They need someone to tell them right from wrong

[austin_dern]

And as though the world wished to inaugurate my new computer in all the ways it could, on Tuesday The Price Is Right played ``Pay The Rent'' again. Well, sort of. They billed it as ``Pay The Tuition'', although as the rules didn't change and the set different was just making the house props a little more messed up with the word ``Tuition'' put on a sign over ``Rent'', I think this was just a bit of whimsy to go along with an episode which was generally Spring Break-themed. Barring a repeat performance I'm going to suppose this doesn't represent a change in policy.

The small prizes this time were energy drink, fabric ``refresher'', plastic cups, corn chips, a pack of ramen noodles, and pizza rolls. The contestant, clearly not getting the flow of this game, put the ramen in the first level, the cups and fabric ``refresher'' on the second, the corn chips and pizza rolls on the third, and the energy drink up top. With ramen at 29 cents this was a waste of the first level. The cups ($3.49) and fabric ``refresher'' ($2.99) left her alive for a total $6.48 that level and $5,000 prize; and even the corn chips ($4.99) and pizza rolls ($4.49) made for a decent third level, $9.48, and $10,000 prize. Proclaiming that she had a ``lot of loans to pay off'', she decided not to take the $10,000 and instead went on in the hopes that the energy drink was more than $9.48. I don't buy energy drinks and even I knew that was stupid. The drink was $6.99. I admit I wouldn't have priced an energy drink that accurately, but even I knew it wsan't more than ten bucks.

As far as I can tell there's only one valid solution: pizza rolls in the first level ($4.49); ramen and corn chips in the second ($5.28); cups and fabric ``refresher'' ($6.48) in the third; and energy drink ($6.99) up top. Curiously, this makes the winning partition 6|54|32|1. I wonder if that was meant.

Trivia: With the successful launch of Vanguard I, the backup booster TV-4BU was returned to Glenn Martin Company for conversion to a booster which could be used for production satellites rather than experimental ones. (It would ultimately launch Vanguard III.) Source: Project Vanguard: The NASA History, Constance McLaughlin Green, Milton Lomask. NASA SP-4202.

Currently Reading: Charlatan: American's Most Dangerous Huckster, The Man Who Pursued Him, And The Age Of Flimflam, Pope Brock. (It's a fascinating book about John R Brinkley, of ``goat gland'' implants and invention-of-annoying-radio fame.)

Comments

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

6.99 for an energy drink? Egad, I've never seen any priced beyond $3.99.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, it was a four-pack, but even so the pricing would be a mystery to me.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, that's more sensible. the going price tends to be between $2 and $3, and a four-pack somewhere between $6 and $9, thusly.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why but the $2 to $3 price range sounds reasonable to me. I haven't gone shopping for energy drinks but they seem like the sort of thing that should be in that price range, somehow.

[lexomatic.livejournal.com]

I find myself (as an incorrigible non-viewer) wondering how anybody is expected to price anything on this show, in This Our Glorious Age of fluctuating prices and generic equivalents. Even if you're obsessive enough to read the prices of every product class in your newspaper's weekly advertising circulars, does the game use the MSRPs, or the average price at a basket of major retailers in a certain metro area during a specified month, or what? Are there tips for prospective contestants? At least the BLS publishes a methodology for its CPI.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

The standard for the show is the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price, as of the day of taping, and if you want to get more specific the prices are those of the ``west coast'', or even more specific, ``Los Angeles county''. (When it's something that fluctuates such as a piece of gold they even specify the price at the start of trading the day of taping.) There are exceptions, but those are clearly marked, for example in the ``Now and Then'' when some of the prizes have the prices of a date in the far distant past such as 2004. They used to make this clearer on the show back before they could just wave people off to the official web site.

Small items, such as the groceries, are pretty consistent and you can learn them just by watching the show. The big-ticket items, such as cars or sailboats or so, I suppose you could attempt to learn but it seems like there'd be so much room for variation in exact packages and specifications that only the first few digits could be learned with any accuracy. On the other hand, the one perfect bid, not a dollar off, in the Showcase was made by a guy listening to the loudmouth in the audience who'd been studying all the prizes in the hopes of his chance to get picked and play.