OT - Jeopardy: Did anyone hear what I heard?

John Steinberg wrote:

I haven't watched Jeopardy since Art Fleming was replaced by the ever
so smarmy Alex Trebek, but tonight my wife said you just have to watch
this kid play.

The kid is Ken Jennings, a 30-year-old software developer from Salt
Lake City, who has so far won over a million samolians on the program.

One of the questions on tonight's episode was about cities in Belgium.
Young Ken buzzed in and stammered out an answer that sounded like this:

``What is Broo-sells?''

No, says Trebeck, the correct answer is Brussels and it's not even
pronounced as Broo-sells over there....

Did my ears deceive me? Am I having flashbacks to Charles van Doren?
How could young Ken pronounce it as he had UNLESS he had crib notes and
just blew the pronunciation!?

Is this the first chink in the armor of a huge new gameshow scam, or am
I just crazy from the heat?

The heat John. It is odd though. Ya'd think a guy who can win so much
$$$, cribbed or not, would know the generic 'Merkin pronunciation. And
lets hope they stay well away from the seventh planet. ;-)

Shawn

or am
I just crazy from the heat?



Just crazy

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 23:45:16 GMT, John Steinberg wrote:

I haven't watched Jeopardy since Art Fleming was replaced by the ever
so smarmy Alex Trebek, but tonight my wife said you just have to watch
this kid play.

The kid is Ken Jennings, a 30-year-old software developer from Salt
Lake City, who has so far won over a million samolians on the program.

One of the questions on tonight's episode was about cities in Belgium.
Young Ken buzzed in and stammered out an answer that sounded like this:

``What is Broo-sells?''

No, says Trebeck, the correct answer is Brussels and it's not even
pronounced as Broo-sells over there....

Did my ears deceive me? Am I having flashbacks to Charles van Doren?
How could young Ken pronounce it as he had UNLESS he had crib notes and
just blew the pronunciation!?

The guy reads a lot. Sometimes people like that know what a word looks like, but
not necessarily how to say it. I'm guessing he was going for "Bruxelles", a
bizarre looking word to most English speakers and one that might well come out a
lot like what I heard him say.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

The French spelling is Bruxelles which, if my dim memories of high school
French (which I completed just before Neil Armstrong did his "Tranquility
Base" thing) don't fail me, would be pronounced broo-zells, to use an
English phonetic spelling.

I've never been off the North American continent, so I have no idea how most
Belgians pronounce the name of their capital. It seems like broo-zells ought
to be good enough for a silly damned quiz show, even if the contestant has
already taken it for more than $1M. Sounds more like they're trying to trip
up the young chap more than speed him on his way. (No, I don't usually watch
Jeopardy. I see it only when I'm visiting my elderly parents. I prefer Wheel
of Fortune, even though I ration myself to one "Where do they GET these
people?" per show.)

Address altered. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"John Steinberg" wrote in message
...
I haven't watched Jeopardy since Art Fleming was replaced by the ever
so smarmy Alex Trebek, but tonight my wife said you just have to watch
this kid play.

The kid is Ken Jennings, a 30-year-old software developer from Salt
Lake City, who has so far won over a million samolians on the program.

One of the questions on tonight's episode was about cities in Belgium.
Young Ken buzzed in and stammered out an answer that sounded like this:

``What is Broo-sells?''

No, says Trebeck, the correct answer is Brussels and it's not even
pronounced as Broo-sells over there....

Did my ears deceive me? Am I having flashbacks to Charles van Doren?
How could young Ken pronounce it as he had UNLESS he had crib notes and
just blew the pronunciation!?

Is this the first chink in the armor of a huge new gameshow scam, or am
I just crazy from the heat?

--
-John Steinberg
email: lid

John Steinberg wrote:
[drivel about some game show on US TV]

I think your continued willingness to start clearly off-topic threads is
appalling. When are you gonna get it, John?

John Steinberg wrote:
The kid is Ken Jennings, a 30-year-old software developer from Salt
Lake City, who has so far won over a million samolians on the program.

He is something of a ringer, my friend who has been in a college bowl
told me, in that Ken Jennings is also a college bowler, so to speak.
Nothing illegal about that, but it does mean that he has talents ideally
suited to playing Jeopardy. Namely, a broad knowledge of useless trivia.

Whereas I, of course, have broad knowledge of exceedingly useful trivia.
Go on, just ask me about the life cycle of popcorn parasites in school
art projects.

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt

Brian Tung wrote:
John Steinberg wrote:

The kid is Ken Jennings, a 30-year-old software developer from Salt
Lake City, who has so far won over a million samolians on the program.


He is something of a ringer, my friend who has been in a college bowl
told me, in that Ken Jennings is also a college bowler, so to speak.
Nothing illegal about that, but it does mean that he has talents ideally
suited to playing Jeopardy. Namely, a broad knowledge of useless trivia.

Whereas I, of course, have broad knowledge of exceedingly useful trivia.

At this point I was waiting for a long list of your knowledge of
"useful" astonomy trivia :-)

Go on, just ask me about the life cycle of popcorn parasites in school
art projects.

John Steinberg wrote:
Greg Crinklaw wrote:


I think your continued willingness to start clearly off-topic threads is
appalling. When are you gonna get it, John?


Appalling? Wow! Well, Greg, I happen to think your belligerence is an
embarrassment and a certifiable waste of bandwidth.

Save your sanctimonious lectures for your Yahoo group, Greg. Your net
cop routine is insipid and futile. It's also equally off-topic,
Einstein.

BTW, your behavior also reflects very well on your status as a
merchant. I know *I* would want to buy something from the likes of
you. Gawd, what an unpleasant runt you can be.

Oh yeah, I'm the one who is unpleasant and you are a saint. I think
anyone reading your response would think otherwise, sir.

So how about it? You seem to be aware that this is an astronomy group.
You aren't a newbie, so clearly you must know that the vast majority
of people here expect it to remain on topic. So what gives you the
special right to post off topic dribble? As I've asked before, how
about a little respect for the other people here? Too much to ask?

Apparently.

John Steinberg wrote:
[more insipid arrogance]

Ok, I didn't want to, but if you are going to continue be so
disrespectful of myself and the others here with your insults and off
topic rants, then...

PLONK

John Steinberg wrote:

No, says Trebeck, the correct answer is Brussels and it's not even
pronounced as Broo-sells over there....

Then Trebeck is full of excrement and my never watching quiz TV [1] is
once again rewarded.

[1] well, at least since "You Bet Your Life" went off the air...

.... viaduct.