Transcript 10/19/09 Allison Sobel

[BBTranscriptTeam]

Allison Sobel
Lynbrook, NY
6th grade teacher

Meredith introduces today’s ATE, author of “Ken Jennings’ Trivia Almanac,” Ken Jennings.

Topic Tree:

Nostradamus
Unusual Animals
Regional Cuisine
Toys & Games
Noble Titles
Documentaries
WHO
At the Bookstore
Holidays
U.S. History
The Supreme Court
Interjections
Condiments
Gadgets
Reality TV

$500 A whopping of 624 million votes were cast during the 2009 season of what reality TV series?
A. The Biggest Loser
B. American Idol
C. Survivor
D. Project Healthcare

Spoiler

B. American Idol (5)

$1K Growing in popularity, netbooks are smaller, cheaper versions of what tech devices?
A. Digital cameras
B. Laptop computers
C. Cell phones
D. Flat-screen TVs

Spoiler

B. Laptop computers (5)

$2K In the early 1900s, New York deli owner Richard Hellmann popularized what condiment in the U.S.?
A. Mayonnaise
B. Sauerkraut
C. Worcestershire sauce
D. Salsa

Spoiler

A. Mayonnaise (7)

$3K Which of these interjections is defined as a “funny sounding word for ‘kiss’”?
A. Ugh!
B. Pfft!
C. Mwah!
D. Zoinks!

Spoiler

C. Mwah! (7)

$5K Before joining the U.S. Supreme Court, a nominee must undergo confirmation hearings held by what Senate committee?
A. Appropriations
B. Rules and Administration
C. Finance
D. Judiciary

Spoiler

D. Judiciary (3)

$7.5K After twenty-three years of occupation, the U.S. military returned what Pacific island to the Japanese in 1968?
A. Guam
B. Iwo Jima
C. Guadalcanal
D. Midway

ATA (19)

30% A. Guam
43% B. Iwo Jima
14% C. Guadalcanal
13% D. Midway

Spoiler

B. Iwo Jima (14)

commercial break

$10K In the Bahamas, October 12th is Discovery Day, marking the arrival of what European explorer?
A. Ferdinand Magellan
B. Sir Francis Drake
C. Christopher Columbus
D. Sebastian Cabot

Spoiler

C. Christopher Columbus (21)

$12.5K The author of the best-seller “Glenn Beck’s Common Sense” claims the book was inspired by what famous figure?
A. Thomas Paine
B. Samuel Adams
C. Paul Revere
D. Patrick Henry

Spoiler

A. Thomas Paine (22)

$15K In 2009, the World Health Organization reported that women in what country have the highest life expectancy, an average of 86 years?
A. Monaco
B. Italy
C. Sweden
D. Japan

ATE (12)

Ken says that he has a vague memory of seeing this, like maybe it was Monaco.
He is 75% sure that it is between Monaco and Sweden.
He says that Monaco seems familiar enough to him that he is just over 50% sure the answer is Monaco, but not sure enough to suggest she take the risk.

DD (9)

Allison’s first choice, Monaco, is incorrect.
Her second choice, Sweden is also wrong.

Allison leaves with $5K.

Spoiler

D. Japan (7)

commercial break

Answers:
$500 B. American Idol
$1K B. Laptop computers
$2K A. Mayonnaise
$3K C. Mwah!
$5K D. Judiciary
$7.5K B. Iwo Jima
$10K C. Christopher Columbus
$12.5K A. Thomas Paine
$15K D. Japan

[NellyLunatic1980]

Allison Sobel
Lynbrook, NY
6th grade teacher

She's a WE®, but she's a teacher.

Meredith introduces today’s ATE, author of “Ken Jennings’ Trivia Almanac,” Ken Jennings.

Yay!

$12.5K The author of the best-seller “Glenn Beck’s Common Sense” claims the book was inspired by what famous figure?
A. Thomas Paine
B. Samuel Adams
C. Paul Revere
D. Patrick Henry

Glenn Beck and common sense. That's an oxymoron.

$15K: I can narrow it down to Monaco and Japan. Double Dip.

[Jeemie]

Shit, Ken!

Your star has faded a bit, huh?

