Thursday, January 29, 2009

What is nerdy TV, Alex?


Claire and I both took the Jeopardy! online test tonight. We're both well-educated folks and I think we both could have done better. Claire (holder of an A.A., a B.A., a Masters and a J.D.) got 31 out of 50. I (holder of an A.S., an A.A. and two B.A.s) got 39 -- or 38, depending how a poorly phrased question about where "Magellan was from" is graded (he was born in Portugal but sailed for Spain, which we both put).

The test itself wasn't that hard -- getting the answers (or questions in this case) within 15 seconds was. The answers and questions are on the Jeopardy! website in a forum thread.

Neither of us is hoping for much with our scores, especially seeing how people in an online forum were boasting of 44s and higher. But we both had a lot of fun. I'm just happy that all the questions I either got wrong or left blank were ones I actually didn't know (in other words, I'm not kicking myself over any answers I DID know but either couldn't get in time or just answered wrong).

But the best nerdy television exchange of the night came just after "The Office" ended on NBC and a promo for the next show, "30 Rock," aired. The announcer asked, "What's 10 Rock times 3 Rock? That's right, 30 Rock, coming up next!" To which Claire replied, "No, that's '30 Rock Squared.'"

She's absolutely right! You'd need to ask, "What's 10 times 3 Rock?" (or "10 Rock times 3") to get "30 Rock." I guess basic algebra's not taught to promo writers anymore.

1 comment:

Rob Roy said...

I was happy to get 25 correct! I made no guess if I had no clue (10 questions unanswered). 15 questions I thought I knew the answer but didn't (I answered Frank L Baum instead of L. Frank Baum, and chose to go with Athens, Georgia instead of my first guess, Savannah!) I didn't kick myself for not knowing an answer (although I nearly did while trying to spew "The Fountainhead" from my brain).