by GroundquestMSA » Aug 26, 2018 8:38 am
Looks pretty similar to my signed Douglas. Of course I value it for the information, not as a collectible, so I've never done any research on the signature.
If Ziffer was an NSS member in the Virginia area in the 60s, then it is likely that his name is emblazoned across the walls of some VA caves. Virginia was the scene of some of the earliest exploration rushes after the NSS came into being, and it was common in the 50s and 60s to smoke both name and NSS number on new discoveries. On my dead computer I have a list of old names collected from VA caves. Many of the men who were sources for Douglas' descriptions are on that list. I thought Ziffer sounded familiar when I saw this thread, perhaps he's on there too.
And now. A short essay on decade punctuation. It can be helpful to write out the word when trying to decide where, if anywhere, the apostrophe goes. Was AZ caving in the sixty's, sixties' sixties, or 'sixties? In this case we are referring to a plain old plural, a group of years. So obviously the possessive 60s' does not apply here, though it could in a sentence like, "The sixties' primary contribution to modern culture was their neckties." Of course this sentence would also make you an ill-informed quarterwit. The most common misusage, and the one daj is guilty of, is to create a contraction. The contraction 60's would be written "sixty's" and could only be used in awkward sentences like, "Sixty's an awful age to be." This is also somewhat insulting to 60-year-olds, who probably have something left to live for. Being a plural with no possessive or contraction then, sixties may stand alone without punctuation. However it is also acceptable to view 60s as an abbreviation of 1960s and apostrophize for the missing characters. Sixties, 'sixties, 60s, and '60s are acceptable