WWTBAM Bored

Dan Markham
Stratford, CT
retail manager

Dan is the father of two and received some interesting advice on how to win from his 6-year old son Ryan. Ryan's favorite superhero is Batman and he wanted Batman to be his dad's +1. Dan told Ryan that Batman was too busy fighting crime, so Dan brought the Wonder Woman of the family, his wife Jamie.

$500: Which of the following statements about US retailers is true?
A - Pier 1 Imports sells piers
B - Foot Locker sells lockers
C - Staples sells staples
D - American Eagle Outfitters sells outfits for eagles

Dan says he's bought some of these.

Spoiler

Answer: C (Staples sells staples)

$1000: To make sure they don't work overtime, in Queensland, Australia, what native animals can only be cuddled by zoo visitors for 30 minutes a day?
A - pandas
B - koalas
C - tiger cubs
D - lemurs

Dan knows that

Spoiler

lemurs come from Madagascar because they're his son's favorite animals

.

Spoiler

Answer: B (koalas)

$2000: Though there's no mention of a Miata, the book "A History of Zoroastrianism" identifies that religion's spreme god as "Ahura" what?
A - Nissan
B - Mazda
C - Hyundai
D - Subaru

Spoiler

Answer: B (Mazda)

$3000: Thinking a billionaire weapons manufacturer was "the kind of character that nobody would like," Stan Lee created which Avenger as a dare to himself?
A - Iron Man
B - Captain America
C - Hulk
D - Black Widow

Spoiler

Answer: A (Iron Man)

$5000: What show's service consultant sometimes cross-checks facts with cast member Mayim Bialik, who holds a PhD in Neuroscience?
A - Criminal Minds
B - Grey's Anatomy
C - The Big Bang Theory
D - NCIS: Los Angeles

Dan says he's a huge fan of this show.

Spoiler

Answer: C (The Big Bang Theory)

commercial break

$7000: Released in 1984 and weighing almost two pounds, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was an early handheld version of what?
A - calculator
B - cell phone
C - vacuum cleaner
D - MP3 player

Dan is leaning toward two answers so he uses his 50:50, leaving

50:50

50:50 results: B and D

Dan says that helps a lot.

Spoiler

Answer: B (cell phone)

$10,000: Now known by a somewhat different name, who was born in Athens, Greece as Ariadne-Anna Stassinoupoulos?
A - Ann Coulter
B - Anna Kendrick
C - Ariana Grande
D - Arianna Huffington

Dan has heard of all four of these and believes that

Spoiler

Arianna Huffington

speaks with a Greek accent.

Spoiler

Answer: D (Arianna Huffington)

$20,000: Upon going public, what tech company created its NASDAQ stock symbol by simply cutting off the last two letters of its name?
A - Facebook
B - Google
C - Twitter
D - Yahoo

Dan says he should have paid more attention to the stock pages while he was studying. He eliminates

Spoiler

A and D

because the result would be too long. He then eliminates

Spoiler

C

for the same reason. He feels good but not good enough, so he asks the audience.

Spoiler

Ask the Audience results:
A - 7%
B - 39%
C - 3%
D - 51%

Dan goes with the audience's answer.

Spoiler

Answer: B (Google)

commercial break

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$20,000: Upon going public, what tech company created its NASDAQ stock symbol by simply cutting off the last two letters of its name?
A - Facebook
B - Google
C - Twitter
D - Yahoo

Dan says he should have paid more attention to the stock pages while he was studying. He eliminates

Spoiler

A and D

because the result would be too long. He then eliminates

Spoiler

C

for the same reason. He feels good but not good enough, so he asks the audience.

Spoiler

Ask the Audience results:
A - 7%
B - 39%
C - 3%
D - 51%

Dan goes with the audience's answer.

Spoiler

Answer: B (Google)

Most of the audience didn't know that NASDAQ abbreviations have four letters. (NYSE symbols are shorter; they were once printed on ticker tape, so brevity mattered.) Twitter can be ruled out for another reason.

7K: OK, I used handheld calculators that weighed a lot less than 2lbs, I think, in the 70s, Certainly by the 80s. And vacuum cleaners are still larger than what we think of as "handheld", meaning will fit in your hand, rather than just "you can hold it". Except for Roomba. Which is way more recent. And only if you've got giant hands. They didn't have MP3s in '84 either I don't think. I originally miscomprehended this as "CD player", which they did have then. I hope I would have reread it right if on the show.

