Transcript 12/12/12 David McGill (carryover contestant)

[BBTranscriptTeam]

David McGill
Haddon Township, NJ
Pediatric home health nurse

David's girlfriend, Marianne, is in the audience. She has a little bit of a bone to pick with David because he bought a fire pit recently that was too big for the back yard, so that people could get warm. Marianne thought it was a bit of an impulse buy, too much money, so David's hoping to win a bit of money, maybe buy her a diamond to make her happy.

Topic List
Forgotten Fellows
Program Critique
Dirty Music
Truth in Fiction
College
Festival of Lights
($100)
($1000)
($15000 jumped)
($3000)

Question 5 -- Festival of Lights -- Level ?
Excluding the center candle which is used to light the others, how many candles will have been lit by the end of the 8-day Hannukkah celebration?
A. 24 B. 30
C. 36 D. 42

Meredith urges David to take his time to do the math. David realizes that there are 8 candles on the "candleabra."

Answer and value

C. 36
Value: $10,000
Bank: $14,100

Question 6 -- College -- Level ?
The University of Virginia may very well get a boost in enrollment after Playboy magazine named it the nation's #1 what of 2012?
A. Academic school B. Party school
C. Diverse school D. Sports school

Answer and value

B. Party school
Value: $5,000
Bank: $19,100

Question 7 -- Truth in Fiction -- Level ?
The primary cast of which of these TV shows does not feature a famous person who is literally playing themselves?
A. Curb Your Enthusiasm B. Don't Trust the B___ in Apartment 23
C. Episodes D. The New Normal

David knows that

Spoiler

Larry David

plays himself in

Spoiler

Curb Your Enthusiasm

and "the guy from

Spoiler

Dawson's Creek

plays himself in

Spoiler

Don't Trust the B___

. He doesn't know what

Spoiler

Episodes

is but he has seen the fourth show.

Answer and value

D. The New Normal
Value: $500
Bank: $19,600

Meredith adds that

Spoiler

Matt LeBlanc

plays himself on

Spoiler

Episodes

.

Question 8 -- Dirty Music -- Level ?
Which of these pop music genres is also a 16th century English word for prostitute?
A. Rap B. Rock
C. Funk D. Punk

James doesn't know it and isn't sure the audience will know it, so he jumps.

Answer and value

D. Punk
Value: $25,000
Bank: $19,600

Question 9 -- Program Critique -- Level ?
What government-backed initiativ e did Richard Nixon initially fear would become a "haven for draft dodgers"?
A. Peace Corps B. G.I. Bill
C. Agricultural subsidies D. Head Start

James goes right to the answer.

Answer and value

A. Peace Corps
Value: $7,000
Bank: $26,600

Question 10 -- Forgotten Fellows -- Level ?
Though her colleagues were the ones who received Nobel Prizes, Rosalind Franklin's "photograph 51" is argued to be the earliest true discovery of what?
A. Penicillin B. DNA structure
C. Solar power D. The pacemaker

David isn't really sure and wants to ask the audience.

ATA results

A. 3%
B. 85%
C. 8%
D. 4%

Now that David thinks about it, the audience choice was discovered by two people, justifying the plural "colleagues." He thinks one of them was named

Spoiler

Crick

.

Answer and value

B. DNA structure
Value: $2,000
Bank: $28,600

Commercial break

Meredith notes that David is guaranteed only $3,600 less than his current bank, so a guess might be worthwhile.

Question 11 -- $100,000
The tallest skyscraper in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai stands 2,723 feet tall, the equivalent of how many what?
A. 1.5 Eiffel Towers B. 5 Empire State Buildings
C. 4.5 Space Needles D. 7 Statues of Liberty

David thinks he's seen this before, they stack them up next to the building, he thinks it was

Spoiler

The Statue of Liberty

. He's gonna gamble and go with that answer.

Answer and bank

C. 4.5 Space Needles
Bank: $25,000

[Bob78164]

Bump. --Bob

[MarleysGh0st]

Question 11 -- $100,000
The tallest skyscraper in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai stands 2,723 feet tall, the equivalent of how many what?
A. 1.5 Eiffel Towers B. 5 Empire State Buildings
C. 4.5 Space Needles D. 7 Statues of Liberty

David thinks he's seen this before, they stack them up next to the building, he thinks it was

Spoiler

The Statue of Liberty

. He's gonna gamble and go with that answer.

Answer and bank

C. 4.5 Space Needles
Bank: $25,000

Is there a particular building that's used as a standard for size comparisons with other buildings?

There may well be illustrations comparing other buildings to the Statue of Liberty*, but this question really required estimating the size of those four choices and doing a little math.

*If it is being used for comparison, is that the statue alone or with the pedestal included? That makes a huge difference in the answer!

[SportsFan68]

Question 5 -- Festival of Lights -- Level ?
Excluding the center candle which is used to light the others, how many candles will have been lit by the end of the 8-day Hannukkah celebration?
A. 24 B. 30
C. 36 D. 42

Meredith urges David to take his time to do the math. David realizes that there are 8 candles on the "candleabra."

Answer and value

C. 36
Value: $10,000
Bank: $14,100

OK, lessee (counting on fingers): One plus two is three, plus three is six, plus four is 10, plus five is fifteen, plus six is 21, plus seven is 28, plus eight is 36. 36! Final answer.

