#define: sheer resistance

Welcome once again to #define, our game show all about fake, obscure, jargon definitions, tomfoolery, and people who generally know way too much about words. Also, Adam and I are here…

Yeah, I’m here today. Again.

We are joined by our champions. This is going to be a – I was going to say a Duke Nukem, because that’s on my mind, but… What’s the name of that game where they all punch each other? Oh, a Rock’em Sock’em Robots of #define, because everybody here except for Adam and myself have actually won the game. We tried to get all of our #define champs, but of course, scheduling is hard, and so Lars and Carol couldn’t make it… But we are joined today by our previous winners, starting with the person who won most recent – not first, because that was Lars, but first right after him - it’s Taylor Troesh. What’s up, Taylor?

First right after him. Second. You know? [laughter]

Yeah, you’re right. Second would work there.

I lost in the first round… Yeah, how’s it going?

You did, but you came back and you were victorious after that.. And then did you lose to Carol after that, or did we boot you?

I think I lost to Carol and then you got tired of me.

Okay. So we’re not tired of you, we’re back… You’re back… We’ve invited you back. And I’m sure you’re going to give it a go. After Taylor is Thomas. Ooh, Jonathan Taylor Thomas… We should get a Jonathan here, and have a JTT shout-out from the nineties. What’s up, Thomas? How you doing, man?

I’m doing well. It’s good to catch up with everyone, and… Yeah, happy to be back here. I think it’s good for all of us that Carol did not join, because she destroyed me last time I played.

That’s right. So you are a – you’re one for two in winning, which is slightly better than Taylor… But not quite as good as Matthew, who’s one for one. Aren’t you, Matthew?

Yeah. I was going to decline this to keep my record, but… [laughter]

“I’m busy…”

I’m so busy…

“I’m going to keep my belts, okay…?”

You can’t keep the belt if you don’t fight for the belt.

You can’t take away what I can’t lose.

That’s right. Well, if you don’t show up, then you actually lose by default… And so I’m glad that you’re here to defend your title, and then potentially take these guys’s title. And lastly is our most recent winner… It’s David Aja. David, welcome back.

Glad to be back.

What’s up, David?

You know, I’m chilling. I’m excited. I’m ready to earn the masters in BS. I feel like I got the BS in BS. Let’s take it to the next level.

Nice.

Okay.

Always BS-ing.

If you win a third time, we get you the PhD, the BS-HD. That didn’t make any sense. Adam, why are you here? No, just kidding. So…

Ah… Solidarity, my friend. Solidarity.

[laughs] You’re here because it’s Changelog & Friends With Adam and Jerod, and so of course you are here.

That’s right! I’ve gotta be.

And should we reveal the secret from the Changelog Plus Plus segment last time around? Do you want to get your comeuppance?

What was it? What am I revealing? What did I miss?

You won a round. You won it, remember? After we quit playing, we had a Changelog Plus Plus special…

And I won that one.

…in which you beat David, and everybody else.

You’ve got to win in post shows, you know? If I’m going to win, I might as well do it when no one’s listening.

I would describe that win as a hallucination…

[laughs] Well, it’s funny you say that, because we are going to put a slight twist on this round in order to level the playing field. You know, Adam’s a big fan of golf…

Oh, yeah.

And in golf there’s handicaps, and there’s also mulligans. And since you all are previous winners and Adam hasn’t quite achieved that level yet, we’re going to give him a slight handicap, which is that during this game, he can pick one round… He does not have to disclose, but for one round, he can actually use an LLM to generate his answer.

Mm-hm…

And that’s it. So he gets to let a trick up his sleeve. He can deploy it whenever he wants. He doesn’t have to… And he does not have to disclose it. That way, maybe… Who knows…? Maybe he’ll be the champion of champions.

Should I not disclose it at all, or just not until I win the round?

Well, that card is in your hand, you can play it however you want.

What do you mean “until you win the round”?

Well, if I’m leveraging an agent, there’s no way I can lose.

Yeah, you might still lose the round.

Yeah, what are you talking about…?

[laughs] It’s not a guaranteed win.

Oh, I mean… Have you seen my agents? Gosh…

Well, then why don’t you have wins already?

Well, because I don’t use the agents there, buddy. That’s why. I’m using my own brain, which is stupid. I use their brain, which is very smart. All the smarts there, all the stupid here.

We have a no Google policy, we have a no agent policy… Of course, don’t look up the definitions, because that wouldn’t be very fun at all. The way this game works is that we have 10 rounds of play, or playing to 12 points, whichever one comes first… And each round presents a word, which is obscure, hopefully - hopefully nobody knows it; maybe you know it - that is in the world of STEMy things. So it could be a science, medicine, it could be math, it could be music, it could be science fiction, it could be computer science, etc. They’re just in that wheelhouse of science-y things. And a definition of the obscure word.

Now, after I name the word, everybody submits to me their definitions of what they think the word means. Or if they don’t know what it means, they make one up in order to fool their enemies into selecting it. After the definitions are submitted, I will read them all, hopefully without laughing, and then you all go around and try to guess which one is the correct definition.

[00:08:15.14] Now, if you get the right definition initially, right away, you get three points and you set the round out. If you have the wrong definition, but other people pick yours, you get one point for each person who picks your definition. And then at the end of the round, if you happened upon the correct definition during the selection process, you get two points. So three, two, and one. If nobody selects the correct definition in a round, I, your humble host, get four points.

And the first one to 12 wins, or the person with the most points after all 10 rounds - I doubt we’re going to have to do all 10 to get to 12, because David scored 12 in like 37 seconds last time. So… Any questions before we get into round one?

No, let’s go. Excited to get started.

Alright. Here we go. Your word for round one is iatragenic. Iatragenic . I-A-T-R-A-G-E-N-I-C, iatragenic. Please submit to me your definitions for iatragenic now. Is there a problem, Taylor?

I know this one… I’m just trying to – it’s so close.

That’s not a problem.

Now, Jerod, have you considered using a text-to-speech solution for reading these definitions aloud, to avoid the laughter problem, the metagame?

That’s a really good idea. I just feel like I would be really bored. [unintelligible 00:10:01.12]

Yeah. You don’t want AI taking your job.

That’s right.

Fight for it.

I’m going to keep fighting. Alright, all definitions are in for iatragenic… And I will say right up front that Taylor has the correct definition. So three points for Taylor… And you can just relax, my friend. Good job. He did know it. He really knew it. So there are one, two, three, four… Five possible definitions for iatragenic. Number one, “Iatragenic describes natural springs which produce water with high concentrations of ionic water.” Number two, “Iatragenic - caused inadvertently by medical treatment or diagnosis.” Number three, “An object solely composed of distinct, dissimilar parts.” Number four, “Describing cells in the endocrine system responsible for producing hormones.” And number five, “The process of swapping out one gene pool for another.” There you have it, five potential definitions for iatragenic. We start - since Taylor is resting, we start with Thomas.

Yeah. So looking at this list, we have the water ones, natural springs with ionic water… So like genic. I think about iatragenic, genic being like “to generate”. I know that much. “Caused inadvertently by medical operation” was number two. A combination of distinct dissimilar parts, cells in the endocrine system, and then gene pool swapping.

That’s good notes.

Well, yeah. Thank you.

No, thank you, because normally people are like “What’s number three again?”

