Recent politics have apparently made the idea of selling (out) democracy mainstream?
While today’s game (4/29) turned out to be a competitive game that was okay to watch, I was really disappointed when none of the three contestants knew how many feet were in a mile.
I was thinking the same thing. Reminds me of “Solution Provider”; a way to sound impressive without actually commiting to anything specific.
I could only tell you “five thousand and change.”
Well, it’s simple! 
Everyone knows a drag strip is a quarter mile long, and people refer to it as the 1320. So you take 1320 and multiply it by four…ummm…wait…4000 plus 1200 plus “I’m sorry time has expired”.
I thought it was simple, anyway!
That’s one of those relatively worthless facts that I’ve known forever. Obviously it’s not as well-known as I thought.
Note also that the clue said “statute mile.” I suspect the contestants were not sure if a statute mile is the same thing as a regular mile, or if it’s one of those weird miles that aren’t really miles, like a nautical mile or a Roman mile.
That is a good point.
Indeed! This is a question for Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? No pride in knowing this Triple Stumper.
The one that bugged me was no one knew Freaks and Geeks. I liked Ken adding “Great show”.
I’ve always known it was 52-something. Then I figured out that it had to be an even multiple of 3, since there are an integer number of yards in a mile. That helps me remember that it’s 5280.
Horse racing makes it easier. One mile, eight furlongs, 1760 yards, 5280 feet.
I don’t know of anything else that uses furlongs, but they’re pretty easy: 220 yards in a furlong, thus 660 feet. Making a drag strip 2 furlongs, or 440 yards, or 1320 feet.
But I doubt very much that quarter horses, as fast as they are, would be racing against a dragster.
It’s my understanding that the importance of the furlong is precisely why the English mile is 5280 feet, rather than a nice round number like 5000 feet.
I did not know that.
Anyway, a top fuel dragster does the quarter mile* in about four seconds, so that equates to** 604,800 furlongs per fortnight. If they could sustain that speed.***
*Yes they only run 1000 feet in the TF and FC class. I’m rounding
** I sure hope I didn’t embarrass myself with a math error
*** Yes drag racing is accelerating, not absolute top speed. If a top fueler could sustain the acceleration for a fortnight, I suspect they hit about .90c
Not to mention a country mile.
I snorted with condescension and confidently declared “That’s easy! 5,218 feet.” Then the voice in my head suggested I double check and I was humbled. At least “eighteen” and “eighty” almost rhyme or something.
Or metric miles.
There sure are a lot of triple stumpers these last couple days.
But, on the lighter side, I did like how the champion said she was from “Mwahkee”.
I know, as a Gen Xer I was feeling pretty smart regarding pop music. But then, two of the kids figured out that “Bernini” FJ and I blew it.