Transcript 11/18/2009 - Jeff Birt (ToT #3)

[BBTranscriptTeam]

Jeff Birt
Louisville, KY
Fireman


Jeff is raising two boys as a single dad - a very very busy guy. Jeff needed two lifelines to reach the $25,000 question, he never thought he'd make it to $100,000.

Sometimes Jeff gets is told he looks like David Duchovney. The day after his first Millionaire appearance aired, Jeff was stopped by someone at a convenience store who actually recognized him from Millionaire.

Jeff will have 4min 7sec of think time.

$1,000,000
"Nephelococcygia" is the practice of doing what?
A: Finding shapes in clouds B: Sleeping with your eyes open
C: Breaking glass with your voice D: Swimming in freezing water

Jeff quietly focuses on the word for several seconds, and mentions that his first impulse upon seeing the question was an answer that didn't appear among the choices.

When prompted by Meredith, he explains that he was looking at "neph-" and thinking kidney, "cocc" a la the tailbone, so he was expecting something in the base of the spine perhaps. i.e. nothing that matches the choices at hand.

"Jeff: I'm also thinking a sweater was a really bad choice."
"Meredith: They've always called you a hot fireman..." Ba-dum-DUMP!

"I'm not getting the bold out of the blue that I was hoping for. The only thing that's looking good is the $100,000 that I already have."

With 1min 25sec remaining on the clock, Jeff decides to walk away with his $100,000.

Jeff's "just for fun" guess that he kept coming back to but couldn't justify was

Spoiler

A.

Spoiler

A: Finding shapes in clouds

Meredith comments that it's spooky that so many of the walk-away contestant's "just for fun" guesses have been the correct answer.

YouTube video...

(edited to add the youtube tag)

[doitneatly]

Meredith comments that it's spooky that so many of the walk-away contestant's "just for fun" guesses have been the correct answer.

Looking back at the transcripts, this will prove to be true for at least half of the ToT'ers. (9, 6, 5, 4, 3 - not counting Sam's correct answer)

"go with your gut", eh?

[Brit Canuck]

Meredith comments that it's spooky that so many of the walk-away contestant's "just for fun" guesses have been the correct answer.

I'd like to see her have another go in the Hot Seat, see how long it takes for her to get spooked.

Looking back at the transcripts, this will prove to be true for at least half of the ToT'ers. (9, 6, 5, 4, 3 - not counting Sam's correct answer)

"go with your gut", eh?

Problem is, the previous contestant went with his gut as well. Didn't help him out much.

[wintergreen48]

It's too bad he doesn't read Aristophanes: Nephelococcygia is a word Aristophanes made up in his play, The Birds, and it is the name of the perfect state that the birds create between earth and sky. 'Nephos' means 'cloud,' and 'koukos' means 'cuckoo' (the bird), and the usual translation of Nephelococcygia into English is 'Cloud Cuckoo Land.' In Aristophanes' play, one character tells another that he is nuts to see perfect shapes in the clouds.

The attempt to link it to 'kidney' is missing a piece-- 'kidney' would be 'nephros' and you need the 'r'. On the other hand, he was sort of right about the 'coccyx' thought, because 'coccyx' actually is based on the same Greek word as cuckoo-- the pointy bit at that portion of the back bone looks a bit like the beak of a cuckoo.

And all of this plays into some of my interests (as a former biology major in college with a lifetime interest in classical literature): there are a lot of biology terms that we use in the US that differ from the corresponding terms used in Britain, based upon language choice-- the Brits prefer Latin, we prefer Greek. So, for example (to tie into the 'kidney' thing) the Brits have 'adrenaline' and we have 'epinephrine,' which are the same thing, but one is from Latin 'ad' and 'ren' and the other is from Greek 'epi' and 'nephros,' both meaning 'on the kidney.' Lots of things like that, which can make it interesting if you are doing lab research with a group of Brits, or reading one of their research papers.

