Transcript 10/05/11 Noam Osband (carryover contest

[BBTranscriptTeam]

Noam Osband
Philadelphia, PA

Topic Tree, as it stands: (Randomized)
5: Flavorful Food
7: Run in the Sun
4: $15,000
1: $500
2: $5,000
10: jumped ($3,000)
8: ATA $7,000
9: jumped ($25,000)
6: $2,000
3: $100

Noam has no lifelines remaining. His bank is at $29,600

Question 9- Level 7 - Run in the Sun

The Midnight Sun Marathon is an annual competition in what European country?

A: Spain B: Italy
C: Norway D: Greece

Answer and value

C: Norway
Value: $1,000
Bank: $30,600

Question 10 - Level 5 - Flavorful Food

What does the "S" stand for in the name of the food aditive MSG?

A: Sucrose B: Starch
C: Sodium D: Soy

Spoiler

"I don't like Chinese takeout very much, and now I like it even less."

He wants to go for it. He knows it's in Chinese food. Sucrose seems wrong, because it's a sweetener. He doesn't think they have soy in everything. It must be starch or sodium. He thinks MSG must be used to preserve, and preserved foods are often salty.

Answer and value

C: Sodium
Value: $10,000
Bank: $40,600

CLASSIC MILLIONAIRE

Question 11 - $100K

The word "tattoo" is said to have been first introduced to the English language in a diary entry of what world explorer?

A: Leif Erikson B: Ferdinand Magellan
C: James Cook D: Vasco da Gama

Spoiler

This fact was not in the report on Magellan he wrote in the 4th grade. He thinks that James Cook is the only English explorer on the list, (At this point James Cook lights up yellow onscreen for a brief moment, before going back to black.) and "tattoo" is an English word. He's going for it.

Answer

C: James Cook

Commercial break.

Noam says that he'd be willing to gamble on this question if he can knock out 2 or even 1 of the worng answers.

Question 12 - $250K

While "web" was the American Dialect Society's "Word of the 1990s," what was its "Word of the Twentieth Century"?

A: Teenager B: Jazz
C: DNA D: Freedom

Spoiler

He thinks the American Dialect Society would have to honor a word that was American and one that was originally slang. Also he played bass in his high school jazz band. $250,000 would buy a lot of jazz records. He says B, final answer.

Answer

B: Jazz

That's more money than he's made in his entire life. He's not gonna have to write so many grant applications now.

Question 13 - $500K

When the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, which of these artists was questioned as a possible suspect?

A: Claude Monet B: Henri Matisse
C: Edgar Degas D: Pablo Picasso

He was hoping that 3 of them wouldn't have been alive in 1911.

Spoiler

Monet and Degas would have been older. Picasso lived in Paris for a time. He thinks either B or D and really wants to go for it. Matisse seems less well known than the others. Picasso seems too obvious. He says "B... I have no idea!" He'd feel dumb walking if he knew the answer. But he has no idea. Meredith adds if he got it right, it would be dumb luck, "Either way, there's a 'dumb' in there."

"I think I'll leave with the $250,000 becase I really don't know."

Answer

D: Pablo Picasso

Commercial break.

[secondchance]

Wow. What an exciting run! A little kooky, but an amazing player.


Geeeeez, he was thisclose to losing that money. A true edge-of-your-seater.

[peacock2121]

This is one I wish I had seen.

[themanwho]

Noam won $25,799 on Jeopardy exactly 2 years ago tomorrow.

Noam's appearance has been posted to YouTube, by someone called "wwtbamdotbiz". Could that be anyone we know, I wonder?

-M

[themanwho]

Also, here is an article from this August at Slate.com that I suspect may have inspired Noam's $500,000 question:

Who Stole the Mona Lisa?

-M

[15QuestionsAway]

Noam won $25,799 on Jeopardy exactly 2 years ago tomorrow.

Noam's appearance has been posted to YouTube, by someone called "wwtbamdotbiz". Could that be anyone we know, I wonder?

-M

Um, I have no idea what you're talking about. And by "have no idea", I mean "know":

Noam's in here

Part 1's in Noam's other transcript thread.

[earendel]

Noam Osband
Philadelphia, PA

Question 10 - Level 5 - Flavorful Food

What does the "S" stand for in the name of the food aditive MSG?

A: Sucrose B: Starch
C: Sodium D: Soy

Spoiler

"I don't like Chinese takeout very much, and now I like it even less."

He wants to go for it. He knows it's in Chinese food. Sucrose seems wrong, because it's a sweetener. He doesn't think they have soy in everything. It must be starch or sodium. He thinks MSG must be used to preserve, and preserved foods are often salty.

