Councilwoman Parker Needs to Keep Day Job But Walks Away with 50Gs on Millionaire Show

Rye Councilwoman Catherine Parker, who owns Parkers Travel Store on Purchase Street, walked away with $50,000 in winnings on Wednesday’s episode of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.”  She started in the hot seat on Tuesday’s show, where she made it up to the $12,500 question.  She continued as a holdover contestant on Wednesday’s show where she started by looking at the $15,000 question with one lifeline left (“Ask The Expert”).

Parker used her “Ask The Expert” lifeline on the $50,000 question, which was:  Category, 'Japanese Imports' – “Which of these international automakers has a name that loosely means “unite” in Japanese?  A: Subaru, B: Nissan, C: Suzuki, D: Mazda.”  Parker connected with “Expert” Baratunde Thurston (web editor of “The Onion” and host of Popular Science’s “Future Of” on the Science Channel) via a face-to-face Skype video call.  Baratunde guessed the answer to be “B,” but said that he was not sure.  Parker decided to take a guess and made “A” her final answer, which was correct!

Parker’s $100,000 question was:  Category, 'Olympic Athletes' – “In his career, Michael Phelps has won 16 Olympic medals — two behind the all-time leader, who won 18 medals as a what?  A: German speed skater, B: Soviet gymnast, C: Norwegian cross-country skier, D: Hungarian fencer.” 

Out of lifelines and unsure of the answer, Parker decided to not take a guess and walk away with the guaranteed $50,000 that she had already won.  If she had guessed incorrectly on the $100,000 question, she would have fallen back to $25,000 in winnings.  The correct answer was “B.”  FYI — Larissa Latynina won 18 medals for the USSR as a gymnast.

When asked, Parker said she would of chosen "C: Norwegian cross-country skier".

Which Rye public servant or well know citizen would you like to see on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”? Leave your comment below. 

Transcript

Here is a (somewhat choppy) transcript of Parker's appearance on Millionaire, courtesy of Livedash from Replay:

