WWTBAM Bored

Roger Storm
Fairview Park, OH

Roger works for NASA doing educational teleconferences for school kids.

Topic Tree:

All in the Family
Air Supply
Outrageous Claims
Headline News
Fuzzy Math
I Fold
Strait Ahead
Big Business
Mickey D’s
Things We Say
Rock-Hard Abs
Happy Holidays
Boom!
Feed Bag
Little House

$100 On a classic TV series, Ma. Pa, Laura and Mary Ingalls lived happily together in a “Little House on the” what?
A. Mountain
B. Prairie
C. Shore
D. Landfill



$200 Beak Appétit and Sun Seed are two brands of pet food for what animals?
A. Monkeys
B. Elephants
C. Birds
D. Fish



$300 “Boom boxes” are powerful versions of what electronic device?
A. Calculator
B. Microwave oven
C. Television
D. Portable stereo



$500 In the U.S., which of these holidays falls between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving?
A. Groundhog Day
B. Labor Day
C. St. Patrick’s Day
D. Valentine’s Day



$1K What apt name refers to an ab exercise that involves lying facedown and extending the arms forward over the head?
A. The Bullfrog
B. The Superman
C. The Rockette
D. The Fisherman



commercial break

Roger has eight children and ten grandchildren.

$2K The common expression “Say it ain’t so, Joe” originally referred to a famous what?
A. Baseball player
B. Politician
C. Boxing champ
D. Movie star



$4K According to its famous jingle, which of the following is not a standard ingredient in a McDonald’s Big Mac?
A. Onions
B. Cheese
C. Pickles
D. Mustard



$8K The subject of a much-publicized government bailout in 2008, the company AIG is the nation’s largest provider of what?
A. Student loans
B. Insurance
C. Small-business loans
D. Managed health care



$16K Connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, the Strait of Magellan is a 350-mile channel located primarily in what country?
A. Panama
B. Venezuela
C. Chile
D. Ecuador



$25K Since 1964, artist Al Jaffee has created the famous “fold-in” illustrations for what magazine?
A. Cosmopolitan
B. The New Yorker
C. Reader’s Digest
D. MAD



commercial break

$50K Named for the mathematician who designed it, a famous “pyramid” of numbers that starts with the number one on top is called what?
A. Fibonacci’s triangle
B. Pythagoras’s triangle
C. Pascal’s triangle
D. Fermat’s triangle

PAF (36)

Roger’s PAF team:

Tom from Herea, OH – rocket scientist
Luke from Le Center, MN – a friend

PAF – Tom

Tom thinks it’s Pascal’s triangle. He is about 75% sure.



$100K Which of these headlines could accurately have appeared in newspapers on March 30, 1867?
A. Seward Owns an Icebox
B. Garfield Shot in Train Station
C. Panama Canal Opens for Business
D. President Hayes, By a Nose



commercial break

$250K Al Gore’s famous and oft-ridiculed quote “I took the initiative in creating the Internet” was made in 1999 to what journalist?
A. Barbara Walters
B. Larry King
C. Wolf Blitzer
D. Matt Lauer

ATE (33)

Ashleigh believes it’s Wolf Blitzer, but she would not stake the house on it. She is about 40% sure.

Meredith starts the clock.

Roger: That wasn’t a lot of help.

ATA (20)

17% A. Barbara Walters
48% B. Larry King
24% C. Wolf Blitzer
11% D. Matt Lauer

DD (6)

Roger’s first choice is correct.



horn

Roger will return tomorrow

Answers:
$100 B. Prairie
$200 C. Birds
$300 D. Portable stereo
$500 B. Labor Day
$1K B. The Superman
$2K A. Baseball player
$4K D. Mustard
$8K B. Insurance
$16K C. Chile
$25K D. MAD
$50K C. Pascal’s triangle
$100K A. Seward Owns an Icebox
$250K C. Wolf Blitzer

After the train wreck at the start of the show, Roger was a refreshing change.Luckily, Argentina wasn't one of the choices.WTG, Tom!Garfield and Panama were later, and Presidential elections aren't in March.WTG, Ashleigh! If he still had the PAF, it's an easy Google. The audience, however, falls flat on its face again.

I missed the show today.

Boy, were those tough questions. I read the transcript and had trouble guessing some of them. I did, however, know the $100K cold-Alaska is often referred to as "Seward's Folly."
I probably wouldn't have seen that one, though.

Hayes-Tilden was the centennial year of 1876. --Bob

Looks pretty good.

$25K: No clue on this one. I better try the audience first and see if they have the answer. PAF if the results are inconclusive.

$250K: I'm pretty sure it's either King or Blitzer. This looks like the perfect question for Ashleigh. But since she was only 40% sure, I would've had to use a second lifeline. If I still have my PAF, I'll use it; otherwise, Double Dip on B and C.