I know a version of a portable phone was technically around in the 50s, requiring the Scandinavian doctor who used it to literally hook his phone up to phone wires out in the country.

I didn't see these giant cell phones in '84 but its the only choice.

By the way, Lezek ( sp?} says, I think on the J! board, that they tell you the 50/50 is definitely not random, that they're back to picking best distractor. Making it much less useful.

20K: I thought those codes were 3 letters long, making Yahoo the only choice. Even if tbey allow longer codes, FACEBO & TWITT would look awful, & GOOG not much better to me. So I go w/ YAH & loose it here.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote: Dan Markham
Stratford, CT
retail manager

Dan is the father of two and received some interesting advice on how to win from his 6-year old son Ryan. Ryan's favorite superhero is Batman and he wanted Batman to be his dad's +1. Dan told Ryan that Batman was too busy fighting crime, so Dan brought the Wonder Woman of the family, his wife Jamie.

Good answer, Dan.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$7000: Released in 1984 and weighing almost two pounds, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was an early handheld version of what?
A - calculator
B - cell phone
C - vacuum cleaner
D - MP3 player

Dan is leaning toward two answers so he uses his 50:50, leaving

50:50

50:50 results: B and D

Dan says that helps a lot.

Spoiler

Answer: B (cell phone)

My first cell phone was a Motorola StarTAC. That led me to the right answer.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$20,000: Upon going public, what tech company created its NASDAQ stock symbol by simply cutting off the last two letters of its name?
A - Facebook
B - Google
C - Twitter
D - Yahoo

Dan says he should have paid more attention to the stock pages while he was studying. He eliminates

Spoiler

A and D

because the result would be too long. He then eliminates

Spoiler

C

for the same reason. He feels good but not good enough, so he asks the audience.

Spoiler

Ask the Audience results:
A - 7%
B - 39%
C - 3%
D - 51%

Dan goes with the audience's answer.

Spoiler

Answer: B (Google)

Well it's certainly not likely to be "TWITT", and I suspect that "YAH" would be avoided as well because of the possibility of offending some religious individuals. Likewise Faceboo doesn't seem likely, given that stock symbols are usually 4 letters or less. So with a fair amount of confidence I go with Goog.

$1000: To make sure they don't work overtime, in Queensland, Australia, what native animals can only be cuddled by zoo visitors for 30 minutes a day?
A - pandas
B - koalas
C - tiger cubs
D - lemurs

Dan knows that

Spoiler

lemurs come from Madagascar because they're his son's favorite animals

.

Spoiler

Answer: B (koalas)

This may have changed since I was there in 1993, but the koalas we cuddled (we actually held a plush koala which the real koala held on to) had their sleep patterns interrupted to be available to visitors during daylight open hours. Maybe they've changed that and the 30 minutes now occur at dusk, right before closing. And you do not cuddle the actual koala unless you want those sharp claws diggings strips out of your skin as he tries to climb you.

$3000: Thinking a billionaire weapons manufacturer was "the kind of character that nobody would like," Stan Lee created which Avenger as a dare to himself?
A - Iron Man
B - Captain America
C - Hulk
D - Black Widow

Spoiler

Answer: A (Iron Man)

ATA

$10,000: Now known by a somewhat different name, who was born in Athens, Greece as Ariadne-Anna Stassinoupoulos?
A - Ann Coulter
B - Anna Kendrick
C - Ariana Grande
D - Arianna Huffington

Dan has heard of all four of these and believes that

Spoiler

Arianna Huffington

speaks with a Greek accent.

Spoiler

Answer: D (Arianna Huffington)

Plus One. I'm doomed.

$20,000: Upon going public, what tech company created its NASDAQ stock symbol by simply cutting off the last two letters of its name?
A - Facebook
B - Google
C - Twitter
D - Yahoo

Dan says he should have paid more attention to the stock pages while he was studying. He eliminates

Spoiler

A and D

because the result would be too long. He then eliminates

Spoiler

C

for the same reason. He feels good but not good enough, so he asks the audience.

Spoiler

Ask the Audience results:
A - 7%
B - 39%
C - 3%
D - 51%

Dan goes with the audience's answer.

Spoiler

Answer: B (Google)

?? Based on the "too long" reasoning, Yahoo would be just as good as google, and it got 51%.