WWTBAM Bored

Eric Gold
Dallas, TX
First-year law student

Meredith knows that it's a lot of hard work because one has to hit the ground running. She asks if he's nervous about missing school to be on the show. Eric says he hopes to make up for that by winning some money. Eric has five familiy members as his cheering section. Eric's mom, Trish, hopes that Eric will win enough money to pay for law school.

$100 - The reality shows "Supernanny" and "Nanny 911" feature specialists in which of these fields?

A - interior design
B - child care
C - auto repair
D - fart jokes

$200 - The top of the Empire State building is traditionally bathed in red, white and blue light on which of these holidays?

A - St. Patrick's Day
B - Christmas
C - Independence Day
D - Valentine's Day

$300 - Though a female turkey is called a hen, a male is known not as a rooster but as a what?

A - Tom
B - Bob
C - Nat
D - Hal

$500 - At Kansas' 2007 state fair, what type of food competition was sponsored by Pillsbury?

A - best meatball
B - best potato salad
C - best pie
D - best pickle

"Pillsbury, like the dough boy?" Eric asks. Meredith says she can't help him.

$1K - Which of these pieces of U.S. currency features a man wearing a beard?

A - one-dollar bill
B - five-dollar bill
C - ten-dollar bill
D - twenty-dollar bill

Eric says that George Washington is on the one and he's pretty sure that Lincoln had a beard and he's on the five.

$2K - According to Dave Barry, which academic discipline quite simply "involves talking about rats and dreams"?

A - astronomy
B - geology
C - psychology
D - physics

$4K - The classic '80s game show "Press Your Luck" featured an array of greedy, animated gremlins known as what?

A - oopsies
B - goofies
C - zappies
D - whammies

Eric is a TV nerd and he's watched this show.

Commercial break

$8K - The Strait of Messina separates the mainland of Italy from what island?

A - Crete
B - Sicily
C - Malta
D - Cyprus

Eric says that Sicily sounds right but can't remember if there's a strait there. He decides to make that his final answer. If he gets it wrong he'll never go to Sicily.

$16K - What singer's album, "Genius Loves Company," features duets with Elton John and Norah Jones?

A - George Harrison
B - Warren Zevon
C - Ray Charles
D - James Brown

Eric loves Elton John. He goes with "C" immediately.

$25K - On the Kelvin scale, what is the approximate temperature at which water boils?

A - 73K
B - 173K
C - 273K
D - 373K

Before the choices came up "273K" was in Eric's head. He wants to go with that answer then thinks about asking the audience. He stops and says, "Oh, shoot!" realizing that he has already told the audience what he was thinking.

ATA results:
A - 6%
B - 9%
C - 72%
D - 13%

It's a great number but... Nevertheless Eric decides to go with that as his final answer and drops back to $1K.

Commercial break

ANSWERS:
$100 - B (child care)
$200 - C (Independence Day)
$300 - A (Tom)
$500 - C (best pie)
$1K - B (five-dollar bill)
$2K - C (psychology)
$4K - D (whammies)
$8K - B (Sicily)
$16K - C (Ray Charles)
$25K - D (373K)

Nihil obstat®

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$25K - On the Kelvin scale, what is the approximate temperature at which water boils?

A - 73K
B - 173K
C - 273K
D - 373K

Before the choices came up "273K" was in Eric's head. He wants to go with that answer then thinks about asking the audience. He stops and says, "Oh, shoot!" realizing that he has already told the audience what he was thinking.

ATA results:
A - 6%
B - 9%
C - 72%
D - 13%

It's a great number but... Nevertheless Eric decides to go with that as his final answer and drops back to $1K.

273ºK (0ºC) is the temperature at which water freezes. A tricky distractor that fooled Eric and the audience.

jarnon wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$25K - On the Kelvin scale, what is the approximate temperature at which water boils?

A - 73K
B - 173K
C - 273K
D - 373K

Before the choices came up "273K" was in Eric's head. He wants to go with that answer then thinks about asking the audience. He stops and says, "Oh, shoot!" realizing that he has already told the audience what he was thinking.

ATA results:
A - 6%
B - 9%
C - 72%
D - 13%

It's a great number but... Nevertheless Eric decides to go with that as his final answer and drops back to $1K.

273ºK (0ºC) is the temperature at which water freezes. A tricky distractor that fooled Eric and the audience.

It was nasty. I was in the audience at the time, and did my best to get everyone around me to hit "D"...I think that we were the biggest portion of that 13%. When the question first came up, I muttered "uh, oh" to myself, knowing that this kid was in trouble. When he mentioned he was thinking it was C before doing the ATA, I cringed. And when he then DID the ATA after saying he thought it was C, I knew he was toast. Too bad, though...he was very personable.

They cut out a lot of the interplay between him and Meredith during the Pillsbury question...he was doing his best to get her to give something away she shouldn't, and she was doing her best to NOT give anything away...she basically had to finally say something along the lines of "I CAN'T HELP YOU! QUIT ASKING!"

He also wavered a lot longer on the Straits of Messina question, going back and forth between Sicily and Cyprus. Nice editing there.

