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Friday, November 6, 2009
Is a local waiter a "Millionaire" millionaire?

Philly bartender/server Sam Murray won $50,000 on Friday’s episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and became the last contestant to qualify for the show’s “Million Dollar Tournament of Ten,” which starts Monday.

Murray will face a $1 million question on Wednesday (12:30 p.m., 6ABC). 

Murray, who worked over the summer at Octo Waterfront Grille and is known for his sharp memory, once took a 22-person table’s order without writing it down. And yes, he got it right.

To recap Friday's show (minus commercials):

Murray used his “Ask The Audience” lifeline on the $12,500 question, which was: Category, 'South America' – “Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego is a national park in what South American country? A: Peru, B: Brazil, C: Argentina, D: Venezuela.” The studio audience voted as follows: A=14% B=17% C=53% D=16%.

Murray went with the advice of the audience and correctly guessed the answer to be “C.”

Murray used his “Ask the Expert” and “Phone a Friend” lifelines on the $15,000 question, which was: Category, 'Economics' – “In a 2007 book, Wall Street guru Nassim Taleb popularized what “animal” term to describe rare and unpredictable events? A: Flying pig, B: Short giraffe, C: Land whale, D: Black swan.”

Murray connected with “Expert” Joel Stein (Time Magazine columnist), who was not able to help him come up with a definitive answer. Murray then used his “Phone A Friend” lifeline and called his friend (and fellow Philly bartender) Daulton, who was able to give him the correct answer, which was “D.”

Murray used his “Double Dip” lifeline on the $25,000 question, which was: Category, 'Automobiles' – “Used to “decommission” automobile engines, sodium silicate is better known to mechanics as “liquid” what? A: Glass, B: Wood, C: Steel, D: Velcro.” Murrays first guess was the correct one – “A.”

Murray correctly guessed the answer to the $50,000 question without the use of any lifelines: Category, 'Insects' – “To defend against predators, certain moth species have organs called “tymbals” that do what? A: Make ultrasonic sounds, B: Absorb heat, C: Produce dark pigments, D: Release toxic venom.” The correct answer was “A.”

His $100,000 question was: Category, 'Advertising' – “Before becoming a bestselling novelist, which of these men came up with the ad slogan “I'm a Toys ”R“ Us kid!”? A: John Grisham, B: Elmore Leonard, C: James Patterson, D: Carl Hiaasen.”

Out of lifelines and unsure of the answer, Murray decided to not take a guess and walk away with the guaranteed $50,000 that he had already won. If he had guessed incorrectly on the $100,000 question, he would have fallen back to $25,000 in winnings – and not made it into the “Million Dollar Tournament of Ten.” The correct answer was “C.”  (Patterson was once chairman of J. Walter Thompson ad agency.)

Posted by Michael Klein @ 5:48 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
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About Michael Klein
Michael Klein chronicles local people, places and things (in easy-to-digest portions) three days a week in his Inquirer column "INQlings." He also covers the restaurant scene in his Thursday Food column, "Table Talk." See his work at http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/michael_klein.
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