The Concord woman who had a shot at one million dollars on today's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" by correctly answering one question, walked away from the question even though she knew the answer.
Jehan Shamsid-Deen was asked the following: "A rare example of the word that rhymes with 'orange,' the Blorenge is a what? A: River in Ireland, B: Forest in Scotland, C: Mountain in Wales, D: Desert in Australia."
Do you know the answer?
Jehan, who describes herself "proud to be a nerd," immediately eliminated Australia and was leaning toward C: Mountain in Wales. But she wasn't sure. So in the end she walked away with $250,000, making Sam Murray the $1 million winner.
And the whole time she was right. The answer was C: Mountain in Wales.
blogs.newsobserver.com | November 20, 2009Here's an excerpt from today's Oprah show, where she explains why she made her decision to walk away from her network show in 18 months:
blogs.newsobserver.com | November 20, 2009
There's a great line by Michael Scott at the end of Thursday night's episode, as he, Oscar, Andy and Dwight are sprinting out of the Dunder-Mifflin shareholders' meeting to steal a limo from a company executive.
Anyone who has suffered through this recession working for — or getting laid off by — a company top-heavy with senior management and short on survival strategies had to cheer Michael's explanation for claiming a fat cat's ride back to Scranton.
"Limos are for people who make the company money, not lose millions and have no plan," Michael says.
I can think of at least a few real-world parallels to cite here from the newspaper industry, but I think I'll pull an Oscar and keep my mouth shut. I don't want to tempt the boss to move my cubicle into a coat closet with no Internet service.
As inconsistent as this show has become, when The Office still works, Michael Scott can careen from buffoon to truth-teller and back in one episode. He's still a boob who rehearses his wave and twirl after the company invites him, as the sole branch manager turning a profit, to New York City for the shareholders' meeting.
It never occurs to Michael, who brings along his Scranton posse of Andy, Dwight and Oscar to New York in the limo the cash-strapped company sent for him, that he shouldn't whisper questions into his live microphone about Dunder-Mifflin going bankrupt. And sure, his desperate need to win over the angry shareholders leads him to promise them a 45-day plan to fix the company and go carbon-neutral.
"Day 45, company saved. Day 44, go! What do we got?" Michael asks the company executives during break in the meeting.
But when Dunder-Mifflin's CEO belittles Michael and demands "Where's the off button on this moron?" Michael morphs into Michael Moore. (Or at least into a better-dressed version armed with the pride that comes with winning 17 'Dundee' awards.)
"You're the moron," Michael fires back.
The room is full of overpaid, overfed company executives who have never known the glory of the Scranton branch's annual employee awards, doled out in the back room of a Chili's, and they don't want to hear Michael's pep talk. Dunder-Mufflin's CEO, unaccustomed to being called a moron, tells CFO David Wallace that Michael's backtalk has earned him a bus ride back to Scranton, forget the limo.
But he wasn't counting on Michael snaking a limo from outside the hotel, and as the Scranton crew pulls away, a stock ticker flashing outside shows that Dunder Mifflin's stock — DMI, or "Dummies, Morons and Idiots, because that's what you'd have to be to own it," according to Oscar — is down almost another 7 points.
Back in Scranton, Jim is flexing his co-manager muscles in an attempt to prove to his colleagues that he is too the boss. Apparently he strikes so little fear in them that Phyllis doesn't think twice about taking a two-hour lunch with her husband Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration and then admitting to Jim that she's a little tipsy.
When he discovers that Ryan has been undermining his authority by telling everyone that Jim doesn't have as much power as Michael, Jim moves Ryan into the coat closet for some solitary confinement. With that subtle move, everyone else in the office snaps back to work.
Now that's management.
blogs.newsobserver.com | November 20, 2009
Collections from Irina, Carol Hannah and Althea
Last night's finale saw major sniffles, a minor meltdown from Tim, a made-up runway show and maybe some cheating? (It was also brought to you by the letter 'M', apparently.)
Carol Hannah relapses, and the first part of the episode is spent watching her retch and cry. I feel bad but let's move along, you know? Tim's meltdown is built-up but he's really just mad because everybody's behind the day of the runway show.
I won't recap the entire episode, but here's what you need to know about Bryant Park:
In actuality, Lifetime and Bravo were still battling over the rights to Project Runway when the show in Bryant Park took place. That means the designers never actually got to introduce their collections or walk down with their models (they couldn't spoil the top three because the show was nowhere close to being aired by then.) All of those segments were taped before the real runway show, which explains the shoddy editing work. I would've preferred to see the "real thing" and hear about some of the production drama. From what I have read, Heidi was also very upset for the designers themselves because they couldn't stand by their work and get recognized.
Irina's all-black collection is an homage to New York, remember? She had to re-do her t-shirts because of the Coney Island images on her shirts weren't hers last week. So what does Irina do? She creates a t-shirt that plagiarizes New York magazine's "Reasons to Love New York" issue. It is dumbfounding to me, as a former New York magazine intern and New Yorker. It is NOT that hard to come up with your reasons to love New York. Not hard at all.
But her work is polished, even though the idea of the "warrior woman" battling New York isn't novel, Michael says. Heidi would like to own several of the pieces in the collection, and Nina wishes there was some more color.
Carol Hannah's collection (inspired by Duke) has great color, draping and tailoring but the pieces don't really tell a narrative. The judges say that the collection isn't cohesive, even though the individual looks are beautiful. I have to agree - I love Carol Hannah's dresses but I don't really see how they all fit together - except in their use of draping, which wasn't enough to tie them all together.
Althea's combination has a lot of pieces, which is impressive, but I didn't really buy her "futuristic" concept. Neither did the judges. If she was going for the future, she should've pushed the envelope a bit more and done some different styling on her models. Leather does not equal future. The clothes were attractive, though, and Michael was impressed that she designed sportswear. Her last three looks were a bit off and belonged to a different show. Althea's downfall is that she tries to "hit too many notes," as Heidi said, at once.
In the end, Althea has the best "connection to the streets" and Carol Hannah has impeccable tailoring - but neither of their collections told a tale on the runway.
Irina, unsurprisingly, takes the top title. Her helmets were a good way to unify an all-black collection and her t-shirts lightened the ominous pieces. The show actually taped such a long time ago that it's doubtful anything will come out of her using someone else's words.
And that closes out a mediocre finale. While I appreciate runways of wearable looks, it was sort of sad to not see a more ambitious designer this season who could dabble in high fashion like Christian Siriano.
Season 7 - back in New York - starts in January; woo-hoo!blogs.newsobserver.com | November 20, 2009
The feature film version of a children's television show filmed in Apex will be screened tonight as part of the town's Peak City Film Festival.
The "Rusty Bucket Kids Club" is an educational program about a group of kids who form an adventure club to explore their town, then find a magical portal which transports them back in time to meet famous figures from American history.
The beloved former WRAL anchor Charlie Gaddy makes an appearance on the program, as does WRAL's Mark Roberts. The show stars local young actors Roxanna and John Coleman Demers.
Production on the show wrapped earlier this month and producers hope the series will begin airing locally in February. So far there's no indication as to which local station might broadcast it, but considering the involvement of Gaddy and Roberts, you have to think Capital Broadcasting Company wants a shot.
For tickets to tonight's premiere, visit the Rusty Buckets Kids Club ticket site.
blogs.newsobserver.com | November 20, 2009











Hey guys, if you’re still reading/checking in, I appreciate it. Sorry I’ve been totally MIA the past month. My real job’s been hectic and honestly, I’ve just felt unmotivated to post. Pretty fucking pathetic, huh?