[silverscreenselect]

$12.5K The author of the best-seller “Glenn Beck’s Common Sense” claims the book was inspired by what famous figure?
A. Thomas Paine
B. Samuel Adams
C. Paul Revere
D. Patrick Henry

Glenn Beck and common sense. That's an oxymoron.

Yeah, but Thomas Paine never wore a spiffy little quasi-Nazi uniform on the cover of his book like Glenn Beck does.

[NellyLunatic1980]

Shit, Ken!

Your star has faded a bit, huh?

Yeah, I don't know where he came up with Sweden as his second option. Japan seemed like a better educated guess to me because most of the centenarians and supercentenarians in the world seem to come from there.

[MarleysGh0st]

Allison Sobel
Lynbrook, NY
6th grade teacher

She's a WE®, but she's a teacher.

They've found at least one teacher from Elsewhere, this season. Do you think they could find another?

[earendel]

Allison Sobel
Lynbrook, NY
6th grade teacher

Meredith introduces today’s ATE, author of “Ken Jennings’ Trivia Almanac,” Ken Jennings.

A real expert and a teacher to root for. But is Lynbrook WE® territory?

$3K Which of these interjections is defined as a “funny sounding word for ‘kiss’”?
A. Ugh!
B. Pfft!
C. Mwah!
D. Zoinks!

Spoiler

C. Mwah! (7)

Amaz used to use that in her posts, and I had to ask her what it meant.

$7.5K After twenty-three years of occupation, the U.S. military returned what Pacific island to the Japanese in 1968?
A. Guam
B. Iwo Jima
C. Guadalcanal
D. Midway

ATA (19)

30% A. Guam
43% B. Iwo Jima
14% C. Guadalcanal
13% D. Midway

Spoiler

B. Iwo Jima (14)

Good for her - she knew that Guam was still a US possession.

$15K In 2009, the World Health Organization reported that women in what country have the highest life expectancy, an average of 86 years?
A. Monaco
B. Italy
C. Sweden
D. Japan

ATE (12)

Ken says that he has a vague memory of seeing this, like maybe it was Monaco.
He is 75% sure that it is between Monaco and Sweden.
He says that Monaco seems familiar enough to him that he is just over 50% sure the answer is Monaco, but not sure enough to suggest she take the risk.

DD (9)

Allison’s first choice, Monaco, is incorrect.
Her second choice, Sweden is also wrong.

Allison leaves with $5K.

Spoiler

D. Japan (7)

What a shame, and I guess it just goes to show that even a trivia expert can be wrong. I thought it was Japan, but not enough to go for it without some confirmation. I would have gone for the DD and used Sweden as my other choice.

[NellyLunatic1980]

Allison Sobel
Lynbrook, NY
6th grade teacher

Meredith introduces today’s ATE, author of “Ken Jennings’ Trivia Almanac,” Ken Jennings.

A real expert and a teacher to root for. But is Lynbrook WE® territory?

I'm pretty sure that Lynbrook is on Long Island.

[MarleysGh0st]

Allison Sobel
Lynbrook, NY
6th grade teacher

Meredith introduces today’s ATE, author of “Ken Jennings’ Trivia Almanac,” Ken Jennings.

A real expert and a teacher to root for. But is Lynbrook WE® territory?

I'm pretty sure that Lynbrook is on Long Island.

It is. Just a couple miles east of JFK airport.

[Snaxx]

Shit, Ken!

Your star has faded a bit, huh?

Yeah, I don't know where he came up with Sweden as his second option. Japan seemed like a better educated guess to me because most of the centenarians and supercentenarians in the world seem to come from there.

Before the choices I was thinking a Scandinavian country where health care is provided from cradle to grave. I must have seen the story as Japan jumped out at me when I saw the choice.

Despite recent misses, I view Ken as just about the best option contestants can hope for, just like in baseball I'd rather have Mariano Rivera on the mound than any other closer.

[MarleysGh0st]

Shit, Ken!

Your star has faded a bit, huh?

Yeah, I don't know where he came up with Sweden as his second option. Japan seemed like a better educated guess to me because most of the centenarians and supercentenarians in the world seem to come from there.

Before the choices I was thinking a Scandinavian country where health care is provided from cradle to grave. I must have seen the story as Japan jumped out at me when I saw the choice.

