He wouldn’t need the sentence if it were in French since the pronunciations of doyen and doyenne are different. Just hearing the word as it’s actually pronounced would make it obvious.
Just because it was the winning word, doesn’t mean it wasn’t a joke word. There is a lot of variance in the words they get. The main thing that separates the top kids is luck of the draw on the word they get. Once the get to the TV rounds they don’t exactly go up in difficulty in each round. That’s just not how it works. I’ve seen some ridiculous easy ones when get to sudden death. It’s just the variance of the competition.
True. I guess I should have said if he got a French sentence instead of an English one.
But doyen is a great example of the variance. Superficially it seems easier than the ones you posted, but its actually much harder. 50-50 shot if you don’t know it. It was nowhere near the final word.
Yah, its an interesting example. Would be interesting to see it on Youtube. I feel like the way an English speaker would pronounce them might give it away.
Like doyen I could see the emphasize put more on the first syllable DOY-en
And doyenne I would think more on the second syllable with an exaggerated finish doy-ENNN
EDIT: On researching it a bit more the definition they used in the bee for doyen was “the senior male member of a group”, so it can’t be doyenne.
The pronouncer is a pro. He’s been doing it for decades and won it himself. He just gives the precise dictionary pronunciation and all the acceptable alternates. He doesn’t give away shit.
It’s a hard one to watch if you already know the answer. The other tricky part, IIRC, is that the subject of the example sentence was a woman, which makes your French-thinking brain go one way.
EDIT: just saw your post about senior male member. I guess I misremembered that part. What year was it? I know they have used it more than once. I guess they could have used a different definition. I don’t think the standard dictionary definition requires male gender.
You got a link? I want to see if it is the same one I’m thinking of. It has been used more than once.
Bill Simmons did a live blog of the Bee that year, but I couldn’t find footage. Go to 1:19:
The funny thing is that when you changed the format to double or nothings, you’d want to be extremely tight calling on the bubble b/c payouts are all the same, and suddenly they start calling with everything. So they got it wrong no matter what the format.
I miss those days. Double or nothings were like printing money and the strategy was so simple that at my peak I was playing 45-60 of them at once and hit Supernova Elite one year just playing those.
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Yeah, that’s not the same one I saw. The kid I saw was definitely white. I remember it pretty well because I remember feeling pretty bad for the kid. He was just so shocked it was wrong (as was I).
In that article it is an Indian kid who got it wrong. I think the one I saw in the '90s. Maybe they changed the definition they gave after the first one. I think it’s super tough if they don’t specify male anywhere.
I’m also sure it’s not the one I saw because the year Pratyush Buddiga won (he’s a poker pro now) is one of the few I didn’t see live, so it sticks out in my mind.
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And not a single person around the mid to high stakes STT scene had ever heard of the author before the book was published.
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Lol, this derail is far more entertaining and educational than the book could possibly be.
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Anyone remember good2cu’s review of Positively Fifth Street? I’m not sure if I would still find it so funny, but holy shit did I laugh my balls off the first time I read it.
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Not going to lie, I had never seen the “Hey buddy how come you didn’t follow the link” defense about a tweet before or since.
LOL… I was about to say the opposite.
Goddam I hate it when uppity foreigners teach me new words. It’s why I voted T̶r̶u̶m̶p̶ Boris.
Book review is A+ btw, keep em coming!
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jmakin,
Here is an example of someone else doing a chapter-by-chapter review of a book with excerpts. Just as a potential model for you to gauge how deep of a dive you feel comfortable getting into.
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I saw a Youtube video where Joey Ingram did a read-through with commentary of Super/System from what looked like an online copy of the book.
Who is Joey Ingram and was it good or funny?
He’s a PLO player and popular poker media personality noted for his Youtube breakdowns of the Mike Postle cheating scandal.
It was a response to this tweet:
https://twitter.com/DougPolkVids/status/1238593613178650624
I was entertained. YMMV.
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