WWTBAM Bored

Catherine Parker
Rye, NY
Travel store owner

Catherine's business lost $80,000 in inventory after two floods. She's "made a dent" in that so far...
Catherine is going for $15,000 with only her ATE lifeline. The expert today is Baratunde Thurston.

Question Topics:
The White House
Playwrights
Cracking the Code
Olympic Athletes
Japanese Imports
The Farmers Market
Literary Allusions
Auto Safety
Bestsellers
CELEBRITY Q
Beverages
On Broadway
Where Am I?
At the Bookstore
Brand Names


$15,000 - Literary Allusions
The 2009 headline "The Scarlet Letterman" puns on the title of what author's classic novel about sexual impropriety?
A: Edgar Allan Poe B: Mark Twain
C: Charles Dickens D: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Spoiler

D: Nathaniel Hawthorne (19)

$25,000 - The Farmers Market
A sweet variety of onion called a Vidalia is named for the town where it was first sold in what U.S. state?
A: Georgia B: Florida
C: Texas D: California

Catherine recalls being told this by her grandmother.

Spoiler

A: Georgia (12)

$50,000 - Japanese Imports
Which of these international automakers has a name that loosely means "unite" in Japanese?
A: Subaru B: Nissan
C: Suzuki D: Mazda

With 28 seconds remaining, Catherine decides to Ask The Expert.

ATE discussion

Baratunde first states that he doesn't speak Japanese. He offers what sound like clueless attempts to analyze the nature of each word (e.g., "Mazda doesn't sound very unifying, with that harsh 'd' in the middle...") and ends up with a low confidence suggestion of Nissan. He does state that this answer "sounds more unifying, phonetically, in the limited Japanese that I do understand."

In spite of the expert suggestion, Catherine decides to "take a big giant guess" and answers

Spoiler

A

Spoiler

A: Subaru (3)

-- Commercial Break --

Catherine's husband David is in the relationship seat, and is very excited. Catherine's 9-year-old daughter Julia asked Catherine to bring back $50 for her, which she'll certainly be able to do.

$100,000 - Olympic Athletes
In his career, Michael Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals -- two behind the all-time leader, who won 18 medals as a what?
A: German speed skater B: Soviet gymnast
C: Norwegian cross-country skier D: Hungarian fencer

Catherine doesn't know, and decides to walk with her $50,000. When pressed by Meredith for her hypothetical guess, Catherine suggests C.

Spoiler

B: Soviet gymnast ( )

BBTranscriptTeam wrote: $50,000 - Japanese Imports
Which of these international automakers has a name that loosely means "unite" in Japanese?
A: Subaru B: Nissan
C: Suzuki D: Mazda

With 28 seconds remaining, Catherine decides to Ask The Expert.

ATE discussion

Baratunde first states that he doesn't speak Japanese. He offers what sound like clueless attempts to analyze the nature of each word (e.g., "Mazda doesn't sound very unifying, with that harsh 'd' in the middle...") and ends up with a low confidence suggestion of Nissan. He does state that this answer "sounds more unifying, phonetically, in the limited Japanese that I do understand."

In spite of the expert suggestion, Catherine decides to "take a big giant guess" and answers

Spoiler

A

Spoiler

A: Subaru (3)

In the course of transcribing this, I happened to pause the video on the perfect reaction shot:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$25,000 - The Farmers Market
A sweet variety of onion called a Vidalia is named for the town where it was first sold in what U.S. state?
A: Georgia B: Florida
C: Texas D: California

This is a $25,000 question? Were the producers asleep at the wheel this day?

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$50,000 - Japanese Imports
Which of these international automakers has a name that loosely means "unite" in Japanese?
A: Subaru B: Nissan
C: Suzuki D: Mazda

I can eliminate Nissan because I recall that its name is a shortened form of Nippon Industries. I doubt that either the audience or the celebrity would be of any help on this question, so I would've just taken the free guess with Subaru.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$100,000 - Olympic Athletes
In his career, Michael Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals -- two behind the all-time leader, who won 18 medals as a what?
A: German speed skater B: Soviet gymnast
C: Norwegian cross-country skier D: Hungarian fencer

Seems to me like the only two logical answers here would be A or B. There aren't a who lot of fencing or cross-country disciplines in the Olympics. Double Dip on A and B.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Catherine Parker
Rye, NY
Travel store owner

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$15,000 - Literary Allusions
The 2009 headline "The Scarlet Letterman" puns on the title of what author's classic novel about sexual impropriety?
A: Edgar Allan Poe B: Mark Twain
C: Charles Dickens D: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Spoiler

D: Nathaniel Hawthorne (19)

The Scarlet Letter is the only book I've never been able to finish. I've tried at least a dozen times but just can't get past the first few chapters.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$50,000 - Japanese Imports
Which of these international automakers has a name that loosely means "unite" in Japanese?
A: Subaru B: Nissan
C: Suzuki D: Mazda

With 28 seconds remaining, Catherine decides to Ask The Expert.

