Learn English – Parenthesis and apostrophes

I think the arguments on that site are pretty weak.

For one, the argument that "If you can't think of an example, there mustn't be one" is very poor. A lack of imagination does not constitute a robust argument.

In addition, the writer suggests replacing the pluralising 's' with a 'z', to get over the problem of singular and plural possessives. So, he's asking us to ditch the apostrophe and change pluralisation.

On top of that, the rationale for removing them are spurious at best:

1. Redundant: Hardly makes the case for this, as noted above
2. Costly: The idea that apostrophes makes up a considerable amount of a proof-reader's effort is bogus.
3. Snobbery: Removing the apostrophe will hardly bring about a revolution in attitudes. Snobs don't need tools to be snobs.
4. Text messaging: Citing the mores of txtspk as justification for eradicating a punctuation mark? Let's lose those pesky vowels, too, eh? Hell, Hawaii makes do with just 13 letters (if you include the 'okina (hello apostrophe!))
5. Impeding communication: I can't speak generally to this, but I've never come across a situation where the presence of an apostrophe has made it difficult to understand something. Nor have I struggled to express myself when faced with a potential apostrophe hole
6. Distraction: If the presence of misplaced apostrophes drives you to distraction, you probably have bigger issues to deal with than misplaced apostrophes.

Sure, sure, this is all pretty subjective. However, the very argument for removing apostrophes given on that site is riddled with straw men and subjective viewpoints.

In the absence of compelling reasons to remove the apostrophe, "legacy" becomes a very compelling reason to keep them.

I would punctuate around parentheses the same way as dashes.

With dashes, the sentence would look like this:

This morning I was distracted by a plane — or was it Superman? I'm not very sure — so I tripped.

Therefore, with parentheses it would be:

This morning I was distracted by a plane (or was it Superman? I'm not very sure) so I tripped.

That said, I prefer dashes here, because the middle phrase clearly relates to the topic of the sentence. Parentheses are better reserved for signaling a stronger digression from the main topic, e.g. —

This morning I was distracted by a plane (they're built in a factory the next town over) so I tripped.