[earendel]

Jeff Birt
Louisville, KY
Fireman

$1,000,000
"Nephalococcygia" is the practice of doing what?
A: Finding shapes in clouds B: Sleeping with your eyes open
C: Breaking glass with your voice D: Swimming in freezing water

Jeff quietly focuses on the word for several seconds, and mentions that his first impulse upon seeing the question was an answer that didn't appear among the choices.

When prompted by Meredith, he explains that he was looking at "neph-" and thinking kidney, "cocc" a la the tailbone, so he was expecting something in the base of the spine perhaps. i.e. nothing that matches the choices at hand.

"Jeff: I'm also thinking a sweater was a really bad choice."
"Meredith: They've always called you a hot fireman..." Ba-dum-DUMP!

"I'm not getting the bold out of the blue that I was hoping for. The only thing that's looking good is the $100,000 that I already have."

With 1min 25sec remaining on the clock, Jeff decides to walk away with his $100,000.

Jeff's "just for fun" guess that he kept coming back to but couldn't justify was

Spoiler

A.

Spoiler

A: Finding shapes in clouds

Meredith comments that it's spooky that so many of the walk-away contestant's "just for fun" guesses have been the correct answer.

I'd have gotten this one right - knowing that "nephos" is the Greek word for "cloud". So far I'm 3 for 8 in knowing the questions.

[ghostjmf]

Million Q:

I had no idea. If a free guess, I would have guessed "D" on the theory that "neph" had something to do with the root for "nephron" & had to do with water. Would have been a bad free guess.

[gsabc]

It's too bad he doesn't read Aristophanes: Nephelococcygia is a word Aristophanes made up in his play, The Birds, and it is the name of the perfect state that the birds create between earth and sky. 'Nephos' means 'cloud,' and 'koukos' means 'cuckoo' (the bird), and the usual translation of Nephelococcygia into English is 'Cloud Cuckoo Land.' In Aristophanes' play, one character tells another that he is nuts to see perfect shapes in the clouds.

The attempt to link it to 'kidney' is missing a piece-- 'kidney' would be 'nephros' and you need the 'r'. On the other hand, he was sort of right about the 'coccyx' thought, because 'coccyx' actually is based on the same Greek word as cuckoo-- the pointy bit at that portion of the back bone looks a bit like the beak of a cuckoo.

And all of this plays into some of my interests (as a former biology major in college with a lifetime interest in classical literature): there are a lot of biology terms that we use in the US that differ from the corresponding terms used in Britain, based upon language choice-- the Brits prefer Latin, we prefer Greek. So, for example (to tie into the 'kidney' thing) the Brits have 'adrenaline' and we have 'epinephrine,' which are the same thing, but one is from Latin 'ad' and 'ren' and the other is from Greek 'epi' and 'nephros,' both meaning 'on the kidney.' Lots of things like that, which can make it interesting if you are doing lab research with a group of Brits, or reading one of their research papers.

JFF, wg, do you happen to know off the top of your head the terms for the other choices?

[wintergreen48]

JFF, wg, do you happen to know off the top of your head the terms for the other choices?

Well, 'Sleeping with your eyes open' is 'Capital One staff meeting.' The others, I am not so sure about.

I might possibly recognize one if it is based on appropriate roots.

'Sleeping with eyes open' most likely has something like '-ophthalmo-' ('eye) and '-hypno-' (sleep) in it, so if I saw that as the clue, I would go with that. 'anoigo' is 'open' and that would be another clue. Perfect would be something like 'anoigopthalmohypnosis' then I would go for it without a second thought.

I think that the swimming in freezing water is common in Finland (related to saunas, you should roll in the snow or jump in an ice pool after beating yourself with a stick; those are weird people); I am sure there must be a Finnish word for it, and while Finnish is not one of my languages, I can usually 'recognize' something as being Finnish, so if they clue was a Finnish word up there I would have picked 'Swimming in freezing water.' That would be an easy one for Estonut, since Finnish is basically Estonian with an accent.

'Breaking glass with your voice' probably also has clues in it. On the Greek side, it would probably have something like '-spas-' (for 'break') and '-gyali-' (for 'glass') and '-phon-' (for 'voice'), or if it were Latin it would have stuff like 'abrumpere' (for 'break') and '-voc-' or '-vox-' (for 'voice') and 'vitreo-' (for 'glass'), which would be useful.

