Millionaire 2017-18 Season Discussion [SPOILERS]

[econgator]

It looks like Central Park is said to have 26,000 trees, certainly seemed quite plausible that this number could be in the 9,000s. Anyone have a good reason why one should know to go benches over trees? Maybe the precise number given? Obviously every bench had to be procured and installed, so would make sense to have an exact count, while trees would be tougher to pin down.

The precision of the number solidified it for me, but having been to Central Park numerous times, 9500-ish just seemed to be way too few.

[acthomas]

It looks like Central Park is said to have 26,000 trees, certainly seemed quite plausible that this number could be in the 9,000s. Anyone have a good reason why one should know to go benches over trees? Maybe the precise number given? Obviously every bench had to be procured and installed, so would make sense to have an exact count, while trees would be tougher to pin down.

I thought it was going to be trees for sure. Central Park is about 50 short blocks by 3 long blocks, which means on average there would have to be 60 benches per square block to get to 9,000 total, and that's assuming there are benches in the reservoir... which means they have to line the paths or something like that to get that kind of density. Is that right, people who live there?

[IronNeck]

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Quite surprised that a trivia regular wouldn't have a basic knowledge of Henry VIII's wives. Beyond that, I think Lynn fell into the trap of overrating how much one can "think through" the questions on her last one. I don't know what her specific thought process was, but while miles of pathways and species of birds seems less likely (although neither one can be completely discredited), I agree with others that it's not clear whether benches or trees is correct unless one has specific knowledge of Central Park.

Okay, so she got a 50/50 or 60/40 there, and besides, $30k is a floor so she can afford to gamble. But buoyed by that success, she was confident to risk it on the next question, which was at best a 1 in 3 shot. (Red Riding Hood seems unlikely)

[alietr]

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Quite surprised that a trivia regular wouldn't have a basic knowledge of Henry VIII's wives. Beyond that, I think Lynn fell into the trap of overrating how much one can "think through" the questions on her last one. I don't know what her specific thought process was, but while miles of pathways and species of birds seems less likely (although neither one can be completely discredited), I agree with others that it's not clear whether benches or trees is correct unless one has specific knowledge of Central Park.

Okay, so she got a 50/50 or 60/40 there, and besides, $30k is a floor so she can afford to gamble. But buoyed by that success, she was confident to risk it on the next question, which was at best a 1 in 3 shot. (Red Riding Hood seems unlikely)

You're not risking anything on the $100k question. It's a free guess.

[IronNeck]

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Quite surprised that a trivia regular wouldn't have a basic knowledge of Henry VIII's wives. Beyond that, I think Lynn fell into the trap of overrating how much one can "think through" the questions on her last one. I don't know what her specific thought process was, but while miles of pathways and species of birds seems less likely (although neither one can be completely discredited), I agree with others that it's not clear whether benches or trees is correct unless one has specific knowledge of Central Park.

Okay, so she got a 50/50 or 60/40 there, and besides, $30k is a floor so she can afford to gamble. But buoyed by that success, she was confident to risk it on the next question, which was at best a 1 in 3 shot. (Red Riding Hood seems unlikely)

You're not risking anything on the $100k question. It's a free guess.

Oops, I thought $30k was the floor; turns out it was $50k. Shows you how closely I've been following the show since the Regis days!

In that case, Lynn played optimally. I like the aggressive 50/50 guess on $30k, and she had a free crack at it on $50k.

[seaborgium]

Lynn wrote up a piece about her appearance.

[LanceJ]

Hey folks,

I'll be appearing on the May 30 episode. Please feel free to direct all insults, vitriol, kibitzing, pity, and ultimately, sympathy(?) to me directly

[MarkBarrett]

Some of the questions from the 5/25 episode:

Spoiler

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Emily Herndon: http://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=9446 going for $10,000

Next:

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Emily used her ATA and they gave her:
55% - Pituitary gland
22% - Gall bladder
18% - Spleen
5% - Duodenum

Next:

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Emily went with the audience's choice.
$20,000

Next:

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Emily used her 50:50 and it left Jeannette Rankin & Carol Moseley Braun.

Next:

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Emily knew enough about Carol MB's history to lock it in.
$30,000

Emily's last lifeline was a friend.

Next:

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The friend knew the Eiffel Tower was built first.  The friend recently stayed at the Paris in Vegas.  The friend knew there is a replica Eiffel Tower there about 500' and half the size of the real one in France.  He steered Emily towards The Eiffel Tower with fairly strong confidence.

Next:

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Emily left with $5,000 as the correct answer was Chrysler Building.

********
LanceJ congrats on finally getting the news of your airdate. Results good or bad I'll work up some kind of post next Wednesday.

[alietr]

Next:

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The friend knew the Eiffel Tower was built first.  The friend recently stayed at the Paris in Vegas.  The friend knew there is a replica Eiffel Tower there about 500' and half the size of the real one in France.  He steered Emily towards The Eiffel Tower with fairly strong confidence.

Next:

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Emily left with $5,000 as the correct answer was Chrysler Building.

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Interesting. I thought the Eiffel Tower was under 1,000'. When I looked it up, Google spits out "984′, 1,063′ to tip".

