Ep 283: Tina Rose, Tim Hoffman (March 18, 2015; originally aired September 28, 2011)

Rounds: Here.

Disclaimer: I watched this episode when it first aired, and although I did not recall any of it I cannot rule out memory being a factor.


This is Tina's fourth night, and a win here gives her an excellent chance of making the finals.  Richard reveals that Tina came to Australia as a child from Denmark, and apparently had some troubles with the language.  Tina expands on that: Her family came over on a boat, and they were taught English during the trip.  But she found that when she went to school -- she was eleven at the time -- she was given a lot of grief about her accent.  Tina's response was a determination to learn the language, get rid of her accent, and learn to spell.  Now, when she does visit Denmark, people laugh at her because she speaks Danish with an Australian accent.

Facing off against Tina is Tim Hoffman, a freight and logistics consultant.  Apparently, many years ago when they all lived in Sydney, David was flatmates with some of Tim's friends and so Tim got to know him briefly.  He adds that he has sampled David's cooking.  Richard asks if Tim can remember what David cooked, and Tim responds that he does not know what it was called; he is interrupted by laughter at that point, and Richard calls it "the closest thing to a non-compliment [he has] come across in a while".  Tim continues by saying that he would describe it as a type of proto-puttanesca, and it was the first time he had ever seen a caper.  He was impressed that it was garnished, however: "a very, very well-positioned piece of parsley".  It's not quite clear how much of that was straight, and how much was deadpan ribbing of David; there is merriment, anyway.


Tim got the early lead when Tina used a letter twice in the first round, and three matched rounds followed.  Then Tina ran away with the game, scoring unanswered points in all of the remaining rounds, including the conundrum, to finish with a decisive victory, 57 points to 26.

As usual, details after the jump.