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Date: June 11, 2021 Post # 23 There's an AP(ostrophe) for that!

We all learned about apostrophes back in school, right?
But it seems a little refresher will help.

Some recent examples of incorrect use of the apostrophe

The general, most common rules:

Examples, using an apostrophe:

When NOT to use an apostrophe

When It Can Be a Little Confusing

Adding " 's " has two different uses. In the following (rather contrived) example we see
(1) a contraction (has),
(2) a possessive,
AND (3) a plural (no apostrophe):

Often we see that an apostrophe's 1 been used incorrectly.
Apparently, the apostrophe's 2 use can be confusing,
leading some to put apostrophes 3 in the wrong places.

But wait - this is English
And that means there must be exceptions!

This is undoubtedly not an exhaustive list.

Date: May 19, 2021 Post # 22 Split Words topic

This is pretty simple in concept, but might seem complex from its description.

Here are a few names it might be given:

Here's what it means:

On a four-letter round, write a single two-word phrase that spans all the letters.
First word covers the first two letters,
second word, the last two letters.

The first word starts with the first letter,
the second word starts with the third letter.

Here are some examples:

It's better, if the letters allow, to have the split be normal hyphenation, on a syllable boundary:

Date: March 27, 2021 Post # 21 Word Association topic

This topic originated from a UK game show, where the players are given three "clue words" and have to guess what they suggest.

Vote for acros which have words that would lead you to the topic, rather than words that are related to it, but also to other things just as well.

The words should be more closely related to the topic than to other things, and more so than other words.

Here are some examples:

Date: Aug 24, 2020 Post # 20 Cheat-cros


Normally, "cheat-cro" refers to writing an acro that bends the rules, via spelling, grammar, or meaning, often using a made-up word.

In this post, it refers to word acro rounds where the topic and the letters were CHEAT, which has happened three times in recent weeks.

Here is what various players wrote on those occasions:
The numbers following the names indicate number of votes and bonus points, either for winning the round or voting for the winner.

Amethyst 1,0, Cons have effectively aced test.

Blahblahblah 0,0, Clandestinely hid every answer today.
Blahblahblah 2,0, Caught husband entertaining a trollop!

Bumpy 1,1, Copied history exam answers? Tsk!
Bumpy 2,0, Copying homework - exactly a thief
Bumpy 3,3, Copies homework, exams, and tests.

chicmic 0,0, Caught having extramarital affair tonight.
chicmic 2,1, Careless husband's elusive affair's tossed.

kittypower 1,1, Classmate has extra arm treatments.
kittypower 2,1, Classmate hid exam answers there.

klj 0,0, Can hear everyone assume that.
klj 0,1, Come here everyone and try......

MrPuzzle 1,1, Caught husband's extra-marital affair: texting.
MrPuzzle 2,3, Card's held extra at table.
MrPuzzle 3,3, Card's hidden: extra Ace there.

SLUGGO1969 0,0, Can't help examination and test.

Sxystar 1,0, Choosing help.. especially at test.
Sxystar 1,1, Calculator help explains acing test.

virgingoods 0,0, Conspiracy: having East amass trumps.
virgingoods 0,0, Corrupt high-schooler employed avoidance tactics.
virgingoods 1,0, Corruption has extended all throughout.

Date: Mar 29, 2020 Post # 19 Who's the fastest Acroer of them all?

These statistics show the average time in seconds players take to write their acros.

Additional columns give a breakdown, in actual numbers and percentages, of acros written within certain time boundaries (under 20 sec, 21-30, 30-45, over 45).

These numbers are generated from games between Mar 18 - 29, 2020. 


Player            #  avg    <20  <30  <40  >40 (Percentages)
Amethyst        113 30.984   23   32   44   14 20.4 28.3 38.9 12.4
MrPuzzle        184 36.211   22   38   73   51 12.0 20.7 39.7 27.7
klj             299 37.872   22   68  109  100  7.4 22.7 36.5 33.4
Tanteniff       168 39.804   15   28   52   73  8.9 16.7 31.0 43.5
Blahblahblah    455 41.138   54   63  116  222 11.9 13.8 25.5 48.8
TheTornado       86 41.268    6   18   21   41  7.0 20.9 24.4 47.7
SLUGGO1969      181 41.356   13   21   65   82  7.2 11.6 35.9 45.3
amorphous       224 42.318   10   33   77  104  4.5 14.7 34.4 46.4
bilbolives      290 43.020    3   34  118  135  1.0 11.7 40.7 46.6
virgingoods     243 44.341    9   25   83  126  3.7 10.3 34.2 51.9
electrobanshee   14 46.362    0    3    1   10  0.0 21.4  7.1 71.4
kittypower      221 46.926    4   13   67  137  1.8  5.9 30.3 62.0
chicmic         388 48.261   10   28   81  269  2.6  7.2 20.9 69.3
cb750gal        233 48.333    3   14   62  154  1.3  6.0 26.6 66.1
peanut11        137 48.454    0   11   35   91  0.0  8.0 25.5 66.4
Sxystar          53 49.736    1    3    9   40  1.9  5.7 17.0 75.5