[00:12:08.09] [laughs] Okay. What really sticks out to me is the “Caused inadvertently.” So number two is what I’m going to go with.

Alright, Thomas goes with number two. How about Matthew?

Because you said something, I want you to repeat number three, actually.

Okay. Number three is “An object solely composed of distinct dissimilar parts”, you jerk… [laughter]

Jerk… Is that in the definition?

That was for him. He’s just trolling me. That was a troll. We all know what it was.

So the gene one, dissimilar parts, water, water… Repeated water twice, actually. So that was interesting. The gene pool one…

Number one, yeah.

There was one that’s not the gene pool, not the water, not the dissimilar parts… There were two other definitions that I can’t remember.

Oh, gosh. So number four was describing cells in the endocrine system responsible for producing hormones.

Okay.

That’s not gene pool, that’s not…

Not gene pool, not dissimilar, not water, and not cells. There’s that one other one.

Not cells. This is like a test for me…

There’s that one – this one right here.

Gotcha!

The process of swapping out one gene pool for another?

No, we said that one.

Okay. “Caused inadvertently by medical treatment or diagnosis”?

Yeah, I’m going to lock that one in.

That’s the one?

Yup.

So you’re going to pile on with Thomas.

Pile on…

Admittedly, I didn’t catch which one Thomas picked, so… Yeah, it’s a pile on.

Okay. So it’s an accidental pile-on. Fair. Alright, we go to David.

I’m going to construct an additional pile-on.

[laughs] This guy doesn’t just pile on, he constructs pile-ons. Alright, we’ve got three people on –

Now I’m scared.

…number two, and we go to Adam… Who’s the last one to actually guess.

What’s the second to last one, Jerod?

That would be the fourth.

Yes. Can you read that one, please?

Describing cells in the endocrine system responsible for producing hormones.

Yeah, that’s the one. That’s the one right there. Let’s dial that one in.

Are you gonna lock it?

Yeah, let’s dial that one in.

Let’s lock that one.

No breakfast ball required, fellas…

Alright. Well, after round one, of course, Taylor gets the default three…

So Taylor, what’s the correct answer, Taylor?

The correct answer is the medical one. And the only reason I know it is from a Nassim Taleb book. I can’t remember which one, but… He loves that word.

Really?

Fooled by Randomness, or…?

I don’t remember. I haven’t read one of his books in 10 years, or something.

I don’t know either. Antifragile… Is that him?

That’s definitely him.

That sounds like something that would happen in there, because maybe you go in for an appointment and then you get misdiagnosed… And then you’re stronger afterwards? No, that doesn’t make sense. I don’t know. Yes, that is the correct definition for iatragenic. It’s when something’s caused inadvertently by medical treatment or diagnosis. Taylor’s definition was “Has the opposite intended effect, as in hospitals killing healthy patients.” Very good. So Thomas, Matthew and David each correctly got that, so they each get two points. Thomas, Matthew and David. And then Adam, he did not pile on. He went for “Describing cells in the endocrine system responsible for producing hormones.” That was David’s. So an additional point…

Ah, good job, David.

Good job, David.

Come out the gate with 12, right away.

He’s coming out. He’s on pace. He’s on pace once again… And a successful round one. We have Taylor and David with three, Thomas and Matthew with two, and your humble hosts with zero. Moving to round two… In round two your word is… Heteroscedasticity. It’s spelled H-E-T-E-R-O-S-C-E-D-A-S-T-I-C-I­-T-Y. I’ll put that in chat…

Yeah, you need to put that in chat.

[00:16:06.27] I’ll say it one more time… It’s heteroscedasticity. There we go. Heteroscedasticity. That’s tough.

Matthew, is the Oxide T-shirt embroidered?

Yeah, this one is.

Ooph… Quality from end to end. That’s not [unintelligible 00:16:38.29] t’s embroidered. Wow…

I grabbed a couple of T-shirts while I was there, and they were – I grabbed the XLs, went back to the hotel, I’m like “These are too big.” I went and swapped them for larges… Got home and I’m like “Ah, these are too small.” Now I don’t know what to do. I wear them when I work out, it makes me look buff, you know? I love the 0X Engineer one. So cool.

Yeah, [unintelligible 00:17:01.14]

Just me and Matthew have that problem with our arms. We just can’t fit everything in, you know, our guns.

The pipes…

Can’t you tell? They’re pretty much the same size…

Have you considered working on anything other than the biceps? [laughter]

I considered it…

He’ll keep it under advisement. So Adam, when you do decide to deploy your LLM-based answer, which language model are you going to use?

Oh, gosh… Great question. I don’t know, honestly… I don’t know.

Okay. Okay.

I just don’t know.

Have you played – there’s a Mac app called Chorus, that makes it easy for you to just fire the same question to a bunch of them at once…

Oh, really?

…which, when I have things where it’s like I don’t actually care which model, I just want to try several at once. That’s often kind of helpful.

That’s pretty much what I do manually. I just like copy paste it into like three different prompts. So that was really something I might give a shot. I really like to go scorched earth and just maximize my compute on this particular…

Literally scorch the earth…

[laughs]

“How could I maximize my carbon footprint?”

I was looking away. Was that you, David? Was that your voice I heard saying that? Who was it that said this tool? Was it David?

Chorus? That was David. Yeah.

It’s called Chorus. Like you’re a chorus of people, is that right?

Like a collection of people singing.

Is that chorus.ai?

I do not remember the domain. I think if you just – let me…

If you just ask all your LLMs, one will point you to the right place.

Yeah… I’ve found a couple of Choruses that are not that. I’m trying to find that…

Chorus.sh.

Oh, they don’t want you talking about it. Chorus.shh…

That’s not what that means, Jerod…

Chorus dot – what does it mean, shell?

Yeah, it’s like a .sh file. A script.

That’s why they made the TLD, was for shell scripts?

I don’t know. That’s how they’re best being used…

Well, sure.

It’s probably for Shazakistan.

Yeah…

Shazakistan… Or it could be Shazam. It could be Shaq’s favorite movie about himself. He can afford TLD, I think… Anybody can.

Well, whoever did this website for Chorus is just… I like it. They did a great job.

Adam, if you’re looking for advice on LLMs, you should pick up a vintage. Go for like GPT 2.5… It’s a nice Vintage.

It’s got a good taste?

What year is that?

It’s like a 2021 vintage…

[laughs] You might be correct. Alright, I have five definitions for heteroscedasticity, or however you say it…

[00:19:57.22] You’re getting better at it, though… The practice is paying off.

I feel like it.

Good.

And by five, I mean five, not six, because one of us got it 100% correct… And that person is Mr. David Aja. Three points to David.

I had to try really hard not to help you with the pronunciation…

Oh, and he knows how to pronounce it, too… How am I doing?

You got there.

Eventually. I have this pronunciation guide, and as I try to read the actual syllables, I can’t – it’s just a lot of syllables. I couldn’t quite put them together. Bu if you just look at the words - not so bad. Anyways, neither here nor there. Up first, this round – well, let me read them. Gosh… You guys just guess the numbers. Might as well… Okay, five definitions for heteroscedasticity. Ah, shoot, I’m back. “A material that has differing shear resistance across its various dimensions.”

That’s number one. Number two, when molecules have multiple stable configurations. Number three, the process of fine-tuning multidimensional data structures into a single data store. Number four, a collection of disjoint operators which make up the order one manifold. And number five, a statistical property in which some subpopulations in a collection of random variables have different variabilities from others. There you go, five definitions. Heteroscedasticity. Let’s start with Thomas.

