The Militant Grammarians of Massachusetts — the prescriptivist crusade

texture · UNDATED (~B.S. 1997 onward, ongoing to YDAU)

• When: UNDATED (the Pinker debate/M.I.T. language riots dated B.S. 1997 in the filmography; the M.G.M. campaigns run through YDAU)
• What: Avril co-founded the Militant Grammarians of Massachusetts, "a syntactic-integrity PAC," with "two or three very dear friends and colleagues": the M.G.M. dun supermarkets over "10 ITEMS OR LESS" (Less→Fewer), and Avril personally waged a five-week New York war — organizing rallies, acting as her own attorney — against Orange Crush's possessive "IT'S," and (unsuccessfully) fought the Gentle administration's public-library phaseout. She also appears in JOI's UNRELEASED documentary of "the public Steven Pinker–Avril M. Incandenza debate on the political implications of prescriptive grammar," credited with helping incite the M.I.T. language riots. Her lips "disappear" at any mention of 1759 (the Plains of Abraham).