Roger Storm won four games on Jeopardy! and $31,200. He played in the 1987 TOC and made the semifinals. In the 1990 Super Jeopardy! tourney Roger won his QF match and lost in the semis to eventual winner Bruce Seymour.

Here is Roger on J! on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1NKlaDTy0Q

This page seems to suggest that there were two valid choices for the 50K question. It may have cost Roger a lifeline, so it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. Any opinions, pro or con?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosoya's_triangle

Pascal's triangle is well known in math circles. I have a math Ph.D., and I've never heard of that other triangle. There's no way it could be called "famous."

Actually my first thought was Fibonacci's triangle but then I realized Pascal's triangle also had "1" at the top.

I don't have a strong opinion on this either way, but it's interesting to note that Pascal didn't design it as a pyramid with the number 1 at the top:

The first line of the Wiki article says "Hosoya's triangle or the Fibonacci triangle is a triangular arrangement of numbers (like Pascal's triangle) based on the Fibonacci numbers." Note that it is called "the Fibonacci triangle," not "Fibonacci's Triangle." This leads me to believe that this representation was invented by Hosoya and not Fibonacci.

Still a wicked distractor, though, and probably inadvertently used because the writers knew nothing about Hosoya's Triangle and/or couldn't name any other mathematicians.

I've forgotten what Pascal's triangle does. I still had a vague hunch of hearing that name, but then I also started thinking of the Fibonacci numbers. I probably would have used a lifeline here; it would have been a good time for the Double Dip.




My first reaction: Who cares what reporter he told that to? Beyond that, I hadn't a clue.

After the expert--another "expert" I've never heard of before--gave her answer, I was flabbergasted that the audience went so heavily against her. Could so many of the audience remember this obscure fact? It seemed improbable to me.

I'm not sure what lifelines I'd use here. ATA first, just to get rid of it? Then ATE, then PAF? That'd be a tough ending to an otherwise easy stack.

Who doesn't own an icebox? They're in every house I've been in....

I did my 11th grade American History term paper on the Election of 1876 (Th eteacher had been teaching for over 25 years -- he even taught my dad -- and said i was the only one he coudl ever remember who used that election as their topic), and as I recall, Hayes' one vote "victory" over Tilden was not officially a done deal until a day or two before the inauguration, which then was on March 4th. So that headline could have very well appeared in a March newspaper, though not in 1867 (or as late as the 30th)....

lb13

Good for him. And he looked like he might either be a MAWG or entering pre-MAWGdom.

There's something a little unsettling about the juxtaposition of "All In The Family" and "Little House".

They could at least have added Argentina as a wicked distractor.

I'm bothered by this question. There is a "Pascal's triangle", which represents binomial coefficients arranged in a triangle.
1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3 3 1
1 4 6 4 1

And there's also a "Fibonacci triangle" based on the Fibonacci series.

1
1 1
2 1 2
3 2 2 3
5 3 4 3 5

There's nothing in the question that would rule out either of these, meaning that there are two answers, so the question is invalid. Roger got it right with the help of his PAF, so maybe it's "no harm, no foul" but would Roger have had to use the lifeline if "Fibonacci triangle" wasn't a choice?

No idea, and I don't think the audience would, nor would I rely on the expert. Since I still have all lifelines, it's time to PAF and hope it's a Googlable answer.

He's got adult children so he's well past pre-MAWGdom.

You are right! I remember him from the '87 tournament, although I didn't play him. He certainly does look older. Of course, I don't.

Eugene

Well Know I look older. And I feel it too.

The regulars on the Jeopardy website are having a debate on the accuracy of the Pascal triangle question. If you think that I am pedantic....

http://boards.sonypictures.com/boards/s ... hp?t=14119

So, however vicariously, Roger Storm is also back on Jeopardy!

Eugene

Mine is about three decades old, takes six D batteries, and works for about two hours before the batteries fizzle.

So I use it only with the power cord.

A pleasant stroll through the 25K Q today with a bit of a stumble at 50K. With all lifelines available and pretty sure it was one of the last two I should be able to get to the 100K which was also no problem. A bit more bleak at 250K but still may have lifelines so maybe I get a peak at the 500K Q as well.

Seems like we haven't seen that happen in a while on the show but the teasers suggest we get a run of them coming up.

Just in time for sweeps perhaps? Probably just a coincidence...

Yes, there is. "Named for the mathematician who designed it." The Fibonacci Triangle was not designed by Fibonacci.

Here's an article about Roger's appearance:

http://www.cleveland.com/tipoff/index.s ... om_fa.html

And Pascal didn't design a pyramid (as stated in the question). See the image of his design above in my earlier post (which I lifted from Wikipedia).

Just to up the level of nitpickery, the question doesn't say he designed a pyramid. It says he designed a "pyramid". The quotation marks can be reasonably interpreted to mean his design was not really a pyramid.