c4countdown

Phil Reynolds

Q. You have Osama Bin Laden, Robert Mugabe and Gyles Brandreth at gunpoint but only two bullets. Who do you shoot?

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A. Brandreth, twice, just to be sure.

Phil Reynolds

A seasonal one for me:

Dr. Holly Penis

Phil Reynolds

2008 has been, for many, a difficult year, and 2009 looks like bringing more of the same. But I hope that, for the next few days at least, you all have some festive cheer and that you get to spend it in the company of someone nice. I wish all of you the very best for Christmas and the year ahead. Ph...

Phil Reynolds

Charlie Reams wrote:Round 8: 50, 1, 4, 5, 7, 10. Target: 325.

C1: 325. 50x7+5x(4+1) (10)

Should that have been 50x7 - 5x(4+1)?

Phil Reynolds

With all this talk of XBOX 360s, Playstation 3s and Wiis, I can't be the only one to have noticed a glaring omission from the roster of state-of-the-art games machines vying for our attention - namely, the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-1!! Its enormous 9KB of memory and astounding clock speed o...

Phil Reynolds

Well in fairness I was playing devil's advocate rather than giving my actual opinion, but your point is a good one. But still I don't think people should be seen in a negative light because they do word learning, i.e. they put some effort into it. Neither do I - absolutely not. Anyone who applies t...

Phil Reynolds

In a speetgoat game where I played Apterous Nude there was a selection that looked like this - PFTYRHOUL - and I got fourty but for some reason it was dissalowed! Stupid apterous. Because, like 'dissalowed', 'fourty' is not a word. You'll find that not being able to spell is a distinct disadvantage...

Phil Reynolds

Strange day for me, as I was in the minority in getting STINKWEED and UNEATABLE, but also in the minority in missing TACTICITY ( :oops: ) and CARPETING (double :oops:). As far as I can remember, AUTOCLAVE is the first Duel conundrum to have evaded every single participant. (I notice several people,...

Phil Reynolds

Why should someone who doesn't put effort in be rewarded and someone else who's put a lot of effort in fail? Well, to answer that you need to decide what the reward is actually being given for. We're not talking about an annual pay rise here, we're talking about a game show. Your question implies t...

Phil Reynolds

Would it be such a good thing if someone who didn't put much effort in won a series? Absolutely. If, as other contributors to this thread have suggested, anyone can do well at Countdown if they practise, then a series champion who doesn't need to do so presumably wins instead by virtue of having go...

Phil Reynolds

Matt Morrison wrote:And that was Justin Fashanu was it?

Not if it was made last year - Justin died about 10 years ago.

In case you're very bored, here's the last amateur film I made: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mQsPPQL1s1A

Gosh, you're quite chunky aren't you? Your friend's cute though.

Phil Reynolds

I worked on the assumption that the most obvious words would be the best ones to go for, as other players would probably steer away from them. As it happens, several others played the same strategy so I was bolloxed. At least I've finally beaten Charlie at something.

Phil Reynolds

Not exactly high scoring, but really enjoyed this game with Ben P http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=15501 And I enjoyed watching :) Watch out, fellow Aptobashers, these two are hot. They do indeed know some scarily obscure words. Comforting for us mortals, though, that neither player got th...

Phil Reynolds

Charlie Reams wrote:Phil Reynolds being a smart arse? No way!

Not at the moment, as I can't think of a suitably zingy retort.

Phil Reynolds

Matt Morrison wrote:I am Cool. And Cool People have Cool Beards.

That's a beard?

I actually thought you were standing in the way of a Powerpoint presentation and those were lines of text being projected across your face. Seriously.

Phil Reynolds

Despite you being a smart ass Thank you. It is rather pert, even if I say it myself. I am 99% sure that what 'Jimmy' has done is specify a URL for his picture, which is actually not a valid image file. Therefore, the browser is trying to find the picture at the URL he supplied every time, but as it...

Phil Reynolds

Matt Morrison wrote:Who is this Jimmy and where can I found one of his posts?

I imagine he founds them all himself (or his brother does), but anyway you can find one here.

Phil Reynolds

I know using Firefox if I'm refreshing the same thread a few times in a row then sometimes it will refresh with no user avatars loading at all - in which case they all are replaced with "User avatar". Yeah, it's an occasional glitch. No idea why it happens. I've just noticed that myself. ...