So the first one we have is this material with different shear…

Yes, shear resistance across its various dimensions.

Across various dimensions, okay… So it makes sense that all of these do play into the prefix of the word, the hetero, right? …of mixing up different things together.

Right.

Number two, you have molecules with different… What were they?

Multiple stable configurations, yeah.

Multiple stable configurations. Okay… Okay, that makes sense. For three, fine-tuning for multidimensional LLMs, or AI models…

Multidimensional data structures.

Oh, data structures. I’m just throwing –

Process of fine-tuning multidimensional data structures into a single data store.

You see, but I feel like this -city at the end is not necessarily like a process. So it’s describing a state of something.

It’s a city.

Yeah, but it’s a city, not a state.

I beat you to that one, Taylor…

And then what was the – a collection… The operators?

Yeah, a collection of disjoint operators which make up the order one manifold.

What is the order one manifold?

That’s the question.

Order dash one? Order minus one? I don’t know. Order one?

I just haven’t heard of that before. It’s interesting. It could be that one… You know, I do think it’s the statistical variabilities within multiple datasets that just kind of feels right to me… Hetero - you know, different, mixing together, and then -city describing the state… So I’ll go with number five.

Alright, Thomas gets five. We go to Matthew…

I’m also leaning five… I think that makes sense. I don’t think the stable state one makes sense. I don’t think the order one makes sense. What else was there? Shear resistance was one…

Fine-tuning…

Fine tuning of some data structure… And then what was that one I’m missing?

It was a material having differing shear resistances.

Yeah, so I have shear, data structure, order manifold…

And stable configurations.

That’s it?

And statistical property.

Damn, I think I’m with you on this one, Thomas… [laughs] I’m piling on.

It worked out last time…

Please pile me on.

Yes, sir.

A stack-up around the normal distribution…

This is feeling like a repeat. Okay, David’s out. Adam.

[00:24:13.14] I’m going to pile on… I don’t know what I’m piling onto, but whatever they chose, I’m choosing. That’s it. [laughter]

Blind faith…

Adam gets it.

Yeah… He’s just following along like a lemming…

I’ve learned, okay?

Yeah. Well –

Follow or lead, and if you can’t lead, you follow. I’m following, okay?

Alright. Fair. Taylor, are you leading? Are you following? What are you doing?

I’m leading.

That’s a warm pile, Taylor…

My grandma always used to say, “Taylor, homoscedasticity is shear resistance in a single direction.” So it must be the opposite, you know?

[laughs]

Like, this is a family secret, and I just realized that this must be the truth.

Taylor, this was your grandmother who worked in the bomb factory, and she used to tell you stories about her time in the bomb factory to put you to sleep, and you can ask ChatGPT to –

Exactly. That same grandma. Yeah.

Yeah. That same grandma.

He would snore just “Heteroscedasticity…” [laughter] When he goes to sleep.

You almost can’t snore that. [unintelligible 00:25:15.16] Alright, so you’re going with the material, huh? The differing shear resistances, because your grandma told you so?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay. Just making sure. Alright. So we find ourselves in similar grounds as last round, except for David has the correct answer… And so David, why don’t you tell everybody what the right answer is?

I drew a little diagram, because I used to love trying to draw this when I wanted to be an economics professor… This is a homoscedastic distribution, where the normals are basically kind of the same… And then this is a heteroscedastic distribution, where the variance for one subgroup is smaller than the other.

But they’re both in danger from that T-Rex…

Yeah, the T-Rex is definitely after both distributions. So either way, you’re going down.

So you’re getting eaten no matter what, but…

That’s right.

Was that a drawing of a metal pipe? Because it’s materials, right? Was my grandma lying to me? [laughter]

Your grandmother –

I can’t see the different shears. Come on, that’s not a drawing of the shear resistance. Alright, so Taylor’s grandma led him right into Matthew’s lap… Matthew wrote that one, so one point for Matthew. And the three of you all got it correct. “The statistical property in which some subpopulations in a collection of random variables have different variabilities from the others.” Of course, hetero, everybody knows what that means… The last part, the skedasticity, comes from the ancient Greek word “skedonimi”, which means to scatter. So there you have it.

Oh, it also comes from skedaddle.

Yeah, which is when you’ve got to run. [unintelligible 00:26:55.02]

That’s right. They actually – that’s how they got that. They mispronounced skedasticity.

That’s right. And if you want everybody to run in different directions, you say “Let’s heteroskedaddle.”

That’s right. All day. [laughter] Gosh…

Like cockroaches. “Heteroskedaddle…!” Okay, so three points for David. Matthew gets two plus one. He gets three. Thomas gets two, Adam gets two… Taylor - locked out of this round. After two rounds, we have David in first with six, Matthew with five, Thomas with four, Taylor with three, Adam on the board, with two… And I’m still sitting at zero. However, I’m very excited for round three, because the word for round three is… Achakatura.

Break: [00:27:45.23]

Acciaccatura.

Ooh, I like that one.

Yes, you heard that right… Acciaccatura. A-C-C-I-A-C-C-A-T-U-R-A. Please submit your definitions for acciaccatura now.

Do we know if you’re pronouncing that correctly?

That’s the way the person on YouTube said it when I looked up how to pronounce that word. Now, they could have been wrong, because I did not go for multiple sources.

This is like a play on acai… That’s what this is. This is like acai–ccatura. [laughter]

Yeah, just a few more letters on that one…

Right…?

Just a few.

The double CC’s… That’s a very rare thing.

Isn’t it?

Very rare.

And what’s weird is the first CC’s are the cia, and the second CC’s are the ca. Accia-ca.

But there’s no sss…

It sounds so weird that now I’m going to go – you guys keep typing, I’m going to go double-check YouTube and maybe get a second source… Maybe I’m saying it wrong. No, yeah, I’m saying it right.

Okay. I’ll stop pressuring you.

Thank you. I was questioning a lot of things in my life, so… [laughs] Happily, I’m back on firm ground here.

Country of origin… Use it in a sentence…

Uh, yes. The sentence is, “The word for round three is acciaccatura.” [laughter] Yeah… It’s not my first #define, Thomas…

I’d like to buy a vowel hint thing, whatever, and get Adam’s LLM…

There’s a lot of vowels in this word.

I would like the LLM from Adam to be used…

[laughs]

How do we do that…? Here, I have dollar… How do I pay for that?

“I have dollar…”?

I have dollar…

I think bribes might work…

Only one? Only one?

Yeah. How many tokens can I get?

“How many tokens can I get with this buck…?”

That’s right. It might cost a bit more than that.

Taylor, did your grandma tell you anything about this word?

Actually, yes… I’m very excited.

“I’m very excited…” [laughs] Well, she led you astray with the previous word, which I will not pronounce again.

She’s not perfect, and that’s okay.

To her credit, she was not talking about hetero, she was talking about homo. So… It’s an entirely different thing. Don’t let me distract you guys… I know you’re all working hard. Taylor’s done, though.

It’s really easy when you cheat and you just look up the definition, you know? It makes things go a lot faster.

[00:32:02.08] That’s what my grandma always said.

Are there any words with the mythical triple C?

Like, in existence?

Yeah, dude… Three Cs…

[laughs] That’s a great question. I don’t know the answer to that.

