WWTBAM Bored

Gordon Schnaper (BB: gsabc)
Tewksbury, MA

gsabc

Mere comments that she likes Gordon's button with the WWTBAM logo that says Gordon Wants to Be a Millionaire. Gordon mentions that his coworkers made it for him.

button

Topic Tree not shown... yet

Topic Tree (as shown later)
Wars
Government
Painters
U.S. Presidents
At the Bookstore
Horticulture
World Landmarks
Money
CELEBRITY Q
Who Am I?
Power Plants
Batter Up!
Tabloid News
Air Travel
Words & Phrases


$500 (Words & Phrases):
According to an old saying, what "loves company"?
A. Misery B. Progress
C. Freedom D. Aunt Noreen

Spoiler

A. Misery [:08]

not a llama, i swearz!

$1000 (Air Travel):
"Travel for your best friend" is the slogan for what new airline, which began transporting "pawsengers" in 2009?
A. Baby Airways B. Grandparent Airways
C. In-Law Airways D. Pet Airways

Spoiler

D. Pet Airways [:08]

$2000 (Tabloid News):
In 2009, photos of Britney Spears wearing a Star of David necklace led several tabloids to ask if she had converted to what religion?
A. Islam B. Judaism
C. Buddhism D. Hinduism

Spoiler

B. Judaism (:09)

$3000 (Batter Up!):
Unless a tie forces additional play, a professional baseball game lasts how many innings?
A. Five B. Seven
C. Nine D. Eleven

Spoiler

C. Nine (:10)

$5000 (Power Plants):
Located in Tampa, FL, the largest desalination plant in the U.S. processes over 44 million gallons of what per day?
A. Seawater B. Gasoline
C. Milk D. Oil

Spoiler

A. Seawater [:08]

Commercial break

Mere mentions that Gordon wanted to be on the show since the beginning. Gordon says he started watching since the fifth show, tried different ways to get on and "I'm here"

Mere shows Gordon's wife Gayle, his daughter Mikaela, and son Jeremy.

The family

Gordon says no matter how much he won, he is going to Disney World.

Gordon in the HS

$7500 (Who Am I?):
Who is George H. Gallup?
A. Early pro football star B. Inventor of the VCR
C. Movie cowboy D. Public-opinion pollster

Spoiler

D. Public-opinion pollster (:22)

$10K (CELEBRITY Q):
Pauley Perrette from NCIS
The CBS drama "NCIS," which produced a Los Angeles-set spin-off in 2009, is itself a spin-off of what other long-running TV series?
A. Law & Order B. CSI
C. NYPD Blue D. JAG

Spoiler

Gordon answers w/o a lifeline, audience applauds, then Mere says wait we need to see if Gordon is correct.

Pauley Perrette says that NCIS was introduced in a two part episode of...

D. JAG (:15)

Celebrity response

$12.5K (Money):
Since 1946, a torch, an oak branch, and an olive branch have been featured on the standard back of what U.S. coin?
A. Dime B. Cent
C. Nickel D. Quarter

Spoiler

A. Dime [:18]

Mere mentions Gordon's hobby of looking for coins all around like in supermarket parking lots, and carrying them around for good luck.

$15K (World Landmarks):
Built in 1971 to mark the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire, the Azadi Tower is a landmark in what capital city?
A. Cairo B. Athens
C. Tehran D. Damascus

Spoiler

Gordon verbally connected the Persian Empire to Iran.

C. Tehran [:18]

Commercial break

Spoiler for tomorrow

Hoping for a $1M clue about wars but...
$12.5K
In his poem, "Mending Wall," what poet made the now-famous declaration "Good fences make good neighbors"?
A. Langston Hughes B. Carl Sandburg
C. Walt Whitman D. Robert Frost

Mere asks again how it feels to be here and Gordon says again it is exciting to be here after so long.

$25K (Horticulture):
Named for the horticulturist who created it, the boysenberry is a hybrid of the raspberry, the blackberry, and what other berry?
A. Cranberry B. Loganberry
C. Blueberry D. Elderberry

ATA at :18

ATA

A-11% B-31% C-42% D-16%

Mere says "yeah, you did it!" reads off the numbers says they are not great but "you do have a majority there with Blueberry" and says Gordon still has 18 seconds to make up his mind and "you do have another lifeline"

Double Dip at :08

DD and answer

Gordon gave his first answer with the audience, C, which was incorrect.