Phil Reynolds

I don't think this has anything to do with the new colour scheme as I'm still using the old one, but I've only noticed it since the new scheme was introduced: why do posts by the user 'Jimmy' simply have the words 'User avatar' where the graphic avatar would normally be? This doesn't seem to be the ...

Phil Reynolds

Jon Corby wrote:I sucked balls at my audition

One way of getting picked I suppose. Did Damian take you into a private room for that?

Maybe it would help to take a big marker pen with you so you can write a little bolder?

There might be something in that. I might practise when the new series starts.

Phil Reynolds

Going very slightly off-topic, this reminds me of a question I've been meaning to ask for a while now. Are the contestants in the studio able to see the letters selection on a monitor, or do they have to write them down? I ask because when I was due to audition for the show a few years ago, I tried ...

Phil Reynolds

Michael Wallace wrote:How about if I sent you a photo of my wife in it?

Your personal life seems somewhat complicated - on another thread you alluded to your fiance [sic].

Phil Reynolds

So what's the difference between this year's winner and last year's? Or did they just use the same person again and presume the people watching wouldn't notice? Or am I just being racist? Not sure I understand your post. Last year's winner was short, white, male and Scottish. This year's is tall, b...

Phil Reynolds

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=15275

Not really sure whether to post this as Scrag or Brag! Astonishingly, I won the game - but only after five of my first six words were disallowed. (The one that passed muster - OUTFLEW - was the only one of the six I thought might not be legit...)

Phil Reynolds

John Evans wrote:Is a "dance-off" as exciting as it sounds?

I used to quite enjoy Come Dancing in the 1980s but the laundry bills were astronomical.

Phil Reynolds

Howard Somerset wrote:Am I the only person who had never heard of Jeff Stelling until he was mentioned in connection with the Countdown host's job?

No. I still don't really understand why so many people seem to have heard of him - I guess Sky must be more popular than I thought.

Phil Reynolds

jimbentley wrote:
aagharmer wrote:No charts in the UK when I was born, so it has to be the US No 1 for Aug 31st 1953
Yes there were, Allan, they started in November 1952, which gives you 'Theme From Moulin Rouge' by Mantovani.

Actually I think you'll find it was 'I Believe' by Frankie Laine.

Phil Reynolds

Gulp.

Phil Reynolds

Geoffrey was obviously as confused as Rick:

Phil Reynolds

when they wouldn't dream of using the same argument against straight comedians. Wouldn't they? Seems you're making some pretty strong assumptions about people you don't know, which is ironic considering the criticism you're making. An assumption based on pretty strong evidence. If what someone find...

Phil Reynolds

Kai Laddiman wrote:Does the title mean anything?

Not really. Literally translated it would mean "I not French". You really need some sort of verb in there, such as "je ne suis pas Français" (I am not French) or "je ne parle pas Français" (I don't speak French).

Phil Reynolds

It appears to be some sort of in-joke, of which I'm not a part. Fixed. Hmm. Thanks for trying Ben, but that doesn't really do it for me, as my intention was for the second clause to refer back to the 'in' of 'in-joke', which your fixed version no longer does. Arguably better would have been: "...

Phil Reynolds

Ben Hunter wrote:
Phil Reynolds wrote:I don't see any comments decrying the number of straight comedians who use the minutiae of their own lives as the basis for comedy.
I sort of did .

Ben, I meant to mention your post for being a small island of common sense, but forgot. Sorry.

Phil Reynolds

John Evans wrote:
Phil Reynolds wrote: Who are Mike and Dave?
You can have one guess. The context should make it quite easy.

It appears to be some sort of in-joke. Upon which I am not in. (Reworded that to avoid ending with a preposition, and still failed.)

Phil Reynolds

Charlie, I'm not looking for a "scandal" at all. I'm just fed up of hearing people like Howard Somerset and Martin Smith say "Why can't gay comedians just be funny without mentioning their sexuality?", when they wouldn't dream of using the same argument against straight comedians...

Phil Reynolds

OK, I'll bite.

Who are Mike and Dave?

Phil Reynolds

Phil Reynolds wrote:
Kai Laddiman wrote:Actually, PERUSAL's a mass noun, i.e. you can't pluralise it.
Really? I would have thought it was perfectly valid to say something like "After a couple of hasty perusals of the letters I spotted an 8".

I see PERUSALS is indeed listed as a valid 8 in the game recap.

