Test your House, M.D. knowledge and win an official House t-shirt!
For House, M.D. fans, it's the midst of the summer doldrums while impatiently counting down the days to the September 21 season six House, M.D. premiere on FOX (the Official Site is likely to have preview clips and more as the premiere draws nearer). A few tidbits have come out about the new season (but I won't spoil you, except to say that the premiere is feature-length and will start out in Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital, where House admitted himself at the end of season five).…
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— go to most recent comments26 - savta
Yes, Flo, you are on the right track. It is the number of commandments Jews were required to follow. In modern times, since the destruction of the second temple, some of these commandments are a obsolete and cannot be followed but they are still something of a yardstick. A very religious, observant, knowledgeable Jew is one who would strive to follow these 613 commandments.
House has certainly been cynical about religious tenents and this season has mocked Cuddy for her religious observance or lack thereof such as keeping kosher during the episode about Rachel's simchat bat.
House did mention this number when advising Cuddy about her sperm donor in a previous season. It was a way of saying that the donor would qualify. I don't think it was the actual file number for the candidate.
As an interesting aside, the highest Jewish Rabbinic religious authorities on the subject of sperm donors for religious recipients would actually prohibit the use of a Jewish sperm donor for a Jewish recipient.
27 - Barbara S Barnett
Hi Flo--yes. You are on the right track, and it was the number of the guy's file!
28 - savta
Sorry. I should have gone back and checked the episode to see where it was used.
29 - Barbara S Barnett
Hey, no problem Savta! I really love those subtle little jokes for which only a handful of the audience would have a context. It's what makes it real.
30 - rbrown205
"613" refers to the number of laws that were given by God to the Israelites through Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai. Though they start in the Bible at Exodus 20 with the Ten Commandments, and continue though Leviticus, with a kind of repetition in Deuteronomy, a lot of those laws have precedents that reach way back into Genesis.
A very famous rabbi called Maimonides or Rambam gave them that number grouping - and they are listed at this site, among other places.
31 - Barbara S Barnett
rbrown: yep! :)
32 - Orange450
So you must *really* have enjoyed Chase's comment back to House in DEC: "I should have had twin Rabbis call." I'm thinking that it was also a fairly small handful who had context for that one :)
Interestingly, wrt "the Jewish number", House got it slightly wrong in DEC, after having identified it correctly in WYD. He asked Yonatan if he lived "according to God's six hundred commandments", prompting Yonatan to correct him, saying "six hundred thirteen". At the time, I thought it was oddly unlike House to forget a detail like that!
p.s. Preview Comment still doesn't work properly :(
33 - savta
Orange450 - I was going to write exactly the same thing. I did love the twin rabbis comment. We all know that was a little hello to DS's brothers.
I looked into the writing of DEC a little further after seeing it for the first time. Some of it was exactly correct and some wasn't. I read an interview with the Chabad Rabbi of Redondo Beach who played the rabbi under the chuppah (wedding canopy). He said that he made some corrections once he read the script. I am wondering if there were pages of the script he didn't see since they weren't relevant to his part or whether they just decided to take dramatic license and fudge the religious veracity a little bit.
34 - Flo
Maybe in DEC House just round uo the number. I don't know...it's a little odd indeed.
anyway that's interesting.
as for The X-Files, I must admit that though I am a huge fan, I really don't know who the actor or actress is....
I have to rewatch episodes.
35 - Santosh
So when are we getting one for the international audience?!
36 - Flo
Wait it just hit me!!!!
Arf I can't post an answer here!!!!
Let's just say lab janitor guy in "The X-Files" and very desperate sick man in "House". How could I forget that! I should have known this from the start!
37 - Connie
I love Hugh Laurie, he is the coolest. I love his additude that he gives everyone on House. He has the sexiest eyes.
38 - savta
Just re-watched the end of Both Sides Now while doing paperwork. In the very last scene, House approaches the Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital where a number of staff members are awaiting his arrival. There is one woman in front of the entryway. Her name isn't listed on any credits but I wondered if Katie Jacobs had a tiny cameo appearance there. It is the hair that made me wonder. Any thoughts?
39 - Orange450
savta - after BSN aired, I remember several viewers noticing the woman that you mention, and speculating with regard to whether or not it was KJ. I didn't notice her at the time, but I went back to look. I also think it looks like her, but I don't know if it's ever been confirmed.
I thought that the DEC writers did a very good job, giving a sensitive depiction of ultra-Orthodox Judaism. I excused them for getting some of the nuances wrong - in general, they escaped the usual TV stereotypical descriptions, and for that I was grateful :)
After the episode aired, there was lively speculation on the Fox forum over the possibility of House being Jewish. At the time, I wrote a long post, with a detailed analysis outlining the reasons why I definitely didn't think so!
40 - Barbara S Barnett
Orange--I agree. House is in no way Jewish. He's incredibly well read and would not be surprised if he was very familiar with Maimonides--at the very least.
I thought House did a great job with DEC. I was surprised how unstereotypical they made the characters. They were committed without being inflexible. In other words quite real. they did that with the nuns in season one as well.
41 - rbrown205
She does look like Katie Jacobs from the back. Maybe she is doing an "Alfred Hitchcock", who used to appear in non- credited cameos in his movies!
