Transcript 2/18/09: Neal Guth

[BBTranscriptTeam]

Neal Guth
Alpharetta, GA

Cat asks Neal how she (Neal) is doing, to which Neal responds, "Fine, do you have a bucket I can throw up in?" Cat counters saying that when Neal got the call to be on Millionaire, she wasn't that nervous. Neal said she was called when she was in the garage, holding four bags of groceries with kids and dogs running around, and just wanted to get in the house. It hit her after the call was over. Neal has two kids (pictured on the show), Andrew who is 4 and Ginny (it might be Jenny, I have trouble with some Suthren accents) is 21 months.

Her category tree:

Life and Death
Quite Inventive
Just Kidding!
Antarctica
TV Characters
Making Amends
Just My Type
John McCain
Movie Taglines
Albus Dumbledore
Crazy Eights
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
Slang
Fast Food
Healthy Habits

$100 (Healthy Habits): For people who wish to stay well hydrated, nutrition experts commonly recommend eight daily what?
A. Slices of bread B. Glasses of water
C. Cuts of meat D. Shots of tequila

Spoiler

B. Glasses of water (6)

$200 (Fast Food): To determine whether patrons are dining in or taking out, fast-food servers will often ask what?
A. For here or to go? B. Cash or credit?
C. Window or aisle? D. Paper or plastic?

Spoiler

A. For here or to go? (7)

$300 (Slang): "Quackupuncture" is a derisive term used by critics of a medical treatment that involves what?
A. Ice packs B. Eye drops
C. Needles D. Hearing aids

Spoiler

C. Needles (9)

$500 (U.S.A.! U.S.A.!): The United States of America is named after a famous what?
A. Painter B. Explorer
C. Poet D. Queen

Neal blanks momentarily, but (with Cat prompting with 5 seconds left) pulls herself together and answers correctly.

Spoiler

B. Explorer (1)

$1,000 (Crazy Eights): Which of these 2008 events officially began at 8:08:08 p.m. on August 8th?
A. The Super Bowl B. The Kentucky Derby
C. The Olympics D. The World Series

Spoiler

C. The Olympics (8)

Cat introduces the Expert, AJ Jacobs, author of "The Know-It-All".

$2,000 (Albus Dumbledore): In 2007, what author surprised readers with the announcement that her beloved character Albus Dumbledore is gay?
A. Anne Rice B. Nora Roberts
C. Helen Fielding D. J.K. Rowling

Spoiler

D. J.K. Rowling (23)

$4,000 (Movie Taglines): "Go" was a simple but apt tagline for what 2008 movie?
A. Tropic Thunder B. The House Bunny
C. Speed Racer D. Get Smart

Spoiler

C. Speed Racer (23)

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Neal's friend Dandridge is in the audience as a surrogate for her husband, who is back home taking care of everyone. Dandridge was her husband's best man.

$8,000 (John McCain): John McCain's wife Cindy is the chairman of the board of a company that sells what?
A. Beer B. Meats
C. Prefab homes D. Beauty products

Spoiler

A. Beer (24)

$16,000 (Just My Type): On a standard QWERTY keyboard, which of these words can be typed using a single horizontal row of keys?
A. Standard B. Typewriter
C. Computer D. Keyboard

Neal takes the time to "type" out the words, panics a little as time winds down, but then answers correctly.

Spoiler

B. Typewriter (7)

COMMERCIAL BREAK

$25,000 (Making Amends): What amendment to the U.S. Constitution is known to many historians as the Susan B. Anthony amendment?
A. Sixteenth B. Seventeenth
C. Eighteenth D. Nineteenth

Neal doesn't know, and chooses to PAF (16). Waiting by the phone is Neal's only choice, her husband, Andy ("No one else would do it!").

PAF discussion

Neal shortens the question, giving Andy plenty of time, and he appeared to give an answer with 7 or so seconds left, but the phone connection broke up and all that Neal heard was "-eenth". Time ran out before she could get a clear answer.

Neal chooses to ATA (15).

ATA results

A. Sixteenth - 34%
B. Seventeenth - 8%
C. Eighteenth - 30%
D. Nineteenth - 28%

Neal has no choice but to burn a third lifeline, and she chooses to ATE (12).

ATE discussion

AJ says, "I actually feel I know this one." He was in a school play with this subject (it had a song with the lyrics, "The nineteenth amendment, the nineteenth amendment..." Cat stops him from singing further, and AJ offers to try dancing if she'd prefer.

Spoiler

D. Nineteenth (10)

THE HORN SOUNDS

Neal will return tomorrow to go for $50,000 with her DD lifeline remaining.

[Kazoo65]

This was a nihil obstat* stack so far for me.

She wasted 2 lifelines on the $16K Constitution question. She should have used ATE first-not last. He came through for her big time. You wonder about people and their knowledge of the Constitution/US history when only 28% of the audience gets the right answer!

[MarleysGh0st]

She wasted 2 lifelines on the $16K Constitution question. She should have used ATE first-not last. He came through for her big time.

How could Neal know that AJ would know the answer to that question? And if he's read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, why did he happen to know that answer because of some silly school play? Has he ever been tested on remembering all that stuff he read?

If nothing else, though, this PAF call was an object lesson in why TPTB stress having the PAFs use a land line phone and no speakerphones!

[TheConfessor]

If nothing else, though, this PAF call was an object lesson in why TPTB stress having the PAFs use a land line phone and no speakerphones!

What's the object lesson here? Are you suggesting that a cell phone and/or a speaker phone was used in this case?

[secondchance]

If nothing else, though, this PAF call was an object lesson in why TPTB stress having the PAFs use a land line phone and no speakerphones!