Phil Reynolds

As there was nothing else on at the time, I watched last night's Live at the Apollo , featuring Sean Locke and Jason Manford, two mildly funny comedians who each performed a substantial amount of material predicated on the assumption of their (hetero)sexuality. They are by no means in a minority, ye...

Phil Reynolds

TTT: DRINKTEE - "Try to fix the container of lemon spread" That should be " Tried to fix" (because the solution is TINKERED, i.e. past tense). Gyles recalls some pet anecdotes from his first Grand Final appearance in 1982 and reprises the short rhyming poem he told about a late ...

Phil Reynolds

Much better to be witty, clever and interesting without even bringing their sexuality into the picture in any way. And yet the majority of blokes on this forum seem to think it's perfectly OK to constantly refer to their heterosexuality (e.g. by endless references to Rachel's attractiveness). Funny...

Phil Reynolds

Kai Laddiman wrote:Actually, PERUSAL's a mass noun, i.e. you can't pluralise it.

Really? I would have thought it was perfectly valid to say something like "After a couple of hasty perusals of the letters I spotted an 8".

Phil Reynolds

Kai Laddiman wrote:Did you notice how Jo said PUNPEAS but it wasn't in the selection!

Ditto PATEROT.

Phil Reynolds

I notice that as of yesterday we have a member by the name of Susie Dent. Assuming you're the Susie Dent, a very warm welcome. (In fact, welcome even if you're just any old Susie Dent.)

Phil Reynolds

Ben Hunter wrote:CAPSTAN

Because it sounds cool.

And

FLABERGAST

That's FLABBERGAST, with 2 Bs. I wouldn't have said either of those was particularly obscure.

Phil Reynolds

I'm sure the studio situation is very different, and "obvious" is of course an entirely subjective term, but I must say the second numbers game did look obvious to me - I was gobsmacked not only that neither Charlie nor Kai got it, but also that Carol's method seemed so roundabout. Seeing ...

Phil Reynolds

Anybody got an obscure favourite word ? Only about 500. Here's three to start: wayzgoose - a recreational outing for printers. I've always been fond of this word and have often thought it would make a great 9 on Countdown, so I was shocked a while ago when Susie included it in a list of words with ...

Phil Reynolds

Ralph wrote:I love melifluous

...although not enough to spell it correctly.

Phil Reynolds

OK, I'll bite. Who is Danielle?

Phil Reynolds

...and it's just happened again, on Round 52 of 55. Luckily I was able to limp to the end of the game, without scoring any more points, just by closing each blank window that opened, so at least I should have registered a score for today even if it's a few points short of what it could have been. (I...

Phil Reynolds

Glad it's not just me. I had to quit Monday's Duel for the same reason and so had no score recorded.

Phil Reynolds

Jason Larsen wrote:Phil, I treat everybody here equally and for you to say that about Stewart? Wow!

When have I said anything about Stewart? Jason, I genuinely have no idea what you're talking about.

Phil Reynolds

ELISIONS was an alternative 8 in Round 11 (I did also wonder whether JOINLESS would be allowed - I suspect not).

Congratulations Kai on reaching the semis.

Phil Reynolds

Oliver Postgate, the creator of The Clangers, Ivor the Engine and Bagpuss, died yesterday. This is sad news. Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's animations were distinctly low-tech but they were lovingly produced, and Oliver's warm voice and gift for storytelling shone through everything he did. Som...

Phil Reynolds

Richard Brittain wrote:Awesome.

Jason Larsen wrote:In what way should I take that?

Awesomely.

Phil Reynolds

ANEROID as an equaller in Round 7.

Phil Reynolds

Would CHANGER have been acceptable as a beater in Round 6?

Phil Reynolds

Nice to see John Sargeant back in Dictionary Corner, although since leaving Strictly he seems to be going for rather over-heavy make-up.

Phil Reynolds

Matt Morrison wrote:I know nothing of this 'Swash'
But i had to reply to your tosh
by asking, have you been on the slosh?

I may have had a couple of drinks or five. What's your point?

Phil Reynolds

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=14124 Look, I know beating Apterous Plum wouldn't rank as an achievement for most of you, and I missed some easy words early on (STEALING in Round 3 - duh), but... I've been trying to beat Plum for ages and this was the first time I won a standard game after...

Phil Reynolds

When I was a teenager I remember telling somebody that they were posh because they pronounced it "scon", but in response they said that was in fact I who was the snob because I pronounced "scoan". Both statements are correct. Posh people do say "scon", because they get...

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