Gordon calmly and slowly said "I am going to go with (speeding up as Mere says three seconds) Loganberry, final answer" as the clock ran down and almost out.

B. Loganberry (:01)

DD answer

.
.
.


Time is up. Gordon will return tomorrow.



[Edited to fix spelling]

What a great job so far!

I've been enjoying watching you-it looks like you were having fun up there in the Hot Seat.

The only question I had a problem with was the $25K about berries. I have heard of boysenberries (I think from J!) and I couldn't remember whether they are part cranberry or loganberry. I would Double Dip those 2-my first use of a lifeline in this stack.

I plan to tune in tomorrow!

Well done, Gordon!

I had the right hunch about NCIS, but I may have used the ATA to confirm that (since I don't watch any of those shows), which means I'd have needed to go directly to the DD for the boysenberries. I can't imagine your expert giving you anything except a stopped clock on that WWOQ.

I do not think I would have successfully Googled the $25k question in time, and I certainly didn't know it. So if he still had PAF and would have used it to call me, he'd have been in the same situation as in the real world. --Bob

Bob78164 wrote:I do not think I would have successfully Googled the $25k question in time, and I certainly didn't know it. So if he still had PAF and would have used it to call me, he'd have been in the same situation as in the real world. --Bob

Googling boysenberry cross brings up the answer right away. Easy with that, wicked without it.

WTG Gordon!


WooHoo!!!!!!!!!

MarleysGh0st wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:I do not think I would have successfully Googled the $25k question in time, and I certainly didn't know it. So if he still had PAF and would have used it to call me, he'd have been in the same situation as in the real world. --Bob

Googling boysenberry cross brings up the answer right away. Easy with that, wicked without it.

I went with boysenberry hybrid. I got an answer, but it would have taken a click through and a little searching. I think I'd have run out of time. --Bob

Let me congratulate you again.

And, for the record, I googled "boysenberry" and it showed up in the first entry without clicking through. Would you have PAF'ed that question?

MarleysGh0st wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:I do not think I would have successfully Googled the $25k question in time, and I certainly didn't know it. So if he still had PAF and would have used it to call me, he'd have been in the same situation as in the real world. --Bob

Googling boysenberry cross brings up the answer right away. Easy with that, wicked without it.

Actually, there may be some dispute here, as in uncertain parentage!

http://www.oregon-berries.com/boysenberry.cfm

Parentage unknown - considered to be blackberry crossed with Loganberry or red raspberry.

A cross of two plants, not three!?

MarleysGh0st wrote:Well done, Gordon!

I had the right hunch about NCIS, but I may have used the ATA to confirm that

Same sentiments as Marley here. I read enough general congratulatory stuff in the spoilers that I knew I would get to transcribe more than the first tier.

I was narrowing that down, ruled out Law&Order (NBC) and NYPD sure enough that as time ran down I was leaning Double Dip and not ATA.

The teaser question made me realize I should be taking a J! test instead of transcribing and watching Idol, but I never bothered to register this time. The answer was in the practice J! test someone posted!

The ATA result helped a lot, with two answers it did not matter the order of answering, I wonder if you were leaning the right way if you had burned DD on NCIS as I likely would have done.


[Originally posted in error under BBTranscriptTeam and deleted for re-input]

Way to go, Gordon!

Bob78164 wrote:I do not think I would have successfully Googled the $25k question in time, and I certainly didn't know it. So if he still had PAF and would have used it to call me, he'd have been in the same situation as in the real world. --Bob

This is a somewhat tricky PAF Google...the exact words make a big difference.

If you google boysenberry (or boysenberry boysen, or boysenberry boysen or boysenberry boysen hybrid) you'll get the wikipedia entry as the first hit, and you will see the correct answer.

If you google boysenberry hybrid, you will not get the correct answer at a glance...and I could see being very tempted to put in boysenberry hybrid (you WILL get the wikipedia entry if you type boysenberry cross- but the question said hybrid, not cross).

Trick would have been to not try and put too MANY words into the search.

PS I'm assuming the airing of the episode has not yet had time to tweak the Google search, as the PT episodes did.

