Transcript 11/14/2008 - Brian Haseltine (carryover)

[BBTranscriptTeam]

Brian Haseltine
Clarence, NY
Insurance agent

Brian enters the Hot Seat with only his Double Dip lifeline remaining.

Topic tree:
- Patently False
- Time Magazine
- Fictional Families
- War Heroes
- Express Yourself
- Scrabble
- Champagne Poppers
- Fictional Geography
- Party Girls
- Kid Flicks
- The Sisterhood
- Military Lingo
- Disneyland
- Biology 101
- Reality TV

Brian is playing to provide for his growing family. He has two boys and a third child on the way. Meredith asks if his older son, who is 4, understands about Millionaire. When Brian told him he was going to be on TV he said, "I'm going to watch you every day." Brian had to tell him he didn't have his own show.

$25K - What are the only U.S. state names that can't be spelled from a standard set of 98 Scrabble tiles, not including the blanks?
A - Mississippi & Hawaii
B - Arkansas & Pennsylvania
C - Connecticut & Kentucky
D - Massachusetts & Colorado

Brian doesn't even consider using the Double Dip, deciding to go home. With one second left he makes that his final answer.

Spoiler

C - Connecticut & Kentucky (1)

[NellyLunatic1980]

An easy question only if you play regularly enough to know that there are only two Cs and one K in a Scrabble set.

I knew, though.

[smilergrogan]

Actually I think it's easy to deduce the answer even without knowing much about Scrabble, if you have time to do so. This is where the new time limit seriously diminishes the appeal of the game, in my opinion.

If Massachusetts has too many S's, then so does Mississippi, and answers D and A can't both be right so there must be at least 4 S's in Scrabble. And if Massachusetts has too many A's, then so does Arkansas and answers D and B can't both be right, so there must be at least two A's in Scrabble. And if Massachusetts has too many T's, then so does Connecticut and answers D and C can't both be right, so there must be at least two T's in Scrabble. There must be at least one of each letter in Scrabble (I guess you have to know that much), so Massachusetts must be spellable and answer D is wrong.

We already know there are at least 4 S's and 2 A's, and there must be at least one of each letter, so Arkansas must be spellable and answer B is wrong.

It could still be that Mississippi and Hawaii each have too many I's, but it is easy to think of other states that have two I's, and since we know there are at least two A's in Scrabble, then Hawaii must be spellable and answer A is wrong.

This is the kind of question I most like(d) on WWTBAM, where the answer is not obvious but can be definitively arrived at by logical thinking. The Hawaii part reminds me of my favorite question from the Regis version, which was about which consonant is not used in the Hawaiian language. The contestant bailed, but could have easily determined the answer (I think it was D, with other choices H, L, and K, maybe) by thinking of one or two island names or cities or words like aloha.

[smilergrogan]

Oops, caught a flaw in my logic: Arkansas has 3 A's, so to eliminate answer B, you have to recall there are other states with 3 A's such as Alabama and Alaska.

[earendel]

Brian Haseltine
Clarence, NY
Insurance agent

Brian enters the Hot Seat with only his Double Dip lifeline remaining.

I'd still have all of mine. Given that he only has the DD left, I'm betting he'll be one and done.

$25K - What are the only U.S. state names that can't be spelled from a standard set of 98 Scrabble tiles, not including the blanks?
A - Mississippi & Hawaii
B - Arkansas & Pennsylvania
C - Connecticut & Kentucky
D - Massachusetts & Colorado

Brian doesn't even consider using the Double Dip, deciding to go home. With one second left he makes that his final answer.

Spoiler

C - Connecticut & Kentucky (1)

Having read the discussion about this question in another thread I'll just add a comment here. Under the pressure of the clock I don't know if I'd be able to figure this one out. I play Scrabble and could eventually figure out that there aren't enough "K"s for Kentucky or "C"s for Connecticut. But in 30 seconds? I don't think so. Of course, as someone observed, these state names wouldn't be allowed anyway since they are proper nouns. But leaving that aside, it would be time for a lifeline. I'd go with PAF.