I don't think I'd trust the audience on a science question-especially at $25K or above. FTR, I didn't know this one and would have used PaF.

KillerTomato wrote:
He also wavered a lot longer on the Straits of Messina question, going back and forth between Sicily and Cyprus. Nice editing there.

If I did not know that we are generally speaking a nation of geo nit wits I would ask myself how one could possibly waver back and forth on this question given that none of the other options is even remotely close to Italy and Messina is the name of the town on Sicily overlooking the strait in question. And especially between those two options since Cyprus is the one farthest away! Malta is the closest but has Sicily smack in between it and Italy. Crete and Cyprus are hundreds of miles away.

But I do know that we are generally speaking a nation of geo nit wits.

So I did not have to ask myself anything.

Lucky me.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Eric Gold
Dallas, TX
First-year law student

Meredith knows that it's a lot of hard work because one has to hit the ground running. She asks if he's nervous about missing school to be on the show. Eric says he hopes to make up for that by winning some money. Eric has five familiy members as his cheering section. Eric's mom, Trish, hopes that Eric will win enough money to pay for law school.

They obviously have contestants from other states, like Eric; why all the WE®s lately?

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$2K - According to Dave Barry, which academic discipline quite simply "involves talking about rats and dreams"?

A - astronomy
B - geology
C - psychology
D - physics

Too bad the previous contestant didn't get this question.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$16K - What singer's album, "Genius Loves Company," features duets with Elton John and Norah Jones?

A - George Harrison
B - Warren Zevon
C - Ray Charles
D - James Brown

Eric loves Elton John. He goes with "C" immediately.

I like Elton John, too, but had no idea on this question. Time to ATA.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$25K - On the Kelvin scale, what is the approximate temperature at which water boils?

A - 73K
B - 173K
C - 273K
D - 373K

Before the choices came up "273K" was in Eric's head. He wants to go with that answer then thinks about asking the audience. He stops and says, "Oh, shoot!" realizing that he has already told the audience what he was thinking.

ATA results:
A - 6%
B - 9%
C - 72%
D - 13%

It's a great number but... Nevertheless Eric decides to go with that as his final answer and drops back to $1K.

I don't know what the audience would have done if he hadn't influenced them - I suspect the distribution between C and D might have been closer. Since the Kelvin scale is based on the Celsius scale, with -273 C equal to 0 K, that makes the freezing point of water 273 K (0 C) and the boiling point 373 K (100 C).

Kazoo65 wrote:I don't think I'd trust the audience on a science question-especially at $25K or above.

Agreed. Unless you took and can remember high school physics or chemistry, you don't even know what a Kelvin is. If he hadn't poisoned the ATA, he probably would have gotten a more ambiguous result and done what he should have in the first place, gone to a PAF.

Here's an article about Eric's appearance. (And has anyone else been posting links to on-topic articles while I've been away? Huh? Huh?)

http://tinyurl.com/2p92qj

In the summer of 2006, Gold and his younger sister auditioned for "Millionaire" in Fort Worth. Hoping to make it past the first round of auditions, they waited in line with about 1,000 people hoping to get the chance to become millionaires.

"You have to take a really hard multiple choice test when you audition. When the whole process is over, they call out five to 10 numbers," Gold said. "My sister and I were about to leave, but they called out my number right before we left. It was literally the last number called."

One year later, the producers called Gold and confirmed that he would be a contestant on "Millionaire." Gold, accompanied by five family members, flew to New York on Sept. 12 hoping to win enough money to pay for law school.

He was lucky to get The Call after so long.

"I have no regrets about the show. It was tough falling behind in law school at first, but I'm caught up now," Gold said. "I'm not sure if I want to do any game shows again, unless I decide to audition for 'American Gladiators.'"

Ah, yes, American Gladiators: just what every quiz show veteran wants to appear on next!



TinyURLed the link from The Daily Texan, which was anything but "brief".

MarleysGh0st wrote:Here's an article about Eric's appearance. (And has anyone else been posting links to on-topic articles while I've been away? Huh? Huh?)

I think you know the answer to that question, Marley. No one else has your flair for finding the articles.

earendel wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:Here's an article about Eric's appearance. (And has anyone else been posting links to on-topic articles while I've been away? Huh? Huh?)

I think you know the answer to that question, Marley. No one else has your flair for finding the articles.

Google News search works for one and all, ear.




No one else can post on-topic, is what you mean!

MarleysGh0st wrote:

earendel wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:Here's an article about Eric's appearance. (And has anyone else been posting links to on-topic articles while I've been away? Huh? Huh?)

I think you know the answer to that question, Marley. No one else has your flair for finding the articles.

Google News search works for one and all, ear.

Perhaps, but knowing HOW to make it work is the key.

No one else can post on-topic, is what you mean! [/quote]

jarnon wrote:273ºK (0ºC) is the temperature at which water freezes. A tricky distractor that fooled Eric and the audience.

For the record, kelvins don't use the degree symbol or modifier.

One says "water boils at 373 kelvins or 100 degrees Celsius". One writes "water boils at 373 K or 100ºC".