[MarkBarrett]

I had enough recollection of J! clues like these to get it:

Spoiler

#5868, aired 2010-03-03 WHAT'S NEXT ON THE LIST? $2000: World's tallest building: The Eiffel Tower, surpassed by the Chrysler Building, surpassed by...
#4590, aired 2004-07-16 THE TOWER $4,200 (Daily Double): Upon its completion in 1930, the Chrysler Building beat out this structure as the world's tallest
Final Jeopardy! Round clues (1 result returned)
#3135, aired 1998-03-27 FAMOUS STRUCTURES: In 1930 the Chrysler Building surpassed this foreign structure by over 60 feet to become the world's tallest

ETA: Adding one more that matters:

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#4333, aired 2003-06-04 AN AMERICAN IN PARIS $1200: (Jimmy) In 1957, one of these changed the height of the Eiffel Tower from 984 to 1,052 feet

[acthomas]

I had enough recollection of J! clues like these to get it:

Spoiler

#5868, aired 2010-03-03 WHAT'S NEXT ON THE LIST? $2000: World's tallest building: The Eiffel Tower, surpassed by the Chrysler Building, surpassed by...
#4590, aired 2004-07-16 THE TOWER $4,200 (Daily Double): Upon its completion in 1930, the Chrysler Building beat out this structure as the world's tallest
Final Jeopardy! Round clues (1 result returned)
#3135, aired 1998-03-27 FAMOUS STRUCTURES: In 1930 the Chrysler Building surpassed this foreign structure by over 60 feet to become the world's tallest

ETA: Adding one more that matters:

Spoiler

#4333, aired 2003-06-04 AN AMERICAN IN PARIS $1200: (Jimmy) In 1957, one of these changed the height of the Eiffel Tower from 984 to 1,052 feet

That last one is the kicker. The +1 probably knew that the height of the tower today made the cut, but not during the time period in question.

[alietr]

Spoiler

A little further digging reveals that a TV antenna added on top in the 50s made it taller than the Chrysler building. The question was correct.

[LucarioSnooperVixey]

ETA: Adding one more that matters:

Spoiler

#4333, aired 2003-06-04 AN AMERICAN IN PARIS $1200: (Jimmy) In 1957, one of these changed the height of the Eiffel Tower from 984 to 1,052 feet

Dun Dun DUUUUUUUNNNNN!!!!!

[seaborgium]

Next:

Spoiler

The friend knew the Eiffel Tower was built first.  The friend recently stayed at the Paris in Vegas.  The friend knew there is a replica Eiffel Tower there about 500' and half the size of the real one in France.  He steered Emily towards The Eiffel Tower with fairly strong confidence.

Next:

Spoiler

Emily left with $5,000 as the correct answer was Chrysler Building.

Spoiler

Interesting. I thought the Eiffel Tower was under 1,000'. When I looked it up, Google spits out "984′, 1,063′ to tip".

It becomes a question of when antennas were put on. Its official web site says that an FM radio transmitter put up in 1957 made it 320.75 meters. There seems to be an implication that the structure itself acted as an antenna for earlier transmissions.
edit: In all my research and typing I have been soundly beaten to the same point.

I thought of a way to rule it out, but not before I would have made it my final answer.

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The Eiffel Tower would have had its height measured in meters. 1,000 feet is 333.33 yards, which converts to around 307 meters. Of course hindsight is 20/20, but it seems more likely that the Eiffel Tower would have been built to be exactly 300 meters rather than 310 or 325 or another arbitrary height that clears 1,000 feet.

[IronNeck]

Sometimes less knowledge is a good thing.

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I confidently believed the Eiffel Tower was 900 something feet and the Chrysler was over 1000 feet and before the Empire State building, ergo the correct answer

[econgator]

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The Eiffel Tower would have had its height measured in meters. 1,000 feet is 333.33 yards, which converts to around 307 meters. Of course hindsight is 20/20, but it seems more likely that the Eiffel Tower would have been built to be exactly 300 meters rather than 310 or 325 or another arbitrary height that clears 1,000 feet.

Which is really good thinking. The wiki page has a drawing of the original plan and the top of the page shows it to be a tower of 300 meters.

[Johnblue]

On my recent trip to London, I took in “Quiz” in mid-May. It’s about the brit version of WWTBAM & a scandal involving an unlikely winner on the show. There’s a withering portrayal of Chris Tarrant & a bit of audience voting. I recommend it!

[IronNeck]

On my recent trip to London, I took in “Quiz” in mid-May. It’s about the brit version of WWTBAM & a scandal involving an unlikely winner on the show. There’s a withering portrayal of Chris Tarrant & a bit of audience voting. I recommend it!

There was a documentary of this called "Major Fraud" which I've seen and which one can still find pieced together on Youtube. Also worth watching.

[MarkBarrett]

This is the complete 5/30 episode with LanceJ appearing: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1s-tHz ... 5p9Yyd2U7v

[LanceJ]

This is the complete 5/30 episode with LanceJ appearing:

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Wonderful! Thank you so much. I'll go ahead and download this later today so if you need to use the space for anything else after today, feel free to take it down