A, V, or M; also "bigger vs. larger"

[Laurence Horn]

On Feb 17, 2013, at 2:43 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 10:35 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>> My recollection is that on the TV program "Twenty Questions" "animal,
>> vegetable, or mineral" was a freebie -- that is, the panel was told
>> which. But it was a long time ago.
>
> Oh, come on! I remember Twenty Questions" from *radio* days! And my
> memory is the same as yours. OTOH, I have a very possibly incorrect,
> very weak impression that AVM was, as you say, a freebie, in the sense
> that, on the TV version, AVM? was the first question and there was a
> standard sign used to make the distinction. Kinda like:
>
> Q. "Animal, vegetable, or mineral?"
> A. "[Signal]."
> Q. "All right: mineral. First question."
>
> But maybe this is just a dream that I once had. Except for the fact
> that I agree with Joel that getting the info as to AVM wasn't counted
> as one of the twenty questions.

--and with me; as I mentioned, this wasn't a yes-no question and so couldn't have counted as one of the 20Qs.  As I also acknowledged, though, I remember the game mostly from playing it in cars, and I can't pretend that I was familiar with the radio version, although my parents probably were.  .

LH

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org