ATE discussion

Baratunde first states that he doesn't speak Japanese. He offers what sound like clueless attempts to analyze the nature of each word (e.g., "Mazda doesn't sound very unifying, with that harsh 'd' in the middle...") and ends up with a low confidence suggestion of Nissan. He does state that this answer "sounds more unifying, phonetically, in the limited Japanese that I do understand."

In spite of the expert suggestion, Catherine decides to "take a big giant guess" and answers

Spoiler

A

Spoiler

A: Subaru (3)

No idea, and I really don't think any of the lifelines will help, but might as well use them, starting with ATA.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$100,000 - Olympic Athletes
In his career, Michael Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals -- two behind the all-time leader, who won 18 medals as a what?
A: German speed skater B: Soviet gymnast
C: Norwegian cross-country skier D: Hungarian fencer

Catherine doesn't know, and decides to walk with her $50,000. When pressed by Meredith for her hypothetical guess, Catherine suggests C.

Spoiler

B: Soviet gymnast ( )

These last two questions are wickedly difficult - Google PAFs might be able to get the answers, but it would take a real trivia expert to know these.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote: $100,000 - Olympic Athletes
In his career, Michael Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals -- two behind the all-time leader, who won 18 medals as a what?
A: German speed skater B: Soviet gymnast
C: Norwegian cross-country skier D: Hungarian fencer

Catherine doesn't know, and decides to walk with her $50,000. When pressed by Meredith for her hypothetical guess, Catherine suggests C.

Spoiler

B: Soviet gymnast ( )

In case you were wondering,

Spoiler

her name is Larissa Latynina

.

Wiki link

-M

earendel wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$50,000 - Japanese Imports
Which of these international automakers has a name that loosely means "unite" in Japanese?
A: Subaru B: Nissan
C: Suzuki D: Mazda

I'm not sure what I would have answered on this but it wasn't

Spoiler

Subaru. I did know Subaru gets its name from the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. The cluster is even represented on their logo:



Knowing that fact would have led me away from Subaru. Suzuki is a surname, Nissan comes from Nippon, and Mazda is derived from Ahura Mazda, the main Zoroastrian god. I probably would have guessed Suzuki knowing those facts. A little knowledge as they say.

andrewjackson wrote:

earendel wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$50,000 - Japanese Imports
Which of these international automakers has a name that loosely means "unite" in Japanese?
A: Subaru B: Nissan
C: Suzuki D: Mazda

I'm not sure what I would have answered on this but it wasn't

Spoiler

Subaru. I did know Subaru gets its name from the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. The cluster is even represented on their logo:



Knowing that fact would have led me away from Subaru. Suzuki is a surname, Nissan comes from Nippon, and Mazda is derived from Ahura Mazda, the main Zoroastrian god. I probably would have guessed Suzuki knowing those facts. A little knowledge as they say.

http://www.autoevolution.com/subaru/

Bob Juch wrote:

andrewjackson wrote:

earendel wrote:

I'm not sure what I would have answered on this but it wasn't

Spoiler

Subaru. I did know Subaru gets its name from the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. The cluster is even represented on their logo:



Knowing that fact would have led me away from Subaru. Suzuki is a surname, Nissan comes from Nippon, and Mazda is derived from Ahura Mazda, the main Zoroastrian god. I probably would have guessed Suzuki knowing those facts. A little knowledge as they say.

http://www.autoevolution.com/subaru/

I'm not sure why you posted that link. I think we all now know that

Spoiler

Subaru

means "unite" in Japanese. It is also the Japanese name for the Pleiades. I knew one part of that which is what would have led me away from

Spoiler

Subaru

.

Unless you are disputing that

Spoiler

Subaru

is, in fact, the Japanese name for the Pleiades or maybe that

Spoiler

Subaru's

name/logo doesn't have anything to do with that.