Did you find anything?

Not yet.

No? I don’t think it exists.

Initial searches are not good.

No.

Now I’m going to my second round of searching.

CC is a cubic centimeter…

Did you learn that in Canada?

20 CCs of this stack…

Oh, yeah…

But cubic centimeter is the same as a milliliter.

What is that in American?

In American?

I was in a distillery once, and there’s the equivalence between like a gram of water and a cubic – a gram and a milliliter are the same amount.

Yeah..

And then they said they measured their water in pounds, and I was just like “I don’t trust whatever’s going on back there…”

Is that British pounds, or…?

I think… They are imperial pounds.

[laughs] It’s looking like there aren’t any CCCs. You mean the Cs have to be next to each other, right? Yeah.

You’re talking about a word that has CC next to each other three times.

Oh, is that what you want? I thought you wanted three Cs in a row.

No, I wanted three Cs in a row.

Oh, you did. So I’m giving you what you want and you can’t have any. Thomas was trying to give you something different, which is two Cs, three times.

Is there any word in the English language that has three of the same letter next to each other, of any letter?

I think like giggity, probably…

Oh, that’s a good one… When we were expecting our child, if we had a boy, I wanted to name him Aaron, with three A’s… He’d be first in everything. [laughter]

Elon Musk kid challenges…

That reminds me of the A–AaRon. That reminds me of that sketch.

That’s a good sketch…

Can you start their name with a null terminator? Like, just terminate any string?

Or a semi-colon.

No, the… What’s the Greek question mark? That looks like a semi-colon.

Oh, awful.

Yeah.

It’s called an awful?

No, it’s called [unintelligible 00:34:37.23] or whatever it is. [laughter]

That’s the Greek question. That’s the acciaccatura.

Yeah, exactly.

Acacia cat…

Acacia… That’s a bush. Alright, we have everybody’s except… Who are we missing here? Oh, we’ve got them all.

Adam’s. It was Adam’s.

He’s in.

Finally, my LLM finally got back to me… It’s like “Come on, man, you’re taking way too long here.” Oh, gosh…

Use [unintelligible 00:35:13.04] or something, dude. What are you doing…?

Hey, nobody knows what this word means… That’s a relief.

I went to this website called tooadvanced.com, and it was just… They have a brand new LLM there. It was just too advanced.

I appreciated how ChatGPT-5 tried to answer the three C’s in a row… Because it would come up with words with two Cs, and then it would throw a third C in there and be like “Nope, that doesn’t work…” [laughs] Like stucco. It’s like, “Stucco has two Cs. Let me add a third C”, and it’s like “Nope, that’s not the word stucco.” [laughs] Oh, I was enjoying that back here. Okay…

[00:35:53.29] The world’s smartest five-year-old [unintelligible 00:35:52.16]

Yeah. That’s why it’s GPT-5, it’s for five years old. Okay… Six definitions of acciaccatura. Number one, a brief grace note played before a principal note, then immediately released. Number two, the order of operations for actions that must first precede other actions before being executed. Number three, a partial eclipse of a planet formed by multiple moons. Number four, a fungal infection affecting the forearms. Number five, a genus of fungi native to South American rainforests. And number six, when a material has a single plane of shear resistance… [laughter] I tried… I tried really hard. Okay… [laughter] Matthew, you are up first this round.

Yes… Okay, so a single plane of shear resistance…

Yes.

Fungal arm…?

Fungal infection affecting the forearms.

Something else about a fungus?

A genus of fungi native to South American rainforests.

Uh-huh…

A partial eclipse…

Partial eclipse, pre-note, and order of operations sort of thing.

Order of operations, yeah.

Okay. I am honestly between two here. Can you repeat the definitions for the pre-note one and for the arm fungus?

Yeah, “A brief grace note played before a principal note, then immediately released”, was the musical one. And then the fungus one was “A fungal infection affecting the forearms.” Forearms. One word. Not four arms, like you have four –

What if you have two arms…? [laughs]

You don’t have to worry about the other one…

That’s acciuccatura. No, I can’t even come up with anything…

Yeah, I think what’s throwing me off about the fungus one is that it’s specific to the forearm. [laughter]

That’s what’s throwing you off about it…? [laughter]

It’s like, why would that classify different? You know what I mean? Like, what if it was like on my bicep, or something? Why would that be different?

Are there fungi that only affect the forearms?

Different fibers, man.

That’s right, man.

Yeah, exactly.

It’s different parts of the arm. Get it right.

How much you sweat, different parts of your body… Yeah.

It’s like when you do a lift, and you’re like “This will only work my bicep”, and it’s [unintelligible 00:38:13.27]

I think I like the musical note one, personally… So I think I’m going to lock in the musical note.

Alright, Matthew is on the music note. We go to David.

What was the other fungus?

Yes, there was the fungal infection, which we’ve talked about extensively… And then there’s “A genus of fungi native to South American rainforests.”

And one of these is the correct answer.

That’s… That’s right.

Unless Jerod is playing – unless he’s just playing a trick on all of us.

This entire round is just a big troll… Like, “Surprise! It’s not a real word.”

So we’ve got two funguses…

Fake word.

Sorry, I’m going to do it. Can I have the final three one more time?

The final three? Wow. Well, if that’s going to do it… Okay, so number four was the fungal infection affecting the forearms. Number five is the genus of fungi native to South American rainforest, and number six is when a material has a single plane of shear resistance.

Alright, alright. That…

That’s the one you forgot about…?

Yeah, I just – like, it just flew through me. It was so perceptive… I’m going to go for the musical term as well.

David’s going for music.

And he has the – I see a bass in the background. He’s a musician, so… That’s very suspicious, that a musician might pick the musical one.

I mean, I’m not a musician. I just own several instruments that I hide behind me.

He likes guitars.

As he showcases more instruments, to further –

[laughs] Yeah, he moves so you can see the rest of his guitars. How many forearms do you have? Okay…

I play all of them simultaneously.

Taylor, what are you thinking? You’re going to pile on with these guys? Are you going to go fungal? Are you going to go somewhere else altogether? Shear resistance…?

No, my grandma led me astray. I’m not falling prey to the shear resistance once again.

[00:40:16.21] He’s resisting shear resistance.

Yeah, she actually – my grandma told me that that acciaccatura is an eclipse… But I’m not trusting her, so I’m gonna go for the grace note and pile on.

Alright, he’s piling on on the grace note. Oh, boy… We go now to Thomas.

Okay, so grace note has a pile-on… And the order of operation for actions doesn’t have any love. Partial eclipse with multiple moons… That looks – like, I’m trying to imagine what that would look like, and that would be pretty cool to see. But I don’t see how that’s acciaccatura.

Have you seen Star Wars?

Have I seen Star Wars? Yes.

Yeah, it’s like that.

That’s multiple suns…?

Dude, you didn’t watch the end credit scene.

The end credits is all multiple moons? [laughs] Yeah, moon fest…

It’s not just multiple moons, it’s a partial eclipse of multiple moons.

It’s a partial eclipse of multiple moons.

Right.

Yes. A rare occurrence. We have fungal in the forearms… Like ringworm, different places… Rumble in the jungle, fungal in the forearms…

Yeah, fungal in the forearm.

But there’s some fungus feeling thing about acciaccatura, and I’m going to go with number five, the genus of fungi native to South America.

Alright. So we have Thomas on the South American rainforest fungi.