Date: Mar 16, 2020 Post # 18 Repeated topics in Word Acro game

Due to a lapse by the administrator, some of the words used as topics were not deleted from the active lists, and a couple got reused the following week.

It is interesting to see how the same players did, or, more often, did not write a similar acro the second time around! 

Round 4: ROSTER 
Blahblahblah,3,3,Repertoire of sports teams entering race.
kittypower,1,1,Record of subjects that enjoy results.
virgingoods,1,0,Recording of students that enter room.
chicmic,1,1,Regimented order showing team's eventual routine. 
MrPuzzle,1,1,Regulars our sports team expects routinely.
cb750gal,0,0,Recording our scores? That's entirely rude. 
klj,0,0,Record only students taking everything required.

Round 9 ROSTER 
virgingoods,4,4,Record of students tested; everyone's reporting.
peanut11,2,0,Roll of some team's essential recruits.
chicmic,1,1,Rows of some teams entering room.
kittypower,0,1,Register of subjects taken, entire round.
klj,0,1,Record only some then erase regulars.

Round 5: AIRFARE 
Blahblahblah,2,3,Airline income required for anyone requesting entrance.
virgingoods,2,0,Airline is recounting funds amassed routing everyone.
cb750gal,2,1,Apparently, it's required for airport rendered excursions.
klj,1,0,American is really fast and rarely expensive.
MrPuzzle,0,1,Am infuriated! Ridiculous fare airline really expects?
kittypower,0,0,Airplane is requiring funds advance regular entry.
chicmic,0,0,Airlines initally refunding fares after rouge epidemics. 

Round 5 AIRFARE 
virgingoods,4,4,Airline is reducing fares and repealing exclusions!
kittypower,2,1,Airplane is requiring fee at reboarding everywhere.
MrPuzzle,1,1,Airline is reducing fares: aid requested: "Emergency!".
klj,0,1,Alas it requires faith and real energy.
chicmic,0,0,Airline is refunding fares after rare epidemic.

Date: Jan 7, 2020* Post # 17 Double Digit Multiplicity

*As of Oct 20, 2022 there have been,
these numbers of occasions when one player has
had more than one Double Digit acro in one night:
And the group has produced large numbers as follows:

Date: Dec 7, 2019 Post # 16 Weird Acro Letters

Not much to say about this:

Or this:

Date: Oct 31, 2019 Post # 15 Letter Distribution

"Seems like there were a lot of vowels tonight". No, only slightly more than usual. 
October 31
A 10 6.7%
B  2 1.3%
C  7 4.7%
D  6 4.0%
E  5 3.3%
F 11 7.3%
G  9 6.0%
H 12 8.0%
I  9 6.0%
L 17 11.3%
M  5 3.3%
N  8 5.3%
O  8 5.3%
P  5 3.3%
R  3 2.0%
S 13 8.7%
T 11 7.3%
U  4 2.7%
W  5 3.3%
36 vowels 24.0% of 150 letters

All of October
*  24 0.6%
A 306 7.9%
B 241 6.2%
C 175 4.5%
D 186 4.8%
E  86 2.2%
F 209 5.4%
G 160 4.1%
H 308 7.9%
I 202 5.2%
L 169 4.3%
M 246 6.3%
N 172 4.4%
O 206 5.3%
P 156 4.0%
R  85 2.2%
S 301 7.7%
T 341 8.8%
U  40 1.0%
V   1 0.0%
W 278 7.1%
Z   1 0.0%
840 vowels 21.6% of 3893 letters
21.6% of 150 = 32.4 ... there were about 3 more vowels than you'd expect.

Date: Oct 13, 2019 Post # 14 Double Digit Timeline

Here is a graph showing accumulation of Double Digit Acros, for the leading players, over time. Graph