Add one pet peeve item: Since when did the term "majority" morph into meaning either a majority or a plurality? Not only did Mere say this, I've heard this during primary elections, e.g. McCain won a majority with 42% while Huckabee got 31%...

Okay, folks, some commentary.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Gordon Schnaper (BB: gsabc)
Tewksbury, MA

gsabc

Mere comments that she likes Gordon's button with the WWTBAM logo that says Gordon Wants to Be a Millionaire. Gordon mentions that his coworkers made it for him.

button

Topic Tree not shown... yet

Topic Tree (as shown later)
Wars
Government
Painters
U.S. Presidents
At the Bookstore
Horticulture
World Landmarks
Money
CELEBRITY Q
Who Am I?
Power Plants
Batter Up!
Tabloid News
Air Travel
Words & Phrases

First of all, until I watched the show myself just now, I had no recollection how my topic tree read. The only one I remembered was the CELEBRITY Q (yes, it's really in all caps on the monitor, too). I was concerned about that one, both when it was mentioned in the green room (I don't think they'd had one on the air yet at the time of the taping) and when it showed up in the stack. Celebrity stuff is a weak area. I jokingly asked co-workers for back issues of People, and darned if I didn’t get some Us and Star magazines. I read a special review issue for one of them on the plane down, and then told Gayle, ironically as it turned out, that after reading all that trash, I would now have to rip out my eyeballs.

So basically, any strategy I might have had for planning lifelines based on the topic tree went out the window, other than thinking "Celebrity Question - there goes my ATA."

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$500 (Words & Phrases):
According to an old saying, what "loves company"?
A. Misery B. Progress
C. Freedom D. Aunt Noreen

Spoiler

A. Misery [:08]

not a llama, i swearz!

Not much of a joke, frankly. I laughed simply because we were told to. They've had much better ones.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$1000 (Air Travel):
"Travel for your best friend" is the slogan for what new airline, which began transporting "pawsengers" in 2009?
A. Baby Airways B. Grandparent Airways
C. In-Law Airways D. Pet Airways

Spoiler

D. Pet Airways [:08]

I'm thinking "This is going smoothly. Nice, simple questions."

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$2000 (Tabloid News):
In 2009, photos of Britney Spears wearing a Star of David necklace led several tabloids to ask if she had converted to what religion?
A. Islam B. Judaism
C. Buddhism D. Hinduism

Spoiler

B. Judaism (:09)

$3000 (Batter Up!):
Unless a tie forces additional play, a professional baseball game lasts how many innings?
A. Five B. Seven
C. Nine D. Eleven

Spoiler

C. Nine (:10)

$5000 (Power Plants):
Located in Tampa, FL, the largest desalination plant in the U.S. processes over 44 million gallons of what per day?
A. Seawater B. Gasoline
C. Milk D. Oil

Spoiler

A. Seawater [:08]

And the relief you see is very real. All I could think of is "I didn't llama!" I also had much the same thought I had back on WoF, when I solved the first puzzle -"I made back the nut." My dad's phrase, for when you make enough money to cover your original investment, or gamble, if I understand the origins of the phrase correctly. Hotels in NYC are expensive! Add in the plane and bus fares and everything else, and I understand why they finally raised this milestone to $5000. From here on, it's profit. Onward!

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Commercial break

Mere mentions that Gordon wanted to be on the show since the beginning. Gordon says he started watching since the fifth show, tried different ways to get on and "I'm here"

Mere shows Gordon's wife Gayle, his daughter Mikaela, and son Jeremy.

Note the corrected spelling of Gayle's name. I should check the closed captioning to see if they got it right on that. Nice looking bunch. They also edited out some banter where I urged people to just keep trying to get on, because it worked for me.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:

The family

Gordon says no matter how much he won, he is going to Disney World.

And they cut out a bunch of chitchat here, probably because Meredith told a somewhat silly joke. If I'd been less focused on the game and distracted by the eye, I would have had a good retort and they might have left it in.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:

Gordon in the HS

$7500 (Who Am I?):
Who is George H. Gallup?
A. Early pro football star B. Inventor of the VCR
C. Movie cowboy D. Public-opinion pollster

Spoiler

D. Public-opinion pollster (:22)

$10K (CELEBRITY Q):
Pauley Perrette from NCIS
The CBS drama "NCIS," which produced a Los Angeles-set spin-off in 2009, is itself a spin-off of what other long-running TV series?
A. Law & Order B. CSI
C. NYPD Blue D. JAG

Spoiler

Gordon answers w/o a lifeline, audience applauds, then Mere says wait we need to see if Gordon is correct.

