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December 4th: Question Tuesday!!!!

2007-12-04 · Q&A · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: recurring series, community lore, self promotion, civic or action cta

In a rapid-fire Question Tuesday John answers viewer questions, mostly with jokes, but gives real answers on secret-project mailing-list trouble, his website's name, same-sex marriage (he is for it) and Paper Towns' September release.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; Question Tuesday in four minutes; why mailing-list emails aren't arriving (spam, Hotmail)

  • ★★ John opens Question Tuesday: though about 7,500 people are watching him talk to his camera, he will answer as many questions as he can within four minutes. — 00:00:00 · Question Tuesday, Four-minute rule
  • ★★★ Asked why sign-ups aren't getting the emails, John says they may be in spam (unblock nerdbot@ and hank@brotherhood2.com) or blocked by Hotmail, which the brothers are working on. — 00:00:00 · Brotherhood 2.0

00:00:39 — Mailing list; woodchucks; marriage proposal; Sparks Fly Up and the Book of Job; gay marriage; books owned

  • ★★ John urges viewers to sign up for the mailing list, which will be 'the best mailing list ever'. (playful) — 00:00:39
  • ★★ Asked the woodchuck riddle, John says woodchucks cannot chuck wood, but a wildlife biologist calculated that if they could they would chuck about 700 pounds a day. — 00:00:39
  • ★★ Asked why his website is called Sparks Fly Up, John says the name comes from a line in the Book of Job: man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. — 00:00:39 · also in: Belated Book-tacular Questions
  • ★★★ Asked his stance on gay marriage, John says he is for it. — 00:00:39
  • ★ John says he owns around 1,300 books. — 00:00:39

00:01:08 — Cloning and Star Wars; 'Who's Hank?'; wabi-sabi about the year's end; living off poison

  • ★★ Asked about the end of the year, John says writer Amy Krouse Rosenthal taught him the word wabi-sabi and he feels very wabi-sabi about it all. — 00:01:08

00:01:38 — Human-bone house and cyanide; Wii Tennis; SUV owners; airport switch; lookalikes

  • ★ John says the best video game he has played is Wii Tennis, at a 2,399 skill level, and that he has played video games since Christmas Day 1984. (playful) — 00:01:38
  • ★★ Asked whether an SUV owner can be a nerdfighter, John says clearly yes. — 00:01:38 · nerdfighter
  • ★ John notes he has switched airports but is still answering questions. — 00:01:38

00:02:07 — Tim Robbins; Song of Myself and the Paper Towns release; flying and R. Kelly; video games since 1984; favourite Beatle and colour

  • ★★★ Asked what appeals to him in Walt Whitman's Song of Myself, John says readers will find out when Paper Towns comes out, in September. — 00:02:07 · Paper Towns

00:02:48 — Mary Tyler Moore; a riddle answer; Woodstock; Bubbles the monkey; what the Yeti looks like; before Looking for Alaska

00:03:35 — Robots; how many questions in four minutes; scavenger hunt clue; seeing Hank tomorrow

  • ★★ Asked whether robots will inevitably control humans, John says he unfortunately thinks people will go extinct before robots can take over. (playful, hedged) — 00:03:35
  • ★★ John gives the scavenger hunt clue: in New York City a baby penguin is flanked by two baby Washington monuments, and opening the door of one reveals a prize. — 00:03:35 · New York City

Humor (significant)

  • Asked 'Who's Hank?', John describes his brother as if he were the Sun. — 00:01:08

    “Hank is a mass of incandescent gas located about 26,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way.”

  • Asked whether he'd rather have heat vision or the power to fly, John picks flying. — 00:02:07

    “R. Kelly and I have exactly one thing in common. We believe we can fly.”

  • Asked his opinion of the 1969 Woodstock concert, John says it was surely excellent but lacked public toilets. — 00:02:48

    “I have a strict policy against attending under-toileted events.”

  • After allowing he might secretly be Mary Tyler Moore, John is asked what he did before Looking for Alaska was published. — 00:02:48

    “I was the star of a television show called The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Question Tuesday

Also: People: Mary Tyler Moore · R. Kelly · Ryan Phillippe · Sarah Urist Green · Tim Robbins · Walt Whitman

Projects: Brotherhood 2.0 · Nerdfighter Scavenger Hunt · Sparks Fly Up

Works: Book of Job · Looking for Alaska (novel) · Paper Towns · Song of Myself · Star Wars · The Mary Tyler Moore Show · Wii Sports

Organizations: Outlook.com

Groups: The Beatles

Rituals: Four-minute rule

Terms: nerdfighter

Concepts: same-sex marriage · wabi-sabi

Places: New York City

Events: Woodstock

Memes: pwned

Only in the description or credits: Amy Krouse Rosenthal

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