QUARANTINE BLOG # 59

May 28, 2020

The $64,000 Question had its roots in the CBS radio quiz show, Take It or Leave It. After answering a question correctly, the contestant had the choice to “take” the prize or “leave it” in favor of a chance at the next question. The first question was worth one dollar, and the value doubled each successive question, up to the seventh and final question worth $64.

Television contestants chose a specific category and would then be asked questions only in that category, earning money which doubled as the questions became more difficult ($64, $128, $256, $512; then $1,000, $2,000, $4,000, $8,000, $16,000, $32,000, and finally $64,000).

One winner was psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers; her category was boxing.  She was the only female contestant who won the $64,000.  Participants were not allowed to be quizzed on topics of their expertise or profession.  The producers said Brothers should be given a topic on “something that she shouldn’t know about, like football or were horse racing or boxing.”

Brothers’ husband was a great fan of boxing, so she chose that sport and memorized a 20-volume boxing encyclopedia, and years worth of Ring Magazine.  In the congressional hearings dealing which later dealt with quiz show fraud, she was cleared of any wrong-doing (more about those hearings tomorrow).

In this clip, Joyce Brothers decides whether or not she will risk her $8,000 to play for $16,000: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqhxN9a8OCg Her appearance is at the 12 minute mark.  It is interesting to watch how the game played, complete with questions being delivered to the host from a bank vault, and the contestant in an isolation booth (for no reason I can see except the dramatic impact).  Host Hal March tells the third contestant that if he goes for the $64,000 he can have an expert in the booth – better than “phone a friend.”  This is also an interesting look back at the 1950s.  The women in the audience are wearing hats, and the men are wearing suits and ties.

Three years after it became one of the most popular programs on television, The $64,000 Question was gone from the airwaves, replaced by a new show, Twenty-One.  Tune in tomorrow for the  conclusion of this story.

👉  On this day in 1957, National League owners voted unanimously to allow the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers to move to San Francisco and Los Angeles.  From 1950-1957, the Dodgers had won five NL pennants and one World Championship.  They regularly packed all 32,000 seats at Ebbets Field.  Their owner, Walter O’Malley, still wanted to move his team west, where the city of Los Angeles had agreed to build him the new stadium that Brooklyn would not.

The Giants did not win games like the Dodgers nor draw fans like their crosstown rivals, so owner Horace Stoneman relocated to San Francisco.  On their final day at the Polo Grounds, Giants PR man Garry Schumacher said, “If all the people who will claim in the future that they were here today had actually turned out, we wouldn’t have to be moving in the first place.”  This accompanying

photograph was published by the New York Daily News on September 30, 1957.  The Giants last game was against the Pirates, and the Bucs won 9-1.

👉  Here is one from our “The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same Department.”  Following the lead of the Dodgers and the Giants, from 1991 through 1997, the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Braves, and Texas Rangers all held their cities hostage and won new stadiums.  And that doesn’t count favorable subsidies and tax breaks given to other teams.  With the reports of leagues making billions of dollars, let them build their own stadiums.

👉  Here’s one from our “You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me! Department.”  In a report from CBSNews released yesterday, only about half of Americans say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine if the scientists working furiously to create one succeed.  One surveyee said, “I am not an anti-vaxxer, but to get a COVID-19 vaccine within a year or two ... causes me to fear that it won’t be widely tested as to side effects.  Dr. Francis Collins, who directs the National Institutes of Health, declares safety is the top priority.  The NIH is creating a master plan for testing the leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates in tens of thousands of people, to prove whether they really work and if they’re safe.  When the vaccine is ready, my sleeve will be rolled up.

👉  If you are a Scrabble player, here is the ultimate game board.  It measures 80 inches wide by 59 inches high and sells for only $1895.  But wait!  If you are a member of restorationhardware.com you can get it for the low, low price of $1421.  This wall-mounted version has everything its tabletop predecessors have, including a fabric bag for the letter tiles.  Strong magnets keep the letters in their squares, and a built-in chalkboard lets you keep track of the score.

👉  A family was on its way to the mall when the three year old said, “Daddy, if God made everything, did He make light poles?” 

We humans have a deep desire to know and to understand.  We are all archaeologists who dig into the mounds of our lives trying to make sense of things.  But sometimes our wonderings go too far, and we put ourselves ill-at-ease trying to figure everything out instead of trusting God.

At times like that, and at times like these, the Psalmist gives an answer where otherwise we might find none: “Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken.  My victory and honor come from God alone.  He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me” (Psalm 62:5-7 New Living Translation).

In moments when you wish you knew what you can’t know, there is rest to be found.  There is One who knows.  He loves you and rules over what you don’t understand.  Trust as much as you know about you to as much as you know about Him.  That I can understand.

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