Briareos wrote:
...sure, you need a backslash to escape the apostrophe for an SQL query...
There is a theory circulating among some of the lower-ranking archivists that the original giant cockroach was not the result of some insane biologist's experiment gone wrong, but the result of some insane
linguist's experiment gone wrong. The story goes that Avnom, a linguist of the Empire, reasoned as follows:
"
Why do we use an apostrophe? Well, because some letter is being left out:
shouldn't has an apostrophe because the 'o' in 'not' is left out, and so on. In theory, that means that if you pull out an apostrophe, the 'o' will pop back into existence, and if you pull hard enough and fast enough, you should be able to generate a certain amount of force from the popping."
His initial experiments were a success, but he got cocky; after gaining a certain amount of renown by demonstrating that the raising and lowering of doors could in fact be powered by the popping of apostrophes, he attempted an SQL query. That is to say, he wanted to answer the question plaguing experimental linguists of the time, the Standard Quotation Linguification question, so he devised an SQL sentence (i.e. a standard linguification, quoted) and ran an experiment with it: "
The bo's'n's fo'c'sle won't be available 'til ten o'clock"
. Doing so, he set off a chain reaction. Apostrophes were forced out of sentences all around the room, and as they bounced off the walls, some of them rammed into one another, eventually coagulating into a giant roach with six apostrophe-shaped legs.
Archivists believe that Avnom could have saved himself, but he panicked when the roach saw him and started screaming "
Don't! It can't be! It won't stop!"
, thereby generating more apostrophes and fueling the growth of the roaches.
Delvers, on the other hand, are fully aware that his mistake wasn't generating more apostrophes; his mistake was backing straight back towards the wall, rather than grabbing a sword and moving diagonally backwards. That is, you need a backslash to escape the apostrophe for an SQL query.
(god i should be working)
I seem to have managed to get to this ripe old age without ever having attempted to escape an apostrophe. Ah well, there are only so many adventures one can cram into a single life. Mind you, given all that I have learnt about computers since joining this site, it really wouldn't surprise me if, some day, I come face to face with an "SQL query" and now I will know to grab the nearest backslash! 
)
.)