Yeah, all alone on my little island.

No man is an island… I don’t remember the rest of the poem, but…

That’s a poem?

It’s a book… Well, it’s a poem and it’s a book.

It’s a book by Thomas…

It’s just a crazy book.

This guy’s pulling out books, man…

That’s what they are.

Thomas reads, dude. He has a book that says “No man is an island.”

He just book-checked you.

You should read some Thomas Burton. That would be the plug…

That’s awesome. I love that.

Adam, what are you thinking, man?

Mom always told me if I get a chance to pile on, to pile on… So I’m gonna pile on. [laughter] Listen to grandparents and mamas, okay?

He’s just following the crowd here.

Mom always said if there’s a good pile-on, pile on.

With the crowds. Alright, let’s start right there… Acciaccatura is a brief grace note played before a principal note, then immediately released. I think it’s an Italian word. So Matthew, David, Taylor and Adam each get two points. Matthew, David, Taylor, Adam. And Thomas guessed a genus of fungi native South American rainforest - that was Matthew, so he gets a bonus point.

Oh, good job, Matthew. We both had fungus on the mind…

Oh, perfect. I was wondering who else did the fungus one.

I really liked a fungal infection affecting the forearms… However, it had this certain role to the sentence where I thought “That can’t be a real thing, because it just sounds so–” “A fungal infection affecting the forearms…” It’s almost alliterative. Like, it’s poetic.

That’s what got me with the water one last time. I was like “They said water twice.”

Which was mine.

That also Thomas’s. He’s on to you, dude…

Honestly, I’ve been reading too much… [laughter]

Come down here with us plebs, you know…?

I did just see Hamlet… I saw Hamlet last week, and maybe that’s all getting in my head.

Oh, maybe it is. Did he have a forearm infection?

No, but it’s Shakespeare. [laughter]

Thanks. Now he’s educating us plebs. He’s like “That’s Shakespeare, if you didn’t know…” That’s the only author that I know. Okay…

That’s the only author you know… [laughs]

[00:44:04.06] Yeah. Shakespeare, and… I don’t know. Yup, that’s it. I can’t think of another one. Here we go…

Alright, alright.

Round four. Well, let’s total up the points here… After three rounds, David and Matthew tied with eight. It’s a battle, guys… Taylor with five, Thomas and Adam tied at four.

And Jerod with…

And I’m still shut out. Well, you guys keep piling on, which usually helps me, because if you pile on the wrong answer, I win… But you’re piling on to the right answer, and I lose.

You invited us champions here…

It’s true. I should expect the best, and you guys are giving it to me. Okay, round four - Give it a Goog. Oh, yes. This is our Give it a Goog round, in which I open up an Incognito tab and I don’t change my IP address, so yes, you can go ahead and judge us Nebraskans… As I start to type a phrase into Google, and then I stop and let it autocomplete. I then write down the top autocomplete answer from google.com when an Incognito tab in Nebraska types “Steve Jobs”, space. Steve Jobs, then I stopped… Then I got some suggestions. Your chore is to write down what you think a believable suggestion would be the top one, and send it to me whenever you’re ready.

So just his name and then space?

That’s right. His name, Steve, space, Jobs, space… What do you think Google would expect me to type next? Oh, these are coming in hot and heavy… [laughs] These are good… These are good.

Just to clarify, would “Steve Jobs space needle” be a good answer?

[laughs] You could try it, yeah.

Okay.

I wouldn’t stop you.

Is that a clarification?

I’m leaving the space up to…

Yeah, that one, too…

Thomas has a Steve Jobs book… I want you to – your mission, should you choose to accept it, is every round you have to pick out a book that somehow relates, okay?

[laughs] Okay.

Somehow relates.

That sounds exhausting.

It’s a challenge.

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s gonna be tough if we get to round six, especially.

Hmm… What’s round six?

I’ll tell you when we get there. Come on, no hints, no teasers… I guess that kind of was a teaser.

Yeah, it was.

We’re waiting for Adam and Taylor.

I’ve gotta say, make files are very annoying sometimes… Just letting you all know.

There’s a heteroscedastic book… There you go.

Hey, there you go… A little bit of tuft…

A little bit of tuft… Is that what –

Is that not tuft?

No, that was my nickname back in college.

[unintelligible 00:47:09.28] that book.

I didn’t know it’s – yeah, it’s the visual display of quantitative information. Quant? Yeah, quant.

I sure pitched that… I pitched that round into your wheelhouse, didn’t I, David? He’s like “This word exists on the front page of a book that I’ve read… And I keep it nearby in case I need to reference it, or just show off to my friends.” It’s working. I think you’re pretty cool at this point.

Okay. Everyone’s in. Alright, so six potential autocompletes for the search “Steve jobs”, blank. Steve Jobs - what. Google autocompletes, the top autocomplete. Here’s your six potential answers. “Steve Jobs net worth”, “Steve Jobs biography”, “Steve Jobs feet pics…” [laughter]

And that tells us all we need to know Nebraska…

“Steve Jobs daughter”, “Steve Jobs wife”, “Steve Jobs death.” That’s six. This round, the person who gets to go first is David.

[00:48:23.24] These are largely depressingly plausible…

Yeah, exactly.

I want to go net worth.

David goes net worth. Adam.

I’ve been curious by his feet, honestly… I’ve been thinking like “What does his feet look like?” [laughter] You know? I’ve seen him… Show me your feet, dude… Okay? Steve Jobs feet.

He did famously walk around barefoot a lot.

You know, maybe he’s got some ganglies, you know? Maybe it’s well manicured.

Or a little bit of tuft.

A little bit of tuft… [laughter] A little bit of fungus?

He could probably use some –

A little bit of acciaccatura?

Yeah, I was trying to say that word.

Some [unintelligible 00:49:09.17]

Acciaccatura?

Acciaccatura on them feet, man… He needs some acciaccatura.

So you’re going to go with feet pics, or…?

Heck no, man… [laughter] Who cares about that man’s feet…? They want to know how much money he’s got. Show me the money.

Show me the money. Alright, Steve Jobs net worth. Next up is Taylor.

Oh, it’s for sure the space needle. [laughter]

It wasn’t any of them.

Steve Jobs space needle.

It’s definitely space needle, okay?

Okay, I’ll go daughter then.

I appreciate you doubling down on that joke. Daughter?

No, it was a good bit. I had to… Yeah, daughter.

It was a good one. Taylor’s going for Steve Jobs daughter. Okay… Thomas.

Yeah. Net worth… Biography… Feet pics… Daughter, wife and death.

That’s right.

Gotta end with death, as always… So daughter - she came up with a book, “Small Fry”, a couple of years ago…

Really?

Oh, yeah.

About fast food, or…? McDonald’s?

No.

Is she a small human? I don’t understand Small Fry. What’s the context?

I don’t actually know what the context is of the title…

It was his pinky toe. Dad’s pinky toe.

It’s that that’s what it was. And you would only know that if you looked up the feet pics, as everyone else in Nebraska has.

Was it a picture book?

It’s not a picture book. It’s a very serious book, about…

It was actually the invention dad never did. That’s what it was.

Yeah. He never invented the small fry.

Do you have it on your shelf behind you?

No, I don’t, actually, but I do want to read it. It’s on my list of books I want to read. I’ve got too much stuff going on.

