Ep 378: Rhonda Jefferson, Alan Nash (February 8, 2012)

Following on from yesterday's talk with Rhonda about her musical theatre activities, Richard asks about Rhonda's singing.  She says that she has always enjoyed singing and that she does it because she loves it.  However, she never learned singing and she does regret that now; she would like to have all the control that you are supposed to have (and which she does not).

Tonight's challenger is Alan Nash, a barrister who once appeared in a Melbourne Theatre Company production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.  It is a musical with the unusual feature that four audience members participate for some of the show as contestants in the spelling bee (and this is what happened to him).  They don't have to sing, but apparently there is some dancing involved.


And wow, is it a cracking performance tonight from Alan.  Rhonda finds some good words but is consistently outdone by Alan; even a good late result on the numbers and a quick conundrum solution can't save her.  Alan found the early full monty in this game -- the first contestant to find one for a long time -- and if he can keep this form up then he will be a serious championship contender.  He falters in the final three rounds but the game was already won at that point.  The final score is 60 to 41.

I was having a great game myself.  I managed to outdo David on one round (courtesy of a word from yesterday, amusingly enough), which is always nice.  I spotted that first full monty, and was just five seconds too slow on the second.  That would have been enough for my personal record score, and the opportunity was there for a round of 100.  I ended up falling short of that, but the rapid conundrum solution put me into the rarefied territories of the 80's for only the third time this series (and the highest so far).

As usual, details after the jump.

Ep 377: Rhonda Jefferson, Andrew Krein (February 7, 2012)

Rhonda is involved in her local theatre group (the Highlands Theatre Group); she makes particular mention of playing Mrs. Squeezum in a production of Lock Up Your Daughters five years ago.  She says that it was a lot of fun and she sang some really funny songs, then adds that it was set in the 1900's and would have been very risque in those days but not so much now.  She enthuses that it had some wonderful songs, and names The Gentle Art of Seduction and When Does the Ravishing Begin? specifically.

(The play is actually set in 1735, but it was first performed in 1959; I'm guessing that this is what Rhonda meant by the 1900's, unless her theatre group put on an adapted version of it.)

Tonight's challenger is payroll manager Andrew Krein.  He describes it as a job where you're either everyone's best friend or their worst enemy, depending on whether you've got it right or wrong.  Richard suggests, and Andrew agrees, that this might mean that Andrew is better with the numbers than the letters.

I'll make an aside here that Andrew got married a month or so after this episode was filmed.  If you happen to read this, Andrew: Congratulations!


It ends up being a close game, aided by several invalid answers.  The contestants did find some good words along the way, and the net result was a slender two point advantage to Rhonda from them.  The numbers went each way -- Andrew did drop crucial points in the first numbers game when he only managed to get five away from the target -- so Rhonda carried that lead into the conundrum.  She buzzed in just after the five second mark with an invalid answer, giving Andrew a chance, but he was not able to solve it within the remaining time.  Rhonda scraped home, 39 to 37.

I felt off-balance early today, with the first round feeling like it should have produced a longer word (although it turns out I had matched David) and only just getting my second-round answer down in time.  I settled down a bit, and it was actually a decent performance except for the second numbers round where I delayed looking at the right idea for too long.  This time I was faster to the conundrum than Rhonda's buzz-in (although only just), and ended up with another comfortable win.

As usual, details after the jump.

Ep 376: Cem Gurkan, Rhonda Jefferson (February 6, 2012)

Cem is interested in photography, and particularly likes black and white photography.  He enjoys taking photographs, developing, and printing, although in these days of digital photography there's less call for the latter two and he hasn't done them recently.  His preferred subject matter is buildings, and he enjoys being able to give photos as presents to his friends.

Tonight's challenger is Rhonda Jefferson, a retired physiotherapist who was become a farmer.  Richard points out that Rhonda has gone from living in a beachside suburb to a farm -- he calls it a "tree change" -- and that is a significant shift in environment.  Richard calls her a very practical farm worker; Rhonda has learned to drench cattle, and inject them, and "do all sorts of things".  She adds that she's very much enjoying living in a lovely little village (Exeter, in the southern highlands region of New South Wales).


Cem was a bit unlucky in this game; a fairly reasonable word was deemed invalid (more fuel for my claims about the risk of comparatives) which meant 6 points to Rhonda instead of 7 to him -- a 13 point turnaround.  Also, he made a careless slip in a numbers round (of a type that is easy enough to make -- he knew he was one off the target, but wrote down the wrong one); that cost him 7 points as well.  Those two rounds were the only main rounds on which Rhonda outscored him, and he managed to outscore her in a later one to give him a chance going into the conundrum.  Rhonda did solve it very quickly, however, for a slightly fortunate 61 to 45 victory.

I was in passable form today; the first two rounds could have been better, but there wasn't much likelihood of improvement elsewhere.  I got beaten to the conundrum, but only just, so it was definitely a quicker solve than usual for me, and a relatively comfortable win.  The numbers were very friendly today, which certainly helped.

As usual, details after the jump.