Answer and value

C: Sodium
Value: $10,000
Bank: $40,600

When he said he knew that MSG was found in Chinese foods I was afraid he was going to go with "soy". But he reasoned it out.

Question 11 - $100K

The word "tattoo" is said to have been first introduced to the English language in a diary entry of what world explorer?

A: Leif Erikson B: Ferdinand Magellan
C: James Cook D: Vasco da Gama

Spoiler

This fact was not in the report on Magellan he wrote in the 4th grade. He thinks that James Cook is the only English explorer on the list, (At this point James Cook lights up yellow onscreen for a brief moment, before going back to black.) and "tattoo" is an English word. He's going for it.

Answer

C: James Cook

Pretty easy for this level - Cook was the only one likely to have introduced a word to the English language.

Question 12 - $250K

While "web" was the American Dialect Society's "Word of the 1990s," what was its "Word of the Twentieth Century"?

A: Teenager B: Jazz
C: DNA D: Freedom

Spoiler

He thinks the American Dialect Society would have to honor a word that was American and one that was originally slang. Also he played bass in his high school jazz band. $250,000 would buy a lot of jazz records. He says B, final answer.

Answer

B: Jazz

Once again he did a good job of reasoning this out. I wasn't sure but "jazz" was my first instinct.

Question 13 - $500K

When the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, which of these artists was questioned as a possible suspect?

A: Claude Monet B: Henri Matisse
C: Edgar Degas D: Pablo Picasso

He was hoping that 3 of them wouldn't have been alive in 1911.

Spoiler

Monet and Degas would have been older. Picasso lived in Paris for a time. He thinks either B or D and really wants to go for it. Matisse seems less well known than the others. Picasso seems too obvious. He says "B... I have no idea!" He'd feel dumb walking if he knew the answer. But he has no idea. Meredith adds if he got it right, it would be dumb luck, "Either way, there's a 'dumb' in there."

"I think I'll leave with the $250,000 becase I really don't know."

Answer

D: Pablo Picasso

Noam really agonized over this decision. As for me my instinct was the same as his (Matisse), but I'd still have a lifeline available (ATA) and would give that a try before walking away.

[vettech]

Question 11 - $100K

The word "tattoo" is said to have been first introduced to the English language in a diary entry of what world explorer?

A: Leif Erikson B: Ferdinand Magellan
C: James Cook D: Vasco da Gama

Spoiler

This fact was not in the report on Magellan he wrote in the 4th grade. He thinks that James Cook is the only English explorer on the list, (At this point James Cook lights up yellow onscreen for a brief moment, before going back to black.) and "tattoo" is an English word. He's going for it.

Answer

C: James Cook

Pretty easy for this level - Cook was the only one likely to have introduced a word to the English language.

That was my reasoning, too.

OMG, this guy was making me so nervous. As I've mentioned before, I really feel the highs and lows of this show more intensely now. On the $500k question everytime he said he had no idea I was screaming "THEN WALK!!!!!!" Big sigh of relief when he finally did. I may need to start taking Valium before watching this show now.

[CarShark]

This run reminded me just how exciting this show can still be. I'm not sure if much of his logic was sound, but l just enjoyed seeing him go for it. After weeks of "I think I know, but I'm not 100% sure...," it's refreshing to see a bit of daring. This was the kind of contestant we'd see with some regularity on the prime-time show.

I was surprised to hear the answer to the $250,000 question. I thought for sure it would be A:Teenager, because the word was nonexistent before the war, and now everything in the country seemingly is about attracting the young demographic.

[MarleysGh0st]

I was surprised to hear the answer to the $250,000 question. I thought for sure it would be A:Teenager, because the word was nonexistent before the war, and now everything in the country seemingly is about attracting the young demographic.

I don't know who gets to vote, whether it's all members of the ADC or just some select nominating committee, but the vote wasn't even close.

http://www.americandialect.org/index.ph ... word_of_t/

For Word of the Century, jazz got 50 votes to about 12 for runner-up DNA. Also in the running were the slang cool (10), media (9), T-shirt (7), teenager (6), acronym (4), teddy bear (3), World War (2) and melting pot (0).

I wonder if ghostjmf is upset at the Word of the Last Millennium?

Word of the Past Millennium was she.

Yes, she, the feminine pronoun. Before the year 1000, there was no she in English; just heo, which singular females had to share with plurals of all genders because it meant they as well. In the twelfth century, however, she appeared, and she has been with us ever since. She may derive from the Old English feminine demonstrative pronoun seo or sio, or from Viking invasions.