00:00:01 You only have one lifeline left and that is our expert. 
00:00:04 And today our expert is BARATUNDE THURSTON,r Who is the host of "popular science's future of" on the science channel. 
00:00:12 Great expert. 
00:00:14 So you're in good hands here. 
00:00:15 It's nice to have that particular lifeline. 
00:00:19 What do you say, catherine? 
00:00:20 Are you ready? 
00:00:21 >> I'm ready. 
00:00:22 Meredith: Audience, are you ready? 
00:00:23 [Cheers anúd applause] Meredith: Then let's play " ok. 
00:00:30 Going for 15,000. 
00:00:32 You have 30 seconds on the clock. 
00:00:34 CATEGORY, "LITERARY ALLUSIONS."r >> Um, I think the answer , nathaniel hawthorne,@ final answer. 
00:00:59 Meredith: Author of "the scarlet letter," nathaniel hawthorne. 
00:01:01 Good job. 
00:01:03 [Cheers and applause] Meredith: Catherine, this is a great place to be. 
00:01:10 This is the $25,000 question. 
00:01:13 You get this right, YOU CANNOTr LEAVE WITH LESS ú .. 
00:01:33 My grandmother, who I called nanny, had told me about the vidalia onion, and I know she told me that they were from georgia. 
00:01:40 I hope she was right, 'cause I'm going with her answer. 
00:01:43 A., georgia, final answer. 
00:01:45 Meredith: She'd never ú of course it's georgia! 
00:01:50 [Cheers and applause] Meredith: $25,000. 
00:02:02 That is fantastic, catherine. 
00:02:03 Ú>> That is fantastic. 
00:02:05 Meredith: Cannot leave with less than that. 
00:02:06 >> Yeah. 
00:02:07 Meredith: 45 Seconds on the clock. 
00:02:11 ú >> hmm. 
00:02:31 Well, I know the answer's one of them. 
00:02:35 [Laughter] >> I THINK THIS WOULD BEr A good time to ask the expert. 
00:02:41 Meredith: All right, we're going to bring in baratunde thurston. 
00:02:44 Hey, how are you doing, buddy? 
00:02:46 >> Doing great as usual. 
00:02:47 Always great to see you. 
00:02:48 Meredith: Yeah, nice to see you, as well. 
00:02:51 This is really important to catherine. 
00:02:52 @ she's going for 50,000. 
00:02:56 We're going to keep our fingers crossed here, and I'm going to feed you the question right now. 
00:03:03 >> International automakers " so catherine, you should know, I do not speak japanese. 
00:03:10 >> NEITHER DrO I. 
00:03:12 >> O " >> any that we can eliminate? 
00:03:19 >> Mazda doesn't sound very unifying to me. 
00:03:23 It's seems like one of those terms that divides; it's got that harsh letter "z" @ I don't know, I just don't feel a lot of love from that word. 
00:03:30 That is very non-scientific, though. 
00:03:33 .. 
00:03:35 I would– and the suz–hmm, subaru has very unifying commercials. 
00:03:41 He's a very nice guy IN THOSE COMMERCIALS.r Also not scientific. 
00:03:47 This is very difficult. 
00:03:49 I wish I just spoke japanese. 
00:03:51 It'd make things a lot easier. 
00:03:53 Nissan feels better. 
00:03:55 It's a softer term, it's been around for a long time. 
00:03:58 The cars make me feel good @ leaning toward nissan. 
00:04:06 Very low confidence rating on this one. 
00:04:08 I feel really bad as I'm supposed to be your expert, but I'm not a japanese speaker, so I'm just doing a bit of semi-educated guessing. 
00:04:16 Nissan sounds more unifyingú phonetically, in the lited japanese that I do understand, I'd go with that one. 
00:04:23 Low rating, though. 
00:04:25 Meredith: Baratunde, first of all, thank you very much. 
00:04:27 >> Yeah. 
00:04:28 Meredith: And I gotta remind you that, you know, he sort of leaned towards nissan but he's saying to you he doesn't know. 
00:04:34 Yo@u have 28 seconds, catherine, starting now. 
00:04:37 >> Ok, it's sort of a no-harm, no-foul kind of thing. 
00:04:41 Meredith: Yeah, it's a free guess, totally. 
00:04:43 >> Free guess. 
00:04:44 And baratunde sort of likes subaru. 
00:04:49 Baratunde and you, BARATUNDE, ME?r I don't know. 
00:04:53 Maybe subaru, it's kind of speaking to me. 
00:04:56 I'm gonna take a big, giant , subaru, final answer. 
00:05:03 Meredith: Hmm. 
00:05:06 You have $50,000. 
00:05:08 [Cheers and applause] >> oh, my god! 
00:05:18 Oh, my god! 
00:05:19 Meredith: Well, I gotta tell you, when catherine guesses, she guesses good. 
00:05:22 We'll be right back with more "MILLIONAIRE."r Yes! 
00:05:28 >> Oh, my god! 
break
00:07:47 Meredith: We are back with catherine parker, travel store owner from rye, new york. 
00:07:51 And this much, catherine, I can say positively. 
00:07:54 Your husband david who's sitting behind you is a very happy guy, very proud of you. 
00:07:59 Your daughter julia, who's nine years old and asked you to bring her back 50 bucks, is going to get her $50. 
00:08:07 >> She's getting her $50. 
00:08:08 Meredith: She's getting her 50. 
00:08:09 And your store that suffered $80,000 worth of damage and two serious floods a couple years back, you've almost recouped all of that. 
00:08:16 ú congratulations, that's great. 
00:08:22 And totally on a guess, which is phenomenal. 
00:08:25 >> It is kind of phenomenal. 
00:08:27 Meredith: You could even take up japanese now, because you might know it. 
00:08:31 >> I know what "unity" means now. 
00:08:33 Meredith: You certainly do. 
00:08:34 Well, you know, fifty's great, a hundred's even better. 
00:08:36 You're going for 100,000 at this point, four away from the million. 
00:08:40 The lifelines are gone. 
00:08:42 It's ok. 
00:08:44 Are you ready? 
00:08:45 >> I am ready. 
00:08:46 Meredith: Ok, let's play. 
00:08:47 [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]r Meredith: 45 Seconds on the clock. 
00:08:56 For $100,000. 
00:09:21 Wow. ahem. 
00:09:24 I WATCHED MICHAEL PHELPS,r And he's an amazing swimmer, and I remember those olympic medals, but I have to tell you, I just–i really don't know, and $50,000 is an awful lot of money and I really don't want @ so, meredith, I'm going to walk, and that's my final answer. 
00:09:45 [Cheers and applause] Meredith: I love it when someone leaves with a big smile on their face, because they're leaving with $50,000. 
00:09:52 >> Wow. 
00:09:53 Meredith: You're a good guesser, catherine, so let's have you guess this one, just to see what it is. 
00:09:58 If you had to guess. 
00:09:59 >> If I had to guess, I'd guess the norwegian cross-country skier. 
00:10:03 Meredith: All right, let's see what it was. 
00:10:05 >> Ah. 
00:10:05 Meredith: And good, I'm glad you didn't guess. 
00:10:07 It's the soviet gymnast. 
00:10:08 Here's your check for $50,000. 
00:10:10 Good luck with that.