Despite recent misses, I view Ken as just about the best option contestants can hope for, just like in baseball I'd rather have Mariano Rivera on the mound than any other closer.

My hunch was Japan, since I recall that nation being a leader in longevity for a long time. I was a little worried that the reference to a 2009 report might have meant that the lead had just recently changed. And the inclusion of Monaco seemed odd, from a question-writing perspective. Why include such a tiny country as a distractor, unless it was the right answer? (From a population standpoint, I'd expect Monaco to be similar to its neighbors, France and Italy, except that Monaco is wealthier and could afford better medical care.)

[NellyLunatic1980]

Shit, Ken!

Your star has faded a bit, huh?

Yeah, I don't know where he came up with Sweden as his second option. Japan seemed like a better educated guess to me because most of the centenarians and supercentenarians in the world seem to come from there.

Before the choices I was thinking a Scandinavian country where health care is provided from cradle to grave.

Your thinking is logical, to a point. It's a bit ironic that Sweden not only has one of the best healthcare systems in the world, but also one of the highest suicide rates in the world. So the average lifespan in Sweden is not as high as it should be.

[NellyLunatic1980]

Yeah, I don't know where he came up with Sweden as his second option. Japan seemed like a better educated guess to me because most of the centenarians and supercentenarians in the world seem to come from there.

Before the choices I was thinking a Scandinavian country where health care is provided from cradle to grave. I must have seen the story as Japan jumped out at me when I saw the choice.

Despite recent misses, I view Ken as just about the best option contestants can hope for, just like in baseball I'd rather have Mariano Rivera on the mound than any other closer.

My hunch was Japan, since I recall that nation being a leader in longevity for a long time. I was a little worried that the reference to a 2009 report might have meant that the lead had just recently changed. And the inclusion of Monaco seemed odd, from a question-writing perspective. Why include such a tiny country as a distractor, unless it was the right answer? (From a population standpoint, I'd expect Monaco to be similar to its neighbors, France and Italy, except that Monaco is wealthier and could afford better medical care.)

Monaco was a pretty good distractor because all of those very small European countries (such as Andorra and Liechtenstein) tend to have very high average lifespans, at least according to all of the reports that I've read in the past.

[MarleysGh0st]

Before the choices I was thinking a Scandinavian country where health care is provided from cradle to grave. I must have seen the story as Japan jumped out at me when I saw the choice.

Despite recent misses, I view Ken as just about the best option contestants can hope for, just like in baseball I'd rather have Mariano Rivera on the mound than any other closer.

My hunch was Japan, since I recall that nation being a leader in longevity for a long time. I was a little worried that the reference to a 2009 report might have meant that the lead had just recently changed. And the inclusion of Monaco seemed odd, from a question-writing perspective. Why include such a tiny country as a distractor, unless it was the right answer? (From a population standpoint, I'd expect Monaco to be similar to its neighbors, France and Italy, except that Monaco is wealthier and could afford better medical care.)

Monaco was a pretty good distractor because all of those very small European countries (such as Andorra and Liechtenstein) tend to have very high average lifespans, at least according to all of the reports that I've read in the past.

Here's a Wikipedia page that has the table from WHO and another from the CIA World Factbook.

Sweden is #7, Italy is #12. Monaco isn't listed on the WHO list, but it's #14 (ranked by UN member states).

[ulysses5019]

So was Ken smarter than a 6th grade teacher?

[MarleysGh0st]

So was Ken smarter than a 6th grade teacher?

Not on this episode.

[MarleysGh0st]

Ken mentioned an interesting anecdote on his web site's forum.

I probably shouldn't be telling tales out of school, but there's sort of a funny story attached to that stack. I later discovered that the woman who I mis-advised on the life expectancy question raised a stink with the producers. On what basis? Because of this very blog! I'd posted something about how my two-year-old daughter had been very interested in my Skype connection that day. I'm not sure how my having a daughter would have unfairly hurt this contestant's chances, but she was convinced it had.

I guess she inferred that I'd been distracted by my kids during her question or something, which isn't true at all. When I'm a lifeline, I take it pretty seriously and feel lousy when I end up being unhelpful or giving bad advice.

In this case, though, I'm willing to make an exception.

http://ken-jennings.com/messageboards/v ... 2730#52730