Is that your final answer?

In today's Gazette story about the apartment industry, Colorado Springs real estate veteran Ken Greene, who works for Apartment Realty Advisors in Denver, was asked if a second-quarter dip in the Springs apartment vacancy rate signaled the start of an improvement in the market, or was just a one-time decline.

“That’s the $64 question," Greene said, "nobody really knows.” His response prompted this reply from some readers under the age of, oh, 40: What "$64 question" was he talking about?

OK, for those of you came out of the womb wearing an iPod, here's the answer. Greene's comment refers to the 1950s-era television game show called "The $64,000 Question," in which contestants answered a series of questions and saw their winnings increase for every correct answer. That program was based on a radio quiz show that started as 1940's "Take It or Leave It" and was renamed "The $64 Question" a decade later. Today's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" is based on those shows. More information: www.museum.tv, the Web site for the Museum of Broadcast Communications.