What's the object lesson here? Are you suggesting that a cell phone and/or a speaker phone was used in this case?

It sounded like maybe a speaker phone was turned up way too loud; it almost seemed like there was a tiny delay echoing thru as well.

[NellyLunatic1980]

Life and Death
Quite Inventive
Just Kidding!
Antarctica
TV Characters
Making Amends
Just My Type
John McCain
Movie Taglines
Albus Dumbledore
Crazy Eights
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
Slang
Fast Food
Healthy Habits

Looks like a good stack.

Nihil obstat®

[earendel]

Neal Guth
Alpharetta, GA

Cat asks Neal how she (Neal) is doing, to which Neal responds, "Fine, do you have a bucket I can throw up in?" Cat counters saying that when Neal got the call to be on Millionaire, she wasn't that nervous. Neal said she was called when she was in the garage, holding four bags of groceries with kids and dogs running around, and just wanted to get in the house. It hit her after the call was over. Neal has two kids (pictured on the show), Andrew who is 4 and Ginny (it might be Jenny, I have trouble with some Suthren accents) is 21 months.

The best thing so far about Neal is that she has taken a no-nonsense approach to the game. She answers the questions quickly and doesn't have to be prompted for "final answer". I could have done without the photo of her children, though.

$300 (Slang): "Quackupuncture" is a derisive term used by critics of a medical treatment that involves what?
A. Ice packs B. Eye drops
C. Needles D. Hearing aids

Spoiler

C. Needles (9)

E - the AFLAC duck

$500 (U.S.A.! U.S.A.!): The United States of America is named after a famous what?
A. Painter B. Explorer
C. Poet D. Queen

Neal blanks momentarily, but (with Cat prompting with 5 seconds left) pulls herself together and answers correctly.

Spoiler

B. Explorer (1)

A bad case of Hotseatitis combined with TDC®. I was wondering if she would use a lifeline just to stop the clock. Fortunately she didn't.

Neal's friend Dandridge is in the audience as a surrogate for her husband, who is back home taking care of everyone. Dandridge was her husband's best man.

Let's hope he's just a cheering section surrogate.

$25,000 (Making Amends): What amendment to the U.S. Constitution is known to many historians as the Susan B. Anthony amendment?
A. Sixteenth B. Seventeenth
C. Eighteenth D. Nineteenth

Neal doesn't know, and chooses to PAF (16). Waiting by the phone is Neal's only choice, her husband, Andy ("No one else would do it!").

Too bad she doesn't know about us.

PAF discussion

Neal shortens the question, giving Andy plenty of time, and he appeared to give an answer with 7 or so seconds left, but the phone connection broke up and all that Neal heard was "-eenth". Time ran out before she could get a clear answer.

It sounded at one point as if Andy said "fifteenth" but it was a bad connection. From the echoes I suspect he may have been on a speakerphone.

Neal chooses to ATA (15).

ATA results

A. Sixteenth - 34%
B. Seventeenth - 8%
C. Eighteenth - 30%
D. Nineteenth - 28%

Neal has no choice but to burn a third lifeline, and she chooses to ATE (12).

ATE discussion

AJ says, "I actually feel I know this one." He was in a school play with this subject (it had a song with the lyrics, "The nineteenth amendment, the nineteenth amendment..." Cat stops him from singing further, and AJ offers to try dancing if she'd prefer.

Spoiler

D. Nineteenth (10)

Not a difficult question for me. So I'd be going for $50K with all my lifelines still available.

[MarleysGh0st]

If nothing else, though, this PAF call was an object lesson in why TPTB stress having the PAFs use a land line phone and no speakerphones!

What's the object lesson here? Are you suggesting that a cell phone and/or a speaker phone was used in this case?

Yes, that's what it sounded like to me. Or is there a better explanation for that crappy sound quality?

Maybe he was using Skype!

[TheConfessor]

If nothing else, though, this PAF call was an object lesson in why TPTB stress having the PAFs use a land line phone and no speakerphones!

What's the object lesson here? Are you suggesting that a cell phone and/or a speaker phone was used in this case?

Yes, that's what it sounded like to me. Or is there a better explanation for that crappy sound quality?

I'd have to watch it again to express an opinion, and I don't have a copy. Depending on the actual facts, an alternative lesson might be that even if you follow all the PAF rules, there's no guarantee against technical glitches. But your conclusion is probably more likely.

[doitneatly]

What's the object lesson here? Are you suggesting that a cell phone and/or a speaker phone was used in this case?

Yes, that's what it sounded like to me. Or is there a better explanation for that crappy sound quality?

I'd have to watch it again to express an opinion, and I don't have a copy. Depending on the actual facts, an alternative lesson might be that even if you follow all the PAF rules, there's no guarantee against technical glitches. But your conclusion is probably more likely.

I finally got to watching this one, and I think that in this case the lesson could be the beauty of serendipity! (because the answer he was trying to give was useless...)

I claim that her husband was definitely not going to give her the right answer. At best, he would've left her uncertain. At worst, his advice might've knocked her down to $1k mark.

I find this hard to believe, as this certainly sounded like a google PAF with a very google-able question... but if you listen closely to the audio:

-After the 10 second google pause, his first garbled audio sounds like "sixteenth" or perhaps "fifteenth"
-Continued silence as Neal sweats in the hotseat,
-Within the last second or two, I think I hear a "fi-" syllable and then a "not sh..." as the buzzer hits.

I'm betting his hipshot answer was "sixteenth" given that the very first google hit for susan+b+anthony+amendment does actually refer to the sixteenth amendment.

Who knows why he didn't read a little further down the google page and see all of the references to the nineteenth amendment, but she definitely didn't lose anything by missing out on her hubby's assistance...