For starters, lay off Regis. I think it takes talent to stretch 9 minutes of material into a half hour show.
Second, the only reason this show pisses off everyone is because deep down we would all switch places with those “fucking morons” in a minute.
1.) I’ve not seen litmus paper turn red. Pink, yes. Red, like fire-engine-slit-throat-EffEmm-red…no. So that question made me angry.
2.) I had no idea that Mia Farrow was the first person to grace the cover of People magazine. Anyone here know that one?
3.) Little Jack Horner pulled a BLACKBIRD out of the pie?!?!?!?!?!? 
:eek: :mad:
I would’ve at least laughed if he’d answered d.) Little Jill Horner
Gimme ‘Tic Tac Dough’ with Wink Martindale any day…
Insanity destroys logic, but not wit. Nathaniel Emmons
If we are out of our mind, it is for the Lord; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 2Cor.5:13
What do you do when it’s your own mother who can’t answer those questions? Y’all remember that I saw Mom again over the holidays and we watched Millionaire and I was saying “A, B, D, B, C…” and Mom was saying, “I don’t know, I didn’t know that, is THAT right…?”
I read a lot.
She reads only a little.
End of story.
As for Millionaire being rigged, I think the contestants really do not know the answers in advance and no one is ever told to take a dive, which is what happened in Quiz Show. Samurai, the show isn’t rigged, it’s edited. Mom said she read a story where one guy took twenty minutes before saying “That’s my final answer.” They, of course, edited it down to two minutes or less. The pre-printed checks are easy: They know who the ten finalists are, the folks who try to put the answers in the correct order the fastest. So I presume they simply make up all the checks they need with the contestants’ names on them and destroy the ones they never use.
You know the qualifying round where ten people have to put the answers in the correct order? What do they do if NO ONE gets them in the right order? “Name the first four people who died on the Titanic, in order. Go!” I guess they give them another question and simply don’t air the one where everyone failed.
I know one thing about this show: It doesn’t make our public-school system look good.
(Wait a minute, I went to a public school. Well, maybe I succeeded in spite of it. Well, maybe it was a good school anyway. Well, maybe…)
Maybe I’ll start a topic on public schools over at Great Debates. Or has that already been done?
>< DARWIN >
__L___L
David,
I missed millionaire last night, and I can’t believe some idiot missed the first question! What was it?
Jeff
milroyj,
The $100 question that the guy missed was “Little Jack Hoerner stuck his thumb in a pie and pulled out a:”
a. ribbon
b. ? (can’t remember)
c. blackbird
d. plum
The contestant replied “blackbird”…the correct answer was “plum”
Krispy Original – voted SDMB’s 19th most popular poster (1999)
BTW, it seemed to me and my son as though the low-dollar questions were a little more tough last night than they had been in earlier shows…did anyone else think so?
Krispy Original – voted SDMB’s 19th most popular poster (1999)
Um, I knew that Mia was on the cover of the first People magazine. I also knew that Michangelo is credited with designing the uniforms of the Swiss Guard.
What I didn’t know was what show NSync’s members originally appeared on. I still don’t care.
Krish said:
Actually, that one isn’t so far from the truth in my experience. In fact, when the question came on, I said to my wife, “He’s a lawyer – he won’t get this one!” Then the guy said the same thing. When I told this to two lawyer coworkers today, neither had a clue which one was the non-integer. (I knew one wouldn’t, as she had told me she became a lawyer because she couldn’t do math.)
I am terrible at math. I cried all the time in math class because I couldn’t get it. In highschool, they let me take the lowest math course without it being remedial math. I still cried from frustration.
Consequently, I didn’t learn algebra. To this day if you ask me what an “integer” is, I’d have no clue. I do not know “simple” math things like that. I draw a blank at questions like, “Canthearya, Handy, and Opalcat are sharing a pizza. Cantheaya eats 1/4 of it. Handy eats 2/3 of the rest. How much did Opalcat eat?” My brain hurts just thinking of that.
So please don’t assume people should know things because “everybody knows THAT!”
Funny thing is, Greg is so good at math that he was put in an accelerated math class and is learning algebra now. I look at his school papers and have no clue how to do that stuff.
MaryAnn
I’m sorry you didn’t win, mom, but I’ll give you a constellation prize! -Greg
Assuming OpalCat ate all the remaining pizza, she had 1/2 of the pizza. 
No, she ate a quarter. Geez.
Don’t feel bad, though. I still don’t really know what the hell Duck Duck Goose is.
APB, kids sit in a circle on the ground/floor, facing the center. “It” walks around outside of circle tapping each sitter, in turn, saying “duck” with each tap. When “it” says “goose” instead of “duck”, the person tapped “goose” must leap to his/her feet and chase tapper around the circle. If tapper sits in "goose"s spot before being tagged, “goose” is “it”. If “goose” tags tapper, tapper remains “it” for next round.
Tom~
You guys are forgetting the most hilarious one, though. “What was the pen name of Samuel Clemens?” They guy decided to phone an old teacher and when she said “Mark Twain” he actually asked her “Are you sure?” Her condescending reply? “YES, dear.”
That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball!
I agree with Bricker: Opal cat ate 50% not 25% of the pizza. Did the pizza have pepperoni, mushrooms, and sausage toppings on it?
Well, yeah, but the guy was a law student at Yale. Last I looked, it’d be pretty hard to get there without some math in college…
Has Cecil offered Himself up as a lifeline ? At a fee, no doubt, but still seems a better choice than most.
If the pizza had pepperoni or sausage, Opalcat didn’t eat ANY of it. Last I heard, she’s a vegetarian.
Lynn the Packrat
This is not a difficult problem (except for Opalcat’s aversion to pepperoni). The problem is that I, in attempting to show how smart I am, committed the sin of haste. I am now wearing the dunce cap, and explain APB’s correct answer as follows:
Math approach: Cantheaya eats 1/4. There remains 3/4. Handy eats 2/3 of that 3/4. 2/3 of 3/4 is 6/12, or 1/2 of the pizza eaten by Handy. So Cantheaya eats 1/4, Handy eats 1/2, and remaining is 1/4 for Opal.
Commonsense approach: Cantheaya eats 1/4. So picture the pie cut into four large slices. Canth eats one of the slices. There are three left. Handy eats 2/3 of what’s left. He’s looking at 3 slices, and eats two of them (2/3). There’s one slice left for Opal (1/4).
Nice catch, APB.
Jorge said:
Good point! Ok, if I get on the show, I’m using Cecil as a lifeline!
Krispy Said:
Actually, ‘b’ was plum. ‘d’ was Little Jill Horner. No lie. 
Only reason I remembered it. I was picturing him sticking in his thumb, and oh wait nevermind.