News outlets will follow the lead of coffee chains

Perhaps Starbucks's confusion concerning "less" and "fewer" is forgivable; its people should rightly be more concerned with prompt delivery of my soy latte with sugar-free vanilla than with grammatical niceties.

However, I cannot extend the same benevolence to the Associated Press. While reading this:



I found this:



Oh dear me, Mark Jewell! Dear me again, AP editorial staff! You can spell bacteriophage but you can't follow your own rules?

Copyeditor General's ruling: The AP Stylebook's ruling:
fewer, less
In general, use fewer for individual items, less for bulk or quantity.

Coffee chains will make fewer mistakes

There are two reasons I rarely use a napkin when I go to Starbucks: first, it's an unnecessary waste of paper; second, this:



I don't know whether it's supposed to be a promise, a threat, or an admonishment. Either way, it annoys me every time.

Copyeditor General's ruling: Too much coffee can make one irritable. So can too many grammatical errors. I suggest Starbucks work on making fewer mistakes before they start thinking about fewer napkins.