[archy]

Because the plural of "cannon" is "cannon"; hearing it or reading it with the "s" on the end particularly grates on my ear. Just indulging a personal peeve.

As it was for one of my former editors, who was fond of letting anyone who misused that [or the terms pom-poms or shrapnel] that the only time the plural of cannon should conclude with the letter *s* was when it was in a quotation, or in conjunction with the plural term *artillerymens*, as per: The artillerymens pulled their cannons over the hill.

He seemed quite pleased with me when I picked up the John Beidler journalism award for 1991, for which the accompanying presentation plaque includes a small brass cannon. And if I ever get another one of them, I'll have two of those little cannon.

-archy-/-

[Aurelius]

I see that the online MSN dictionary gives the plural as "cannons" and a 1954 Funk & Wagnalls allows either form without preference. Just a sign of the degeneracy of the times in which we live.