Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2022 August 29

= August 29 =

Ali as a landlord
In the film Ali & Ava, Ali is a landlord for multiple tenants. Is it established somewhere whether he actually owns all these apartments (as the Wikipedia article landlord defines the concept as) or he is just working in some company or association owning them, making him more into a caretaker? J I P &#124; Talk 01:00, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I've not seen the show, but landlord usually implies ownership. People who actually manage a property as an employee of the landlord, such as a caretaker, are commonly called Building superintendents (which are usually maintenance workers that live on-site in exchange for reduced rent) or property managers, which usually do not live on site.  However, if someone is called a "landlord", that usually means they own the property themselves.  -- Jayron 32 18:18, 30 August 2022 (UTC)
 * This has left me puzzled, as in the film Ali doesn't come across as exactly rich, he's portrayed as a member of the working class, from an immigrant background. So if he does indeed own all those apartments, how could he have afforded them? J I P  &#124; Talk 23:45, 30 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Plausibly, he (and probably other members of his family) worked and saved up enough money to buy one property, added the proceeds from that to eventually buy a second property, rinse and repeat, without wanting to spend large amounts on his/their own lifestyle. This is a familiar pattern, certainly in the UK where asian immigrant landlords are commonplace. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.208.90.29 (talk) 08:38, 31 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes, you buy the property with a mortgage loan, and then use the income from rent to cover the repayments and (hopefully) provide an income for yourself. Our article, buy to let, describes the process in more detail. Alansplodge (talk) 11:28, 31 August 2022 (UTC)
 * A popular British daytime TV programme, Homes Under the Hammer, follows cheap, dilapidated houses that come up for auction, the buyers then refurbish them and either live in them themselves, sell them on at a profit or rent them out to earn an income, the latter option being the most common. Alansplodge (talk) 11:34, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

TV game show $100,000 Pyramid
I was flipping TV channels, when I ran across this show: $100,000 Pyramid. Needless to say, it reminded me of its predecessor show, $10,000 Pyramid, which I watched regularly as a kid. At the end of each episode, there is a segment called "The Winner's Circle". One player gives clues to another player. The player giving the clues is subject to various rules. For example, they cannot use their hands when giving clues. I think that I recalled a very strange rule. When offering clues, the "giving" player was not allowed to use prepositions. Am I remembering that rule correctly? If so, what would be the rationale for such a rule? Seems quite odd. Has that rule been (now) discarded? Thanks. 32.209.55.38 (talk) 03:37, 29 August 2022 (UTC)


 * According to this game show wiki, ""Unlike the previous rounds, you can't use your hands, no prepositions, use only lists. And if you get stuck, you can pass and come back to it if there's time left. Let's dim the lights. Give me 60 seconds on the clock, please. For (insert total Winner's Circle" bank), here's your first subject. GO!" - Mike Richards" (bolding mine). Clarityfiend (talk) 12:32, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Hmmm, Richards seems to have hosted The Pyramid, which only aired in 2012, so that isn't conclusive. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:42, 29 August 2022 (UTC)


 * As you see at the article, the show has had many versions, and I've probably watched all of the English-language ones over the years, but I don't always remember which versions had which rules. I can believe that "no prepositions" was only stated as a rule on the GSN version with Mike Richards; I don't seem to remember Michael Strahan, host of the current version, ever saying it.  The underlying rule in the "winner's circle" round is that each thing in your list of clues must be expressed briefly, without long descriptions.  If you consider the player saying "a house", or "a big house", or "a big white house", or "a big white two-story house", or "a big white two-story suburban house", at some point they'd say that that's a description, not a list item, and sound the buzzer.  But deciding which variation of the clue takes it from valid to invalid is something of a judgement call.  I think it's evident that the "no prepositions" rule was an attempt to remove the judgement and make sure that the decisions were consistent: "a big house in the suburbs" would always be buzzed. --174.95.81.219 (talk) 14:57, 29 August 2022 (UTC)