It's like they've got something against they!

[Estonut]

Question 11 - $100K

The word "tattoo" is said to have been first introduced to the English language in a diary entry of what world explorer?

A: Leif Erikson B: Ferdinand Magellan
C: James Cook D: Vasco da Gama

Spoiler

This fact was not in the report on Magellan he wrote in the 4th grade. He thinks that James Cook is the only English explorer on the list, (At this point James Cook lights up yellow onscreen for a brief moment, before going back to black.) and "tattoo" is an English word. He's going for it.

Answer

C: James Cook

Pretty easy for this level - Cook was the only one likely to have introduced a word to the English language.

Coming from the other side, although I didn't know the complete list of who explored where, I know there's lots of stuff in New Zealand named after Cook, and he would have been highly likely to have run into Maoris there. They'e been wearing tattoos for what, millennia?

[SportsFan68]

I wish I had seen this too.

Question 9- Level 7 - Run in the Sun

The Midnight Sun Marathon is an annual competition in what European country?

A: Spain B: Italy
C: Norway D: Greece

Well, considering only one of them has a midnight sun . . .

Question 10 - Level 5 - Flavorful Food

What does the "S" stand for in the name of the food aditive MSG?

A: Sucrose B: Starch
C: Sodium D: Soy

MonoSodium Glutamate

I remember when it was marketed as Accent. That ended quick when people started getting heartburn and other ills from the stuff.

Great game, Noam!

[Bob Juch]

Love the belt! Ostrich?

[MarleysGh0st]

Question 10 - Level 5 - Flavorful Food

What does the "S" stand for in the name of the food aditive MSG?

A: Sucrose B: Starch
C: Sodium D: Soy

MonoSodium Glutamate

I remember when it was marketed as Accent. That ended quick when people started getting heartburn and other ills from the stuff.

Accent is still on the market.

If the 4 oz shakers aren't enough for you, here's a place that will sell it by the 25 pound bag!

[SportsFan68]

Question 10 - Level 5 - Flavorful Food

What does the "S" stand for in the name of the food aditive MSG?

A: Sucrose B: Starch
C: Sodium D: Soy

MonoSodium Glutamate

I remember when it was marketed as Accent. That ended quick when people started getting heartburn and other ills from the stuff.

Accent is still on the market.

If the 4 oz shakers aren't enough for you, here's a place that will sell it by the 25 pound bag!

Wow! Thanks, Marley!

That's hard for me to believe about a substance with such adverse effects, but there's the evidence. Restaurants post "NO MSG" in their front windows. Now I wonder if they're lying. Sigh.

The local Krogers doesn't sell Accent.

[silvercamaro]

That's hard for me to believe about a substance with such adverse effects, but there's the evidence. Restaurants post "NO MSG" in their front windows. Now I wonder if they're lying. Sigh.

The local Krogers doesn't sell Accent.

MSG has no adverse effects for the great majority of people, for whom it supposedly does act as a flavor enhancer. My understanding is that a small percentage of folks may have some kind of genetic anomaly that causes the substance to be processed differently in the body, leaving them with headaches or other temporary complaints. Since hardly anyone would know whether he might be among the small group, a lot of people avoid MSG "just in case." That means lower sales for Accent in grocery stores (with some, as you noted, deciding to stop stocking the product,) and restaurants advertising "no MSG" in hopes of attracting more customers. I don't see why the restaurants would have any reason to lie about this, so I am puzzled by your reaction.

[SportsFan68]

That's hard for me to believe about a substance with such adverse effects, but there's the evidence. Restaurants post "NO MSG" in their front windows. Now I wonder if they're lying. Sigh.

The local Krogers doesn't sell Accent.

MSG has no adverse effects for the great majority of people, for whom it supposedly does act as a flavor enhancer. My understanding is that a small percentage of folks may have some kind of genetic anomaly that causes the substance to be processed differently in the body, leaving them with headaches or other temporary complaints. Since hardly anyone would know whether he might be among the small group, a lot of people avoid MSG "just in case." That means lower sales for Accent in grocery stores (with some, as you noted, deciding to stop stocking the product,) and restaurants advertising "no MSG" in hopes of attracting more customers. I don't see why the restaurants would have any reason to lie about this, so I am puzzled by your reaction.

As you say, they don't want to scare away the "just in case" customers. What makes me wonder now if they're lying is that I thought that public preference had pressured food purveyors into dropping it, but that is not the case. That, in conjunction with the reactions of some people who are MSG-sensitive after eating at "NO MSG" restaurants, makes me wonder if they're lying.