Pauley Perrette says that NCIS was introduced in a two part episode of...

D. JAG (:15)

Celebrity response

And a big Whew! goes through my mind. I knew this one cold, but made sure in my mind, as the muttering indicated. In retrospect, I had a great comment on how the CSI spinoffs are all something like "CSI:Peoria", and Law & Order spinoffs are "Law & Order: Coffee & Donut Break". Ah well. You always think of the snappy comeback twenty minutes too late.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$12.5K (Money):
Since 1946, a torch, an oak branch, and an olive branch have been featured on the standard back of what U.S. coin?
A. Dime B. Cent
C. Nickel D. Quarter

Spoiler

A. Dime [:18]

Mere mentions Gordon's hobby of looking for coins all around like in supermarket parking lots, and carrying them around for good luck.

For all that I collected coins for a long time, this was the first question I didn't know almost immediately. I had to picture each of them in my mind before understanding what they were asking. It's fairly evident from my reactions when the lightbulb went off.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$15K (World Landmarks):
Built in 1971 to mark the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire, the Azadi Tower is a landmark in what capital city?
A. Cairo B. Athens
C. Tehran D. Damascus

Spoiler

Gordon verbally connected the Persian Empire to Iran.

C. Tehran [:18]

I finally start to verbalize my thoughts! Gordon speaks!

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Commercial break

Spoiler for tomorrow

Hoping for a $1M clue about wars but...
$12.5K
In his poem, "Mending Wall," what poet made the now-famous declaration "Good fences make good neighbors"?
A. Langston Hughes B. Carl Sandburg
C. Walt Whitman D. Robert Frost

Mere asks again how it feels to be here and Gordon says again it is exciting to be here after so long.

$25K (Horticulture):
Named for the horticulturist who created it, the boysenberry is a hybrid of the raspberry, the blackberry, and what other berry?
A. Cranberry B. Loganberry
C. Blueberry C. Elderberry

ATA at :18

ATA

A-11% B-31% C-42% D-16%

Mere says "yeah, you did it!" reads off the numbers says they are not great but "you do have a majority there with Blueberry" and says Gordon still has 18 seconds to make up his mind and "you do have another lifeline"

Double Dip at :08

DD and answer

Gordon gave his first answer with the audience, C, which was incorrect.

Gordon calmly and slowly said "I am going to go with (speeding up as Mere says three seconds) Loganberry, final answer" as the clock ran down and almost out.

B. Loganberry (:01)

DD answer

.
.
.


Time is up. Gordon will return tomorrow.

Okay, watching this, I realize that I was probably the only one in the studio who didn't know how little time I had left when I chose the double dip. It felt a lot less dramatic than it appeared on the show. I did hear Meredith mention the three seconds and obviously rushed the answer out. The thought process will be in my longer commentary in another thread.

gsabc wrote: Mere shows Gordon's wife Gayle, his daughter Mikaela, and son Jeremy.
Note the corrected spelling of Gayle's name. I should check the closed captioning to see if they got it right on that. Nice looking bunch. They also edited out some banter where I urged people to just keep trying to get on, because it worked for me.

Fixed in the main transcript. Sorry!

Ahh, closed-captioning, I used to lean on that like a crutch for relative and PAF names in the good ol' days, but my current DVD recorder does not 'do' CC.

Good job, Gordon!

Nice to see you on TV. I am enjoying reading your commentary too.

Congratulations. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's show. And Thursday's as well...

Gordon, it was a pleasure to watch you today. After the absolute debacle of last week's shows, I wondered how much longer this show can last with the pathetic contestants they seem to be so hung up on.

It took a Jipter to pull this show out of the doldrums!!!!

Can't wait to see you tomorrow.

Ellen

Geez, I wish I could watch! Oh yeah, patience/virtue... yada yada.
Well, these threads are so exciting I almost feel like I have.

omg omg omg -- a MINIMUM of 25 grand- omg omg omg

Are you still pinching yourself?

