One Hundred People, And Nobody Said "Robert Duvall?"

TigerBlog thinks "Family Feud" has its share of funny moments, though he would hardly say he's a big fan.

Actually, given where he started yesterday, it makes him wonder if he'd rather watch "Finding Nemo" or "Family Feud." He thinks he'd go with "Nemo."

His main problem with "Family Feud" is that there is no correct answer. There isn't a question with six possible factual outcomes. No, there's a question and then 100 random people gave their opinion, and that's what the contestants have to come up with.

The best part is that it can be funny. Steve Harvey is pretty good. John O'Hurley is probably the best at it.

The show was on the TV in the outer office the other day, and the question was "what talk show host is the funniest?" When the contestant said "Jim Belushi," O'Hurley's response was "he must be running something out of his house."

His funniest moment was from the time when the question was "name something that changes colors," and a contestant answered "zebras." O'Hurley laughed and said "I don't know how they do it. Black to white to black to white."

Maybe you had to be there.

One time when TB was watching, the question was something like "name a place you'd see a lifeguard." This was during the round at the end, and the first person said "the beach," which gave the team 50 points. The next one said "the pool," but by the time they got around to that, the team had already gone over 200 points. TB would assume "pool" would be worth 50 points also, but alas, he'll never know. Still, what third answer could there have been?

Anyway, the most recent time TB saw the show, the only question he saw was "name an actor whose first name is Robert." The first answer was "Redford." The second was "DeNiro."

There were six more answers, and nobody got any of them. When they were finally all turned over, TigerBlog was stunned to find that not one person had said the obvious: "Duvall."

How in the world was this possible? Okay, you want to put him third on that list? That's fine. You want to put him first, above Redford and DeNiro? TigerBlog is okay with that too.

But not at all? Plus behind six other Roberts, most whom TB can't remember right now (Mitchum was one, so was Conrad)?

What's up with that?

TigerBlog wondered if Robert Duvall watches "Family Feud," and if so, was his pissed off by the slight? Amused?

Robert Duvall, of course, was Tom Hagan in "The Godfather." And he was "The Great Santini." Ever see it? No? It's great.

Actually, Duvall lost the Best Actor Oscar that year (1980) to DeNiro, who won for "Raging Bull," which somehow TigerBlog wasn't crazy about, even thought you'd figure it was right in his wheelhouse.

DeNiro has actually won two Academy Awards, with a win as Vito Corleone in "The Godfather Part II." Redford? He has one win. Do you know for what? Directing "Ordinary People," which is about as depressing a movie as you'll ever see, though it is really well done.

Redford was nominated once for Best Actor, for "The Sting" in 1973. That is one of the best movies ever made. But what about Paul Newman? He was better, but didn't get nominated.

Redford wasn't nominated for "All the President's Men?" Or "Downhill Racer?" Do you see a young Robert Redford as a member of the U.S. ski team? TigerBlog has been skiing once in his life; he would need a pretty good incentive to do it again.

Duvall did win an Academy Award for Best Actor two years after the loss to DeNiro for Tender Mercies. TigerBlog has never seen it.

He did see "Apocalypse Now," a movie in which Duvall earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for playing a surfing Colonel who could have fought 10 Vietnam Wars and never had a scratch. He was the one who said the famous line: "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning." What you might not know is that he didn't follow that up by saying "It smells like victory." There was some other stuff in the middle. It's like "Casablanca," where Humphrey Bogart never says "play it again Sam."

Duvall lost out to Melvyn Douglas, who was the old rich guy in "Being There." That's another really good movie.

You can argue that Duvall could have won for any of those roles. You cannot argue that he isn't one of the best eight actors ever named Robert.

That's what's wrong with "Family Feud."

Anyway, what's TigerBlog's point?

He doesn't have one. It's two weeks after the end of the 2015-16 academic year and nine weeks to the day before the start of the 2016-17 one. There can't always be a point at this time of year.

This will still be a big week for one cross section of Princeton athletes though.

It's the start of the U.S. Olympic Trials in swimming, and Princeton will be well, well represented in Nebraska. From TB's colleague Craig Sachson's story:
Seventeen members of the PUCSDT family — past, present and future — will meet in Omaha, Neb., at the end of the month to compete in one of the most prestigious swimming events in the world, the U.S. Olympic Trials.
The Trials, which singlehandedly determines the U.S. squad that will head to the 2016 Rio Games, will be held June 26-July 3 in the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The seventeen Princeton swimmers, which range from 2014 First-Team All-America honoree Lisa Boyce '14 to five incoming Tigers, have earned Trials cuts in a total of 30 different events.
Five Princetonians have won Olympic medals; the last to do so was Nelson Diebel, who won a pair of golds at the 1992 Games.

Actually, you can click HERE to see the whole thing.

There are viewing parties planned as well. The details are in the story.

In the meantime, TigerBlog will go back to trying to figure out how nobody said Duvall. Robert Duvall? Hello?