c4countdown

(Sorry Matt, I'm groggy today so my form may not be on 100%)

Because we have a contestant who may or may not be a time lord, as we learned in yesterday's program, today we have a spoiler that reads like a Doctor Who preview.

Mark Murphy, who is in his second win and regeneration on Countdown (Who was his first form? You'll never know, because it was in the old continuity), must travel through words and numbers in his stool that has the ability of being able to swivel indoors and out, with his obligatory female companion, Rachel Riley, and his grandfather who actually should be the time lord but isn't, Nick Hewer. Travel as they defeat The Master, played by John Suchet attempting to be in every form of media at once, even turning twitter into Twitchet, and defeat the Daleks, represented on earth by Susie Dent, exterminating your attention spans one origin of the word "dog" at a time. Can this unusual Time Lord succeed? Will our attention spans become obsolete as we tweet about Suchet's fashion sense? Will all be prepared for when Mark Murphy regenerates into Des O'Connor and takes over the show? Find out, on Doctor Gandiseeg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CYDgezeQas

Join Thomas for the recap later today.

I like Origins of Words. And so does Nick seemingly (and not in a sarcastic way). So there.

Eh, personal taste I suppose, I do exaggerate my actual opinion of it in this for the sake of humor, but I just find it boring personally. Apologies if I made my opinion seemed a bit too widespread, just meant to be a comedic exaggeration of my own opinion.

SMOOGES in round 2.

I don't think you're wrong at all Jordan - unless I'm mistaken you probably represent the views of the majority on OOW. They don't call it Dictionary Bore-nor for nothing.
I don't know what it is about OOW - I hate it, but love looking up words and their origins. I think at the end of the day it probably comes down to something one enjoys doing when they have an interest in knowing the origins of a particular word, and this same enjoyment doesn't apply when someone else is choosing the words to discuss. Anyone agree?

Matt Morrison wrote:I don't think you're wrong at all Jordan - unless I'm mistaken you probably represent the views of the majority on OOW. They don't call it Dictionary Bore-nor for nothing.
I don't know what it is about OOW - I hate it, but love looking up words and their origins. I think at the end of the day it probably comes down to something one enjoys doing when they have an interest in knowing the origins of a particular word, and this same enjoyment doesn't apply when someone else is choosing the words to discuss. Anyone agree?

No.

Although I'm comfortable being on the opposite side of the fence to somebody who lavishes praise on Jordan F's spoiler threads, I have to say.

Jon Corby wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:I don't think you're wrong at all Jordan - unless I'm mistaken you probably represent the views of the majority on OOW. They don't call it Dictionary Bore-nor for nothing.
I don't know what it is about OOW - I hate it, but love looking up words and their origins. I think at the end of the day it probably comes down to something one enjoys doing when they have an interest in knowing the origins of a particular word, and this same enjoyment doesn't apply when someone else is choosing the words to discuss. Anyone agree?

No.

Although I'm comfortable being on the opposite side of the fence to somebody who lavishes praise on Jordan F's spoiler threads, I have to say.

Well it's good to know that you absolutely love Origin of Words, Jon.

Matt Morrison wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:

Matt Morrison wrote:I don't think you're wrong at all Jordan - unless I'm mistaken you probably represent the views of the majority on OOW. They don't call it Dictionary Bore-nor for nothing.
I don't know what it is about OOW - I hate it, but love looking up words and their origins. I think at the end of the day it probably comes down to something one enjoys doing when they have an interest in knowing the origins of a particular word, and this same enjoyment doesn't apply when someone else is choosing the words to discuss. Anyone agree?

No.

Although I'm comfortable being on the opposite side of the fence to somebody who lavishes praise on Jordan F's spoiler threads, I have to say.

Well it's good to know that you absolutely love Origin of Words, Jon.

Anything that gets Susie more airtime is all good in my book.

You're on The Chase on Monday.

For me the quality of OoW depends on the words Susie is discussing. It's generally ok but I doubt I'd miss it if it were gone. Long before the segment appeared on Countdown there was a dude on Irish radio who did an origins of words section and that went on for fifteen minutes. He had a really great voice for it and I used to love it but it did get boring after a while.

ANIMUS as a beater in one round, I think. Though having read the Wikipedia article, I think I might be developing an allergy to concepts, especially Jungian ones.

Re OOW - I think I'd be more interested if there was more from the cutting edge of lexicography (if there is such a thing) or linguistics, rather than stuff which could be found via Google or in a basic dictionary, as seems to be the case quite often. Having said that, I suppose that sometimes (if I don't fast forward through it) Susie will highlight some interesting feature (such as the way the meanings of individual words have changed or flipped meaning more than once in their history) that I might not have stumbled across otherwise.

GELCOAT in round 1, DILATOR in round 3, BROADENS in round 9, BIOMES and IMPOSE in round 11.

HYAENA in round 4 and REDBONES in round 9.

TRIODE as a nice equaller in Round 6.

3rd Numbers Alt.: (10 + 3) x 3 + 75 = 114

Was this the first crucial conundrum with Nick?

Johnny Canuck wrote:Was this the first crucial conundrum with Nick?

Yup, and if Terry had solved it of course, then it would've been the first tie-break under his leadership too.

I haven't watched the show but just read the review. Another nice scramble:

EROSTHEME = THREESOME. Eros being the Greek god of love and indeed a threesome does have an "Eros theme".