I can't tell from just the link.

andrewjackson wrote:

Bob Juch wrote:

andrewjackson wrote:
I'm not sure what I would have answered on this but it wasn't

Spoiler

Subaru. I did know Subaru gets its name from the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. The cluster is even represented on their logo:



Knowing that fact would have led me away from Subaru. Suzuki is a surname, Nissan comes from Nippon, and Mazda is derived from Ahura Mazda, the main Zoroastrian god. I probably would have guessed Suzuki knowing those facts. A little knowledge as they say.

http://www.autoevolution.com/subaru/

I'm not sure why you posted that link. I think we all now know that

Spoiler

Subaru

means "unite" in Japanese. It is also the Japanese name for the Pleiades. I knew one part of that which is what would have led me away from

Spoiler

Subaru

.

Unless you are disputing that

Spoiler

Subaru

is, in fact, the Japanese name for the Pleiades or maybe that

Spoiler

Subaru's

name/logo doesn't have anything to do with that.

I can't tell from just the link.

Just some background on why the name was picked, etc.

Bob Juch wrote:

andrewjackson wrote:

Bob Juch wrote: http://www.autoevolution.com/subaru/

I'm not sure why you posted that link. I think we all now know that

Spoiler

Subaru

means "unite" in Japanese. It is also the Japanese name for the Pleiades. I knew one part of that which is what would have led me away from

Spoiler

Subaru

.

Unless you are disputing that

Spoiler

Subaru

is, in fact, the Japanese name for the Pleiades or maybe that

Spoiler

Subaru's

name/logo doesn't have anything to do with that.

I can't tell from just the link.

Just some background on why the name was picked, etc.

Ah. OK.

Here's an article about Catherine's appearance. Did she mention that she was a councilwoman on the show?

http://www.lohud.com/article/20100218/N ... llionaire-

"I definitely hope we have a good vacation coming up this year," said Parker, who owns a travel store on Purchase Street. "It's certainly a nice cushion to have. With the flood and the economy, I haven't had a raise in three years. This is nice."

Her travel store, Parkers, had $80,000 in flood damage after two big storms in 2007. Then the recession hit.

Even with the new emphasis on economic hardship stories, contestants are delivering the TPTB-dreaded "vacation" answer to the "what will you do with the money" question? What's up with that?

"I would love to do the game show again," she said. "I love the show."

Some of us would still love to do it the first time. Even if that love is diminishing.

Pretty sweepish up to 25K for me. 50K and 100K not so much...

No clue on the cars and not sure what i might have guessed but if pushed at 100K a Russian gymnast seems like a good possibility. They have the opportunity for multiplr medals at each game, gymnasts start young and there was a long period when the Russians could lie, cheat and steal their way to the medals.

andrewjackson wrote:

earendel wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$50,000 - Japanese Imports
Which of these international automakers has a name that loosely means "unite" in Japanese?
A: Subaru B: Nissan
C: Suzuki D: Mazda

I'm not sure what I would have answered on this but it wasn't

Spoiler

Subaru. I did know Subaru gets its name from the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. The cluster is even represented on their logo:



Knowing that fact would have led me away from Subaru. Suzuki is a surname, Nissan comes from Nippon, and Mazda is derived from Ahura Mazda, the main Zoroastrian god. I probably would have guessed Suzuki knowing those facts. A little knowledge as they say.

Same thing would have happened to me. Every time I see a Subaru logo, I think of the "Seven Sisters" making up the Pleiades, but the logo has only six.

SportsFan68 wrote:

andrewjackson wrote:

earendel wrote:

I'm not sure what I would have answered on this but it wasn't

Spoiler

Subaru. I did know Subaru gets its name from the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. The cluster is even represented on their logo:



Knowing that fact would have led me away from Subaru. Suzuki is a surname, Nissan comes from Nippon, and Mazda is derived from Ahura Mazda, the main Zoroastrian god. I probably would have guessed Suzuki knowing those facts. A little knowledge as they say.

Same thing would have happened to me. Every time I see a Subaru logo, I think of the "Seven Sisters" making up the Pleiades, but the logo has only six.

Wiki says that 'subaru' is the Japanese name for the Pleiades. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru

There are actually a lot more than seven stars, I think that there are hundreds and hundreds, at least, but the nine brightest are individually named after the mythological Pleiades (the 'Seven Sisters') and their parents, Atlas the Titan and some nympho he boffed, whose name I forget.