Query: "$64,000 quesiton" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Lynne Murphy]

--On 08 May 2007 14:55 -0700 Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
wrote:

> Jerry is correct. "The $64 Question" was a radio show with (you'll laugh)
> $64 as the top prize.  A simpler time.

Times are still simpler over on this side of the Atlantic.  Probably the
most prestigious quiz show is Mastermind.  The prize is a glass bowl.
Countdown is another high-status (in terms of the skill involved) game show
(you might've seen it in the film About a Boy--in which Hugh Grant is
something of a Countdown addict), and the prize is a dictionary.  I've
known many people (from the Scrabble community) who've been on the show,
but I've resisted because I don't get out of bed in the morning for less
than £100.  I always think it's pretty lame to give a dictionary as a prize
to people who obviously spend their time studying dictionaries (Countdown
involves anagram and arithmetic skills).

Lynne, who risked it all and lost on Brainteaser (top prize, £3000--i.e.
$6000)


Dr M Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer and Head of Department
Linguistics and English Language
Arts B135
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QN

phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com

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