Question 7 -- Truth in Fiction -- Level ?
The primary cast of which of these TV shows does not feature a famous person who is literally playing themselves?
A. Curb Your Enthusiasm B. Don't Trust the B___ in Apartment 23
C. Episodes D. The New Normal

David knows that

Spoiler

Larry David

plays himself in

Spoiler

Curb Your Enthusiasm

and "the guy from

Spoiler

Dawson's Creek

plays himself in

Spoiler

Don't Trust the B___

. He doesn't know what

Spoiler

Episodes

is but he has seen the fourth show.

Answer and value

D. The New Normal
Value: $500
Bank: $19,600

I dunno any of these. I'll stall a bit to give folks a little time to think about it, then ATA.

Question 8 -- Dirty Music -- Level ?
Which of these pop music genres is also a 16th century English word for prostitute?
A. Rap B. Rock
C. Funk D. Punk

James doesn't know it and isn't sure the audience will know it, so he jumps.

Answer and value

D. Punk
Value: $25,000
Bank: $19,600

Never heard of it. JTQ

Question 11 -- $100,000
The tallest skyscraper in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai stands 2,723 feet tall, the equivalent of how many what?
A. 1.5 Eiffel Towers B. 5 Empire State Buildings
C. 4.5 Space Needles D. 7 Statues of Liberty

David thinks he's seen this before, they stack them up next to the building, he thinks it was

Spoiler

The Statue of Liberty

. He's gonna gamble and go with that answer.

Answer and bank

C. 4.5 Space Needles
Bank: $25,000

JTQ 2

[earendel]

David McGill
Haddon Township, NJ
Pediatric home health nurse

David's girlfriend, Marianne, is in the audience. She has a little bit of a bone to pick with David because he bought a fire pit recently that was too big for the back yard, so that people could get warm. Marianne thought it was a bit of an impulse buy, too much money, so David's hoping to win a bit of money, maybe buy her a diamond to make her happy.

Question 5 -- Festival of Lights -- Level ?
Excluding the center candle which is used to light the others, how many candles will have been lit by the end of the 8-day Hannukkah celebration?
A. 24 B. 30
C. 36 D. 42

Meredith urges David to take his time to do the math. David realizes that there are 8 candles on the "candleabra."

Answer and value

C. 36
Value: $10,000
Bank: $14,100

There are 9 on the "candelabra" but the center one is used to light the others (as the question states). The math isn't hard but under the lights it's a different story. Glad David could overcome.

Question 7 -- Truth in Fiction -- Level ?
The primary cast of which of these TV shows does not feature a famous person who is literally playing themselves?
A. Curb Your Enthusiasm B. Don't Trust the B___ in Apartment 23
C. Episodes D. The New Normal

David knows that

Spoiler

Larry David

plays himself in

Spoiler

Curb Your Enthusiasm

and "the guy from

Spoiler

Dawson's Creek

plays himself in

Spoiler

Don't Trust the B___

. He doesn't know what

Spoiler

Episodes

is but he has seen the fourth show.

Answer and value

D. The New Normal
Value: $500
Bank: $19,600

Meredith adds that

Spoiler

Matt LeBlanc

plays himself on

Spoiler

Episodes

.

I've never heard of "Episodes" and never seen an episode of any of the others. I'll ATA and hope they know.

Question 11 -- $100,000
The tallest skyscraper in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai stands 2,723 feet tall, the equivalent of how many what?
A. 1.5 Eiffel Towers B. 5 Empire State Buildings
C. 4.5 Space Needles D. 7 Statues of Liberty

David thinks he's seen this before, they stack them up next to the building, he thinks it was

Spoiler

The Statue of Liberty

. He's gonna gamble and go with that answer.

Answer and bank

C. 4.5 Space Needles
Bank: $25,000

Another math question, but here you have to know the approximate heights of the others. I'll use a JTQ on this one.

[MarleysGh0st]

Question 5 -- Festival of Lights -- Level ?
Excluding the center candle which is used to light the others, how many candles will have been lit by the end of the 8-day Hannukkah celebration?
A. 24 B. 30
C. 36 D. 42

Meredith urges David to take his time to do the math. David realizes that there are 8 candles on the "candleabra."

Answer and value

C. 36
Value: $10,000
Bank: $14,100

There are 9 on the "candelabra" but the center one is used to light the others (as the question states). The math isn't hard but under the lights it's a different story. Glad David could overcome.

Hey, it's just an application of the summation formula!



I remember an anecdote of a famous mathemetician (Leibniz?) who discovered this formula while he was just a schoolchild, after his instructor had assigned the "busywork" of summing the integers from 1 to 100.

[plasticene]

Question 5 -- Festival of Lights -- Level ?
Excluding the center candle which is used to light the others, how many candles will have been lit by the end of the 8-day Hannukkah celebration?
A. 24 B. 30
C. 36 D. 42

Meredith urges David to take his time to do the math. David realizes that there are 8 candles on the "candleabra."

Answer and value

C. 36
Value: $10,000
Bank: $14,100

There are 9 on the "candelabra" but the center one is used to light the others (as the question states). The math isn't hard but under the lights it's a different story. Glad David could overcome.

Hey, it's just an application of the summation formula!



I remember an anecdote of a famous mathemetician (Leibniz?) who discovered this formula while he was just a schoolchild, after his instructor had assigned the "busywork" of summing the integers from 1 to 100.

That was Gauss. I love that anecdote.