Alright… We’ve got daughter, or wife… You know, I’m going to go with daughter, because she wrote the book… I wonder if people are like “Steve jobs daughter who wrote the book”, but they don’t remember her name. Because she didn’t – she was Lisa Brennan for a while, before… Now she goes by Lisa Brennan Jobs.

Okay, so you’re going with daughter.

Yeah.

Alright, Thomas says daughter, along with Taylor… David and Adam are on net worth, and Matthew is the only one who hasn’t picked yet. What are you thinking, man?

Um, what is it, net worth, daughter…?

Wife…

Wife or life?

Wife.

Wife.

Biography…

Biography.

Life. Is it life?

It was wife.

Net worth, for sure.

You’re going net worth.

Yeah, I’m piling.

He’s piling.

We have two piles here. We have two piles, but which one is right? David, Adam, and Matthew chose net worth. Steve Jobs net worth. Are people Google searching that? I don’t know, but Adam created it, so he should know…

Nice.

[00:52:14.11] Good job, Adam. You get one point for David and Matthew. You don’t score any points for guessing your own, but you did convince people.

Oh yeah, I forgot I guessed my own. [laughs] Whoops…

No, you have to pretend like that’s a strategy.

I really just did forget. I was like “It’s gotta be net worth.” [laughs]

Play if off. Play it off…

Well, fun fact - net worth was actually the third autocomplete for me. So it was right up there at the top. The second autocomplete for me was death, so that was right there at the top. Matthew actually said death. But the number one autocomplete for Steve Jobs is “Steve Jobs daughter.” So Taylor and Thomas landed on it.

Taylor Thomas. Jonathan Taylor Thomas.

Two points each for JTT… And I get zero, so I guess J doesn’t get any, but TT gets two… Other autocompletes there in that list: death, net worth, children, cause of death, wife… And finally, Steve Job quotes. Ah… No feet pics. No whatsoever. That was Thomas’s. He threw a wrench, and it was a good one.

Alright, so after round four, we still have Matthew and David tied, with eight. That makes sense. Did you guys score that round? No, you did not. Just making sure my calculator is working… Matthew and David have eight. Taylor has seven. Thomas has six. Adam has six… This is a very tight game of #define. We move now to round five.

Break: [00:53:44.15]

We’re moving on to round five, where we play a round of “Weird flicks, but okay…” In this round, I have gone out to the interwebs and I have found an obscure old movie…

Oh, yes.

In fact, I’ve found a movie from 1928. I then took the synopsis of that movie - you know, the one-liner description of what the movie’s about. You can read it on IMDb, etc… And I jotted that down. Your job is to write a synopsis given the name and the year that it was made, and convince all of us that you actually wrote the real synopsis of the movie. The movie I wrote down is called The Man Who Laughs. The Man Who Laughs. It’s from 1928. Please submit to me your synopses for The Man Who Laughs whenever you have them ready.

And we’re confident on that year this time?

The year is correct. The year is correct.

I’ve gotta go over to my DVD shelf to grab it.

Just for Thomas, a movie is like a book, but a fun book. It’s like a fun version of a book.

A fun book… A fun… Book… Okay.

And it takes like several hours to days to finish?

Oh, if you’re doing at one speed, dude. If you’re a rookie.

You’ve gotta watch all my movies at 2x speed… [laughs]

Just as Scorsese intended. You’ve gotta watch it on your iPod Nano at double speed, you know?

Have you seen Star Wars…?

That should be the legal question…

That reminds me, did you guys hear Ira Glass came out, of NPR fame, of This American Life - came out and said “All podcasts should be listened to at 2x”? It surprised me.

He did not say that…

He did say that.

Who said this?

Ira Glass. Says podcasts should be listened to, including his own - all podcasts - 2x.

I’m gonna start speaking really slow then. And all my jokes are gonna take way too long. Speed that up, 2xers, tell me how that sounds.

Adam, all your jokes already take too long.

I normally speak fast, so people generally slow me down.

Yeah. I’ve got too much excitement, and I’m Texan, so when I speak, it’s just Texan… I don’t know how to say it, okay?

I don’t know what that means. Is it big words?

Did you learn your first big word, Adam?

Acciaccatura.

Star! That’s all we know how to say here in Texas. Star.

Matthew, just in case you didn’t know, you just gave me the title…

I know, I know, I sent you the title back. I like to give you the word, and the thing that we’re doing…

Oh, I forgot I’m supposed to be describing a movie here. I’m talking.

And I hit Enter to do a new line.

The Man Who Laughs, is that what this is?

The Man Who Laughs. 1928.

The Man Who Laughs. Okay. I can do this.

Jerod, when do you get the first snow in Nebraska?

Well, we have very unpredictable weather, so it can be as early as Halloween… And we had actually one year a humongous snowstorm on Halloween. Closed it down. But more realistically, it’s like late December or early January. But it’s cold far before it snows, so… It’ll be getting cold here soon. Right now it’s perfect weather. We’re in like 60s, 50s. Sunny. I like when the sun is hot, but the air is cold.

[01:00:05.24] That’s good weather. Well, then you’re in the right place.

Yeah.

I will say, Adam, I take your criticism of the Canadian American experience, but one of the big benefits is two Thanksgivings.

Yeah.

I’ve already had a Thanksgiving. It was great. I’ve got another Thanksgiving coming up in a few weeks…

It’s gonna be great.

Thanksgiving really should happen twice a year.

Totally agree. 10 out of 10.

It’s actually like my favorite thing.

And they’re spaced out enough, right? They’re about a month and change apart, so that that second one really comes and you’re like “Oh, yeah, I love Thanksgiving. It’s great. It’s coming around again.”

Is it similar fare, or is there other…?

Yeah, similar fare, same stuff, just different day.

Cool.

I did the turkey this year… Though I got too big of a turkey for the number of people we had.

Well, that just means you’ve got turkey sandwiches.

Turkey sandwiches… I made some stock…

What’s your preferred preparation for the turkey?

I do a salt rub the night before, and let it air dry in the refrigerator. So I leave it uncovered. It gets the skin nice and crispy. And then day of, melt butter over it, chop up a lot of veggies, put them in the bottom of the pan, and roast it. I don’t do anything too crazy fancy, and it just comes out perfectly.

It sounds alarmingly like some sort of treatment for fungus, foreign fungus…

What is this you’re making here? Are these your potatoes?

No. Turkey. Have you ever deep-fried turkey?

I don’t have a house to set on fire, so…

Totally did.

So the only time I’ve ever done it was with my uncle, who is a career firefighter. And that was the only person with whom I felt safe enough to deep-fry a turkey.

I appreciate, all the local fire departments doing the video where they drop a turkey that’s not quite frozen - or not quite thawed - and you just watch it…

Not quite thawed, yeah. Any of that water, it just goes [unintelligible 01:02:33.21] Matthew, how’s your wife’s chocolate business?

Great. I actually have to take pictures for the next Thanksgiving Christmas collection tomorrow, I think.

Does she ship to Canada?

Not to Canada, because the border crossing will get you…

I know, it’s so expensive… I know, it’s fine. That’s fine, that’s fine.

But if you can meet us at Niagara Falls…

Yeah, just meet you at the border…

Yeah, there you go.

Yeah, “Why are you coming down today? A little chocolate –”

A little chocolate swap. Just toss it across the border… [laughter]

Oh, that’s called smuggling.

Yeah. There’s nothing wrong with that.

I prefer snuggling.