I insist that you reward yourself with upgrading your cable and getting a DVR! Imagine how nicely it will blend with that touchtone technology.

Lovely family, gs ~ GW, BD, and HS are most certainly G,B, and H.

Congrats on a good run so far. Hope tomorrow's show extends your stay a loooong time on air.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Gordon Schnaper (BB: gsabc)
Tewksbury, MA

At long last!!

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Mere mentions that Gordon wanted to be on the show since the beginning. Gordon says he started watching since the fifth show, tried different ways to get on and "I'm here"

Never give up! Never surrender!

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Gordon says no matter how much he won, he is going to Disney World.

Well, not exactly. Did Meredith know about the detached retina?

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$12.5K (Money):
Since 1946, a torch, an oak branch, and an olive branch have been featured on the standard back of what U.S. coin?
A. Dime B. Cent
C. Nickel D. Quarter

Spoiler

A. Dime [:18]

Mere mentions Gordon's hobby of looking for coins all around like in supermarket parking lots, and carrying them around for good luck.

Isn't there an adage about not picking up pennies that are heads up (or is it heads down)?

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$25K (Horticulture):
Named for the horticulturist who created it, the boysenberry is a hybrid of the raspberry, the blackberry, and what other berry?
A. Cranberry B. Loganberry
C. Blueberry C. Elderberry

ATA at :18

ATA

A-11% B-31% C-42% D-16%

Mere says "yeah, you did it!" reads off the numbers says they are not great but "you do have a majority there with Blueberry" and says Gordon still has 18 seconds to make up his mind and "you do have another lifeline"

Double Dip at :08

DD and answer

Gordon gave his first answer with the audience, C, which was incorrect.

Gordon calmly and slowly said "I am going to go with (speeding up as Mere says three seconds) Loganberry, final answer" as the clock ran down and almost out.

B. Loganberry (:01)

When I saw the answers come up and heard you select the ATA I was pretty sure that the majority would pick "blueberry" even though I was pretty sure it wasn't the right answer. I figured it was either "loganberry" or "elderberry" and when the ATA results were revealed, I thought that the "second strong answer" rule was in effect. If I'd been in the HS I'd have gone with the double dip (without using ATA).

OK, Gordon, you've done great so far. Now bring it home.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:I do not think I would have successfully Googled the $25k question in time, and I certainly didn't know it. So if he still had PAF and would have used it to call me, he'd have been in the same situation as in the real world. --Bob

Googling boysenberry cross brings up the answer right away. Easy with that, wicked without it.

Actually, there may be some dispute here, as in uncertain parentage!

http://www.oregon-berries.com/boysenberry.cfm

Parentage unknown - considered to be blackberry crossed with Loganberry or red raspberry.

A cross of two plants, not three!?

Seeing how the Loganberry is a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry already, what difference does it make? They're all genus Rubus.

Without TDC, this would be easy to figure out; only the Loganberry is similar to blackberries and raspberries.

earendel wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Mere mentions Gordon's hobby of looking for coins all around like in supermarket parking lots, and carrying them around for good luck.

Isn't there an adage about not picking up pennies that are heads up (or is it heads down)?

Hmmm? I've never heard that one, before.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

earendel wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Mere mentions Gordon's hobby of looking for coins all around like in supermarket parking lots, and carrying them around for good luck.

Isn't there an adage about not picking up pennies that are heads up (or is it heads down)?

Hmmm? I've never heard that one, before.

My mom says it's the heads up pennies which are good luck. I pick them all up. Money is money. But I do consider the heads up ones luckier. Nah, I'm not superstitious. Just stitious.

FWIW, BD now has the habit, and GW has a bit of it, too. She found fifteen dollars (bills, not change) the other day when out walking the dogs. She claimed the dogs paid her for taking them out.

"If I had $1000000" is a song from the Barenaked Ladies' album Gordon. Just sayin' is all.

Loganberry was my tip o' the tongue answer for 25Gs. Somehow I thought that the "named after a person" part referred to the answer and not the berry in the question. I thought "Blueberry, huh? Who's that named for, Vida Blue?". Sometimes you can get the right answer for the wrong reason.

Congrats on making it to the second safe spot, and continued good luck for today's show, Gordon. You're playing great.

-M