[tanstaafl2]

JFF, wg, do you happen to know off the top of your head the terms for the other choices?

Well, 'Sleeping with your eyes open' is 'Capital One staff meeting.' The others, I am not so sure about.

I might possibly recognize one if it is based on appropriate roots.

'Sleeping with eyes open' most likely has something like '-ophthalmo-' ('eye) and '-hypno-' (sleep) in it, so if I saw that as the clue, I would go with that. 'anoigo' is 'open' and that would be another clue. Perfect would be something like 'anoigopthalmohypnosis' then I would go for it without a second thought.

I think that the swimming in freezing water is common in Finland (related to saunas, you should roll in the snow or jump in an ice pool after beating yourself with a stick; those are weird people); I am sure there must be a Finnish word for it, and while Finnish is not one of my languages, I can usually 'recognize' something as being Finnish, so if they clue was a Finnish word up there I would have picked 'Swimming in freezing water.' That would be an easy one for Estonut, since Finnish is basically Estonian with an accent.

'Breaking glass with your voice' probably also has clues in it. On the Greek side, it would probably have something like '-spas-' (for 'break') and '-gyali-' (for 'glass') and '-phon-' (for 'voice'), or if it were Latin it would have stuff like 'abrumpere' (for 'break') and '-voc-' or '-vox-' (for 'voice') and 'vitreo-' (for 'glass'), which would be useful.

For some of us B would be easy! Of course I had no idea about the others.

It's lagophthalmos. Apparently rabbits do it alot...

[Bob78164]

$1,000,000
"Nephalococcygia" is the practice of doing what?
A: Finding shapes in clouds B: Sleeping with your eyes open
C: Breaking glass with your voice D: Swimming in freezing water

Is this how it was spelled on the show? A quick Google search suggests that the correct spelling is nephElococcygia. --Bob

[TheConfessor]

$1,000,000
"Nephalococcygia" is the practice of doing what?
A: Finding shapes in clouds B: Sleeping with your eyes open
C: Breaking glass with your voice D: Swimming in freezing water

Is this how it was spelled on the show? A quick Google search suggests that the correct spelling is nephElococcygia. --Bob

A quick look at the spoiler image in the original post shows that WWTBAM spelled it right and the transcription has a typo.

[Estonut]

I think that the swimming in freezing water is common in Finland (related to saunas, you should roll in the snow or jump in an ice pool after beating yourself with a stick; those are weird people); I am sure there must be a Finnish word for it, and while Finnish is not one of my languages, I can usually 'recognize' something as being Finnish, so if they clue was a Finnish word up there I would have picked 'Swimming in freezing water.' That would be an easy one for Estonut, since Finnish is basically Estonian with an accent.

Thanks for the shout-out, wg48. Estonian is classified as a "Finno-Ugric" language, so we like to think that we took their language and prettied it up. The accent is the same, but their word-endings are all wonky. They speak some form of pig-Estonian.

As far as recognizing Finnish, this may sound like an old joke, but it's absolutely true. I remember the first time I heard it spoken "in the wild." I was on a ski trip and was going to meet someone at the main lodge. I heard 2 young ladies speaking what sounded like Estonian, but the words they used all had weird endings. Figuring they were speaking Finnish, I asked, "Excuse me, are you Finnish?" One of them said, "yeah, we're about to call it quits and head over to the lodge." I laughed and asked, "No, I meant are you speaking Finnish? Are you from Finland?" It turns out they were, indeed...

[NellyLunatic1980]

$1,000,000
"Nephelococcygia" is the practice of doing what?
A: Finding shapes in clouds B: Sleeping with your eyes open
C: Breaking glass with your voice D: Swimming in freezing water

Woohoo! The Greek pays off for me once again. "Nephos" was all I needed to lock in A.

Make it 8-for-8 for me. Could I actually go a perfect 10 before this million-dollar gimmick is over?