Chocolate [unintelligible 01:03:15.06] What’s the difference? I mean, come on…

I was watching a video about the engineering of Niagara Falls the other day, really interesting stuff… And what I learned was that pretty much the exact same setup is replicated on both sides. And it was kind of like a peeing contest, to a certain degree. It’s like “You’re going to do that? We’re going to do it.” Like, they couldn’t share. They couldn’t work together. It was like “No, we’re both going to have the exact same deal. We’re just going to do everything twice.” Oh, that was kind of funny… I think they worked together in a certain sense, of like the design, because everything’s designed like mirrored, to a certain degree, which is kind of cool… But I didn’t know there was like all that going on back then.

[01:04:00.04] Six pretty well-written synopses for 1928’s The Man Who Laughs… But which one is the actual movie plot? Here we go.

Number one, “The Man Who Laughs recounts the story of Dr. Dennis Rockwell, who struggles with his grip on reality as he treats his patients out at Mount Basker Mental Asylum.” Number two, “A disgruntled railroad worker catches the next train out of town to find beauty in life.” Number three, “A veteran of the Great War cheerfully tries to save his farm.” Number four, “A disfigured nobleman with a permanent grin is forced into circus life and separated from his true identity.” Number five, “Darkly romantic, a comedian is heartbroken when his lover leaves him for a member of his audience, the man who laughs.” And number six, “Thrust into the starlight, two laugh-filled men adventure together to seek the love of the same woman. As stage performers who travel, they find it hard to see her in the crowd, so they developed a laugh from bellows down below to win her love.” Alright, six different potential synopses of 1928’s The Man Who Laughs. Adam, you can’t pile on this round, because you are first.

Gosh… Is there any way to go last? Is that possible? [laughter]

You can’t pile on, because you’re first. “Can I just not do that…?” [laughs]

I do think that would be an interesting mechanic to introduce in a future version of this game…

Adam always goes last?

Or just like someone gets the ability to…

Oh, to like play that card every once in a while, or something. Yeah, that’s a good idea. Interesting.

You know, I wasn’t listening, so… [laughter] I’m used to going last… Can I get to pile on, push my button that’s just a – you know, the easy button… Could I ask you to describe them to me again?

I’m going to give you briefs, because this is a lot of reading.

No, you can just give me the summary.

Alright, so number one was the story of Dr. Dennis Rockwell…

Okay, yeah. I remember that. I was listening to that one, I was kidding.

…at the Mt. Basker Mental Asylum. Number two –

That’s a pretty good one, whoever wrote that.

Number two was the disgruntled railroad worker who catches the next train out of town.

Oh, yeah, also pretty good.

And he finds beauty in life. Yeah. Number three was the veteran of the Great War who cheerfully tries to save his farm.

Yeah, that’s a good one, too.

Number four, a disfigured nobleman with a permanent grin, who’s forced into circus life.

That does have smile feels…

What?

Well, you said “laughs”, so I guess - laugh, smile… It’s all the same, right?

Number five was a comedian who is heartbroken when his lover leaves him for a member of his audience. The man who laughs.

Taylor wrote that.

Wow. Call-out. Number six was the two laughed-filled men who are seeking the same woman’s love. So there’s your synopses of the synopses. What are you thinking? What are you convinced by? What are you…

You know, I just want to ask if I can go last. [laughter]

You can’t. You can’t go last.

Alright, fine, I will go with the disgruntled railroad worker who found a way to go down the mountain.

Alright.

Who’s that guy? Is that mixing them? Did I mix them?

A disgruntled railroad worker catches the next train out of town? That’s one you want?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I don’t know if I like that one…

Alright. Well, we’ll see – Taylor, you’re next.

What was the one before that?

Can I go last…?

What was the one before that?

The man who goes last. Are you not locked in?

No… I’m still thinking about them…

Shoot… I thought we were moving on. Before that was the Dr. Dennis Rockwell at the mental asylum. He treats his patients, but he struggles when he loses a grip on reality.

[01:08:18.06] Yeah, that’s plausible for sure.

You want that one?

Nah… Railroad. I’ll just go railroad. All day.

Alright, you’re sticking with railroad. Taylor, what do you want?

Let’s see… My grandma actually saw this one in theaters… [laughter]

Did you say theaters?

1928, right? Yeah, at the cinema.

1928. Yeah. At the cinema?

She told me though it was the one about the old guy with the house, with the balloons… So that one’s not an option. I’ll go with the nobleman. The disfigured face.

The disfigured nobleman. Alright.

Oh, wait. What was the first one again?

The Mount Basker Mental Asylum.

Ooh…

You want that one instead?

No, let’s do nobleman.

Thomas.

Let’s see… So we have the mental asylum, we have beauty… Let’s see. Man after the great war… Circus life, the comedian, and then the two laugh filled men. I feel like – we have two laugh filled men. We call it “The men who laugh”, or maybe that’s the sequel. I’m going to go with the mental asylum one. The number one.

Number one.

That’s a good choice. That’s a good choice.

Is it yours?

No. Just good choice, man.

[laughs]

We’ll go to Matthew.

Mental asylum one, railroad something, nobleman something…

You should go with the one with the great war in it.

Something about a great war…

Yeah, because I don’t think it happened yet… [laughs] 1921…

Can you read the –

It depends on which one you like, you know?

Can you read the asylum one and the nobleman one?

Sure.

They’re not the same, right?

No, they’re not the same. The asylum one is the story of Dr. Dennis Rockwell, who struggles with his grip on reality as he treats his patients at Mount Basker Mental Asylum.

Got it. Okay.

Are you saying the great war wouldn’t have happened by ’28?

What’s the great war? Is that World War I?

1928… No, you’re right. But 1928 – see, he just said doctors. They didn’t have doctors in 1928. That one’s false too, dude… [laughter]

Also synopsis is – synopses whatever…

Yes?

You introduced me with too many characters in that synopses.

Right.

And the other one was the noble, something?

Yeah, disfigured nobleman.

Disfigured nobleman.

He’s got a permanent grin.

Oh, like the Joker.

Always smiling.

He’s forced in the circus life. [laughs] And separated from his true identity.

Oh, that sounds fun. So he’s forced into it. Okay… I think I’m leaning into that one. Someone already picked that one though, right?

Yeah. Taylor picked that one, and Thomas picked the mental asylum one. So they both have one person on them.

I think I’m leaning towards the nobleman. The Joker story. The Joker origin story.

Okay. You’re going to lock that in?

Railroad is another one… Lovers something…

Yes…

Yeah, I think the nobleman sounds the best here. It feels…

I don’t think anyone here is going to use the word disfigured.

Wow. That’s a dis.

Yeah.

Alright, I’m going to lock you in then.

Lock me in, please.

Locked you in on the pile-on. We go to David.

Yeah, I think my intuition last time was sort of prudish about what would be acceptable movie contents… And so the disfigured nobleman kind of sounds right to me as well, so… It’s a pile-on, again.

Oh, alright.

We’re a very conservative bunch here. We’re all – a lot of herding.

Seriously.

I am in pain… So yeah, the hurting is real. No, I’m just kidding.

