WWTBAM Bored

Timothy Woodward
North Billerica, MA
Writer

Timothy writes trivia questions for a game show in Africa.

Timothy still has his PAF and DD.

Topic Tree:

Patently False
Sweet Justice
Word Is Born
The Name Game
R.E.M.
(No More!)
(Big Words
(In the Kitchen)
(All Things Montana)
(Towering Above)
(The High Court)
(Up, Up and Away)
(Makeup Mishaps)
(On the Web)
(Yee-Haw!)


$50K Which of these popular board games is not mentioned in lyrics to the R.E.M song “Man on the Moon”?
A. Monopoly
B. The Game of Life
C. Risk
D. Parcheesi

PAF (16)

Timothy’s PAF team:

Joe from Playa Vista, CA
Richard form Santa Monica, CA
Matt from Alameda, CA

PAF – Joe

Joe says that Monopoly is definitely in the song and he thinks Parcheesi is, but isn’t sure.

DD (15)

Timothy makes The Game of Life his first choice, which is incorrect.
Timothy’s second choice is correct.



$100K Which of these presidential surnames was also the surname of someone who served as U.S. vice president?
A. Monroe
B. Clinton
C. Harding
D. Taylor



commercial break

$250K According to the OED, which of these classic works of literature features the first known use of the term “Satanic”?
A. Paradise Lost
B. Beowulf
C. Frankenstein
D. The Divine Comedy

Timothy decides to leave with $100K.



Answers:
$50K D. Parcheesi
$100K B. Clinton
$250K A. Paradise Lost

Wow, for CindyBAM that seemed a pretty reasonable set of third tier questions!

What's with all the CA PAFs......didn't he have my number?

No problem on $50K and $100K... but that $250K question turned out to be one where one of the obvious answers was actually correct.

My guess would've been "Frankenstein", but there's no way that I would lock that in immediately. I have all of my lifelines available, so naturally, I'll start with PAF and see if either he/she knows this offhand or can Google it.

Wow. It's not often I can nail a 100K and 250K question w/o thinking but to me those were both relatively simple.

Ego boost for the day - Accomplished.

elwing commented on this and wondered if the trivia questions were totally different. I said that since it was for college students, it might be the same stuff as here.

Well, since I've used my ATA already, I'll have to use another lifeline. This should be an easy Google, so PAF.

My first thought was "Paradise Lost" but then I looked at the dollar value of the question and wondered if it might be Frankenstein or Beowulf because they were not obvious (I knew it wasn't The Divine Comedy). If I were brave enough I'd pull the trigger on "A", but would probably use the DD and make "C" my first choice, followed by "A".

So I'd be looking at the $500K question with ATE still available. Given the expert this isn't promising.

I happened to watch this guy because I had switched over to get the first contestant's name for doitneatly.



The only reason I know this one so easily is that he was also in Parliament Funkadelic. I think I put him in my Timeline game for the same reason.




What a great question, but I think for 250k I would have been paralyzed by knowing too much. Paradise Lost seems so obvious since Satan is basically the crux of the whole damned thing that I would be looking for the trick or the catch. Dante meets Satan in the Divine Comedy, but I think the trick here is "Satanic", since I think the Divine Comedy used Lucifer, not Satan. Frankenstein doesn't seem to fit except that, in the book, the Monster was quite literate and fond of quoting Paradise Lost. Ha!

I love Paradise Lost! Anybody who thinks that kind of shit is old and tiring should read Milton. The mind is its own place, and in it self can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. If the time i spent in high school did anything for me for which I'm grateful, it was to give me an appreciation for Milton.

But I also dig Dante. My fantasy football name is from the Divine Comedy, while my email name is from Milton. So I would have way overthought this question. In this case, having a time limit on the clock probably would have been a help rather than a hinder.

So how many balls on Dante......?

lb13

Ha, you never miss a trick, do you?

If I was one of those who had the patience to search stuff, I'd dig around and try to find that commentary. It's got to be around somewhere, given how much it was used for jokes at the time.

You mean this?

lb13

No, I mean the actual audio commentary of the game.

Well, that I would not know where to begin looking for.....

Maybe Sprots should contact Radio Dude.....

lb13

I'm a big fan of both Paradise Lost and The Divine Comedy - in fact I just picked up my Ciardi translation of TDC and am reading through it.

The fact that The Divine Comedy was not written in English would seem to eliminate it as the first use of the word "Satanic."

Beowulf is practically pagan. Composed during the Dark Ages, any Christianity in it would be a hint rather than a major element of the work. So a theological discussion of Satan seems unlikely. Furthermore, "Beowulf" was written in Old English, which sounds like a Welshman gargling in German. We really would not recognize any word in the text.

Frankenstein was written in the 19th century, in an English that we can easily read. But that seems too late a date to be the source of the word "Satanic".

"The Divine Comedy" certainly mentioned the incarnate of evil. He has a starring role in the Ninth Circle of Hell. But would Dante have coined the word "Satanic"? How good was his English? The Tuscan poet might have come up with satanico, but the Millionaire question makes no allowance for a foreign source.

That leaves "Paradise Lost". Milton's English is recognizable to us, and he definitely was writing about Satan.

In fact, Milton coined a number of words. Pandemonium is one. To us, it means pure chaos; but in Milton, it was the capital of Hell.

Enough of my pedantics....

Eugene

Pedant away. How else will we learn new stuff that might show up in a game show while we're playing?