The Infernal Apostrophe

One would expect the quiz show 'Jeopardy' to make the correct use of the apostrophe. And they did, when they labeled Wednesday's closing category: Poets' Birthplaces.

This signified multiple poets and multiple birthplaces, and the following answer is going to relate to one of them. And it did.

5 Cwmdonkin Drive Was the Address of the Family Home Where He was Born in 1914.

I will boast I got it right, but not until I had to untangle the category, the apostrophe and the text. Given the name of the drive to be in a language harder to pronounce than Icelandic, and the date of birth that would correspond with the short life of the poet Dylan Thomas, I offered Dylan Thomas as the answer. So did two of the contestants who went all in, with the current champion prevailing by having more money to wager. It was Texas Hold 'Em with Alex Trebek as the dealer.

My first thought was the answer needed to incorporate the birthplace of at least two poets, since it was plural apostrophe. I was letting the category be part of the clue. I read the clue a little more carefully and came up with was the correct answer.

You don't have to watch 'Jeopardy' to get a daily does of the final clue. Every weekday the NYT prints the clue that will be the final part of that evening's show. The answer for the prior day's clue is given below.

I will say I get maybe 60% of the final clues right. I am pretty much useless with Mythology and Bible clues, however.

I once took the online 'Jeopardy' audition test they post in January for the New York area. Since they don't give you any feedback as to how you did, my own best guess is I might have gotten 80% of the answers right. No one called and said, "come on down."

I have to believe the people who get on the show must score at nearly 100% on the initial test. And with so many people I'm sure trying online, the producers have their easy pick of the Mensa and near-Mensa candidates who score extremely high.

The category was of course correctly punctuated. Poets' Birthplaces. But apostrophes are annoying and I always ask the question,"how do you pronounce one?"

And how could I initially think they made a mistake? Smug Alex would have caught it if they did. After all, we know he has all the answers.

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