Guestmudgeon Lange Winckler is a Jeopardy fan
On the television program Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? contestants
choose answers to the questions asked from four offered solutions. Only one answer can be correct - all the others range from absurd to teasingly but
completely wrong. Sometimes the contestants must ask for help, or guess. Yet the answers are firmly right - or wrong. So why do most contestants use
a contrary conditional verb form when offering their choice among the four solutions? "That would be .... answer A, Harlan Wolff Shipyards." The
phrasing implies that but for some other unstated and opposing condition, the answer would be Harlan Wolff, but in fact the answer is NOT choice A,
BUT something else. Phooey! When the contestants answer like that I ache to see the program host yell, "Wrong again! It IS Harlan Wolff! Off you
go!"
That's an interesting one. It doesn't only occur on Who Wants
to Be A Millionaire?, either. You must be a Jeopardy fan (we love it!) -- even if the contestant
gives the right answer, it is considered wrong if it is not given in the form of a question.
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Issue 187, page
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