind blowing.”
At 25 years old, Britney is a 25-year-old. Sarah Silverman’s mind was blown by the mind-blowing accomplishments of Britney Spears.
Come on. I know that the awards show JUST happened, and it was live TV, but come ON! Accuracy isn’t that difficult!
The Grammar Vandal 
you are a dumbass….Sarah was on stage at the VMA btw…right after Brittney and it was a joke basically calling her washed up. At least fact check where the quotes are from.
Hyphens are only used in “years old” when it precedes a noun. She’s “25 years old” or a “25-year-old woman.” So your example is incorrect. =/
Tyler, are you speaking to me or anonymous?
Britney is 25 years old.
Britney is a 25-year-old.
Britney is a 25-year-old tabloid fixture.
25-year-old can stand on its own as a noun.
Her performance was far from mind-blowing, NOT mind blowing.
Anonymous, I don’t know what you’re smoking. Click on the links, and the quotes are there, unless the editors actually went back and changed them (an anomaly when it happens).
Yeah, I have no idea what anonymous is talking about. It’s pretty clear the whole story is about the VMAs.
I want to know why the missing comma before the coordinating conjunction wasn’t mentioned.
I recommend the use of an active voice by avoiding “there are/were,” etc.
Sorry I don’t have a Google account. That being said, I am NOT the same Anonymous as the other three. Note to the first Anonymous. I believe Kate was referring to the way Sarah Silverman’s quote was written/ reported on the people.com website, not what was said on the show itself. And it’s Britney, not ‘Brittney.’ At least spell-check before you publish your comment. Do I need to add ‘dumbass’ here?
When something is mind blowing, it may lead to problem solving or decision making, but not to hyphenation [object + gerund compounds, whether as subjects or in predicates being commonly spelled open].
In “a mind-blowing phenomenon” the hyphen is no indication of the conventional spelling; it is, rather, the mandatory hyphen that joinins the parts of a compound modifier in the attributive position.
in preceding comment: comma after “predicates”, “joins” in place of “joinins” word.
In the previous comment: comma should go instead the quotations which surround “predicates.” Booyes.
I feel as if all of these comments are lackluster. What happened to those meaty comments, from anons with real chutzpah?!
we get dogged
Many of the Kate-followers are very left-brained and dismiss the the right-brained perspective. I gave up trying to convince those who won’t listen.
Should I really trust the ethos of a blogger who cites some of her sources but not all of them? For all I know, that editor’s note was fake.
VMAs or VMA’s. I know you’ve kicked this one around before. Why not just plain old VMA? I know, I don’t like that one, but it’s actually more accurate than the other 2 abbreviations. Should the abbreviated plural of Awards be written “As” or “A’s”?
I grew up mesmerized by baseball stats but about 10 years ago, when sports reporters stopped referring to RBIs (RBI’s) as such and began calling them – plural – simply RBI because that stood for Runs Batted In, not Run Batted Ins, I had to throw my hands up and wonder “Does anyone really care?” I mean, I’m one of the biggest sticklers for gud grammer that you’ll find but I don’t think the technically correct abbreviation RBI will ever be plural in my pea-brain. VMA, VMAs, VMA’s. It all works for me.
Am I to understand that each of those bands hosted four room parties? For a total of, like, sixteen parties?