[01:11:54.00] Well, it’s keeping the game close, because every time someone scores, everybody else scores also. Alright. Well, we’ve heard these synopses over and over and over again… Let’s go to the guesses. Adam thought maybe it was the disgruntled railroad worker. That was written by Matthew, so one point to Matthew. Thomas was convinced by the Mount Basker mental asylum. I thought that one was amazing. Taylor wrote that. Good job, Taylor. A point to Taylor. And then the pile-on. They’re piling onto a disfigured nobleman with a permanent grin, who’s forced into circus life and separated from his true identity, in 1928’s “The Man Who Laughs.” That is the actual synopsis of a movie. It doesn’t sound half bad, does it?

It actually doesn’t.

We’ll have to go watch that movie, Thomas…

Changelog movie night…

Yeah, or if you could get it converted into a book, then you could read it…

I don’t have to read everything as a book… [laughter] I also watch movies.

Then you can pull the book out when we talk about it.

Fun fact - Man Who Laughs was the very first Pixar film.

This is coming from the guy who’s calling into question the years of the Great War. That was David’s, that’s why he was defending that one.

I tried to let it breathe for an appropriate amount of time…

You didn’t want to jump to its defense too harshly, yeah… I knew what you were doing there, David. I could see it. Well played. Alright, so Taylor, Matthew, and David all get two points for getting that right… So three total points for Taylor, two for David, three for Matthew.

Where’s my points? Did I get any points?

No, not this round. Unfortunately you didn’t get to go last.

Oh, man…

And that brings us to the end of round five, and Matthew is in striking distance - he has 11. Of course, Taylor and David are also in striking distance with 10. Thomas and Adam have six… And we don’t have to talk about me.

I’m going to call a two-point win [unintelligible 01:13:46.25]

I don’t know, man… I mean, I see the time… I’ve got to eat, bro…

I’m not winning, so…

So your entire idea is you should switch to subterfuge, don’t you think? That’s your strategy?

I’m just going to start reading.

Just start reading. [laughter] Alright, that brings us to round six, and that brings us to a very long word… Pronounced brobdingnagian. Brobdingnagian. The word for round six is brobdingnagian. And it’s spelled B-R-O-B-D-I-N-G-N-A-G-I-A-N. Brobdingnagian. I think that’s my best pronunciation yet. Brobdingnagian.

That is definitely not how it’s pronounced… But I see why you’re doing it that way.

This is the second time you’ve done this to me, and I’m telling you, I looked it up on YouTube, it’s pronounced brobdingnagian.

So take that, Matthew…

Take that, Matthew…

Yeah. Check out your own YouTube videos for pronunciation, and step back –

You’re rocking my world, again…

Brobdingnagian…

If it ends in I-A-N, it’s Armenian. So… Fun fact.

A slight alteration, it could also be pronounced brobdingnagian. So it could be nagian or nagian. I’ve heard them both now. But brobding is correct. Please submit to me your definitions of brobdingnagian. Or nagian, if you prefer… Now.

You know what? It’s been real… I’m going to get some dinner. [laughter] Jerod can’t pronounce the words anymore.

Hey, I’m two for two, man. I’m two for two.

Nah, you’re good. You’re good. This…

This word is interesting.

I have words about this word…

Write them down and submit them to me.

…that I can’t say it until our definitions are out there.

Okay. Oh, by the way, Adam, did you LLM that last one?

[01:16:01.19] I haven’t LLM’ed anything, man…

Okay.

I can do that?

You’d better start LLM-ing, buddy…

You’re running out of time, dude…

Am I allowed to do that?

You get one. You get one pass.

Oh my gosh, I should do this soon.

So I mute myself when I’m typing, because I have this gnarly clickety clacker… And when I do type, I get the little notification, “Hey, are you trying to speak? If you’re trying to speak, you’re muted right now.” I’m not. I’m typing.

I prefer just to hear the clickety clacks, man…

Alright…

Let’s get them.

But I have to do some thinking before it.

Now I know when you’re not typing, too. And we silently judge you.

I think if you were really paying attention, you could notice how long was I typing, you could guess which…

I wouldn’t put it past David. I think he’s playing to win. He’s probably going to listen to your typing and figure out your definition.

Yeah… He has those big over-ear headphones on to really get –

Matthew also has headphones…

Literally –

The majority of people in this chat have –

I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. It’s not lost on me.

I mean, mine are open back, so I still hear the…

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Oh, wow…

Yeah. I’ve got to hear my dog’s barking, or my wife is calling me.

Yup. I hear my dog barking. I’m going to take her for a walk.

Can I change my answer for the Steve Jobs one? [laughter] I don’t know… I just wondered if I could. If it’s allowed.

Yeah, man. Go for it.

Okay. I want to choose Steve Jobs net worth.

Hah!

That gives Adam another point.

Yeah, I know, right? Here we go.

I did get - this is relevant to Changelog. I did get this book before it came out…

Oh, wow.

I got the not-for-resale…

Before it came out?

Dang, dude…

That’s a contradiction, dude. You can’t get something before it comes out.

Well, that’s not true if you know the right people.

I had it before he wrote it, so…

You had it before he wrote it?

Yeah… Well, you’ve got to know the right people.

No, this is – it says “These proofs are not to be quoted for publication.”

You just published it, dude. You’re on a podcast.

The book’s out. The book came out. It says on the back when the book actually comes out… And it already came out. Everyone can buy it now.

Did you hear about the sequel to that book called Constipation? No, you haven’t. It hasn’t come out yet. [laughter]

That’s a good one.

Bravo. I hate that I love that, but that’s a pretty good one.

He hates that loves it.

That’s a good one.

Such is life. Okay… Six definitions for brobdingnagian. Number one, purposefully accelerating civilization collapse. Number two, having to do with the sport of brobsledding. [laughter] Number three, a fictional area in the Golden Sun video game where the characters face the toughest enemies. Number four, a matrix of fourth derivatives. Number five, “Cousin to the Backyardigans. Malik, Zara, Kenji, and Luna love to play in the front yard…” [laughter]

[01:19:52.24] You’re not helping anything with that…

“…and imagine themselves on fantastic adventures.”

That’s awesome.

That’s amazing. And number five – or sorry, number six… “Marked by tremendous size.” Marked by tremendous size. Okay. Six definitions… Good news for you, Adam - you get to go last. So you’re safe. Taylor has to go first this round… Taylor, what do you think is brobdingnagian?

I do just want to give a shout out real quick to the Backyardigans… I’ve been watching that show with my daughter, and it’s got some fire tracks. Like…

Oh, yeah, man…

Oh, yeah?

Kbrob demon hunters…

Ooh… that’s a good one. So it’s between brobsledding - that was a very good one. Whoever did that, that’s very clever. Brobsledding…

It could be the real answer, you don’t know… [laughs]

You guys act like brobsledding is not real, or something…

Yeah, I think I like the first one and the last one. Those sounded the most legit.

Yeah, they did.

Okay.

The last one was size…?

Yeah, tremendous size.

Tremendous size. No, that’s too on the nose. What was the first one?

The first one was “Purposefully accelerating civilizational collapse.”

Ooh… Nah, that’s too smart for me. What about… Let’s pick the last one. Size.

Size. He’s going for size. Size does matter for Taylor Thomas.

Size… Size? Big? Or sighs… Which size? Marked by tremendous size.

He’s asking about a homonym.

What’d you call me? [laughter] S-I-Z-E. It’s spelled S-I-Z-E.

S-I-Z-E. Civilization – so accelerating civilization collapse…

Correct.

Brobsledding, which…

Brobsledding.

I mean, it sounds really good…