42 - savta
I agree that House isn't Jewish. Sorry I didn't see your previous analysis but there are too many references to his non-Jewishness such as his parents' Christmas visit to his aunt's for dinner that would support this position. He differentiates between himself and Wilson for dinner on Christmas eve when Wilson asks him if he wants to have dinner or do something together and he says "but you're Jewish" to Wilson - implying that he isn't and so on.
I am sure I could come up with many more supporting facts but these are enough.
I do wonder whether Robert Sean Leonard himself is Jewish and whether Jo Green is Jewish.
In one HL interview about his relationship with his late mother, he talks about her disapproval over his marriage and upset about the arrival of his first son.
Why do interviewers ask such inane and irrelevant questions? And what do they have to do with his talent and skill in acting, portrayal of his character of the moment and as a musician?
43 - wackjob
"Why do interviewers ask such inane and irrelevant questions? And what do they have to do with his talent and skill in acting, portrayal of his character of the moment and as a musician?"
Because reporters want as much personal content as possible. Sometimes they will spring extremely personal questions on the interviewee in order to get an unguarded response. I'm not saying that's good, but it's standard practice.
I can't get the trivia questions! Barbara, you are TOO GOOD!
44 - Barbara S Barnett
Hey Wackjob! Trivia questions are hard, but if you have to, guess! You never know, maybe no one will get them all right (and remember there are 10 prizes!)
45 - Allyson Rae
I am a musician and I actually have been referred to as an artist. I also consider music to be an art, so I most definately misinterpreted the meaning of artist in the question. My bad. Oh well, I think did pretty well on the other questions. I answered like the first night you had this trivia contest up. =D
46 - betsy
"1. House was singing in "Both Sides Now." But there’s another connection between the singer and the song. What is it?:"
If there's "another connection," what was the first connection?
47 - barbara barnett
Hpuse is connected to the song.
48 - Barbara S Barnett
sorry...let me clarify (tried posting from my blackberry and I misspelled)
House sings a song in Both sides now. Think of another connection between who was singing and the song he was singing.
49 - betsy
so, the first connection is that House himself is singing?
And, what song is it that he is singing?
50 - Barbara S Barnett
And, what song is it that he is singing?
That, to quote The Prisoner, would be telling. YOu have to figure that one out yourself.
51 - Rae
By the tumor question: did you mean "incredible" by the drastic amount / time the tumors shrunk, or the circumstances / means in which they were shrunk (treatment-wise)? That question just seemed a bit fuzzy... Thanks!
52 - Barbara S Barnett
I think the question is pretty clear, but there are two times tumors shrunk "incredibly" I can't be any more specific than that without being unfair to people who've already taken the quiz and giving the answer away.
53 - rbrown205
At this point, I want to answer another category of clues:
"It's never lupus. Name the disease and episode where these diagnoses occurred."
1. Cool coppery eyes - Kaiser Fleischer rings, a symptom of Wilson’s disease, suffered by Lucy in Socratic Method.
2. It's not AIDS! Bite your tongue! -
Senator Wright had childhood epilepsy which made him bite his tongue when he was a child, and common variable immunodeficiency disease, which is like AIDS but isn’t, in Role Model.
3. A horse in a herd of zebras "
In the Pilot, a conversation took place between Foreman and House indicating the difference between easy diagnoses (horses) and hard to find diagnoses (zebras). I think this analogy has been used at least a couple of times more in the series.
4. Don't you know bird fighting is illegal? -
Alfredo, the POTW in Humpty Dumpty, got psittacosis from working with birds in a an illegal rooster fight match.
5. The incredible shrinking baby "
Olive Kaplan, a clinic patient baby, was unusually losing weight, and House first thought it was because of the vegan diet his parents were feeding her, but she also had pneumonia, in Babies and Bathwater.
6. Sand worms "
Raccoon roundworms were eaten with his sandbox sand by the autistic boy Adam in Lines in the Sand.
7. Mothballs? -
Naphthalene poisoning from the gas produced by termites in the bedroom walls, which was breathed in and then later released from the POTW’s fat when he stayed in the hospital and lost weight, in Detox.
54 - Barbara S Barnett
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do NOT discuss the answers or questions to the contest in the commnents space. It's not fair to the people who've already entered. Comments that address contest questions risk deletion--and possible forfeit of your entries.
Also please avoid answering the rest of the quiz questions until AFTER I've posted the answers next week. Again, while not impacting the contest, it's not really fair to people who want to take the quiz.
55 - betsy
i think i hit submit twice. is this a problem?
56 - Barbara S Barnett
betsy--don't worry. Shouldn't make a difference. I'll see it when I look at the answers.
57 - Barbara S Barnett
A second giveaway--no questions this time. Prize is a Season Five DVD set, deadline is August 30:
House, M.D. Season Five DVD Giveaway
58 - Amanda Mason-Thomas
How do I send my non-contest answers to you? I have already posted the contest answers, btw! :) ENORMOUS House fan here!
59 - Barbara S Barnett
You don't need to post them. I will publish the answers next week in a separate piece, which will be open to discussion.. So hang in there...
60 - spocle
:(:( In Scotland and longing for a tshirt, and the release date of the uk dvds....
quite a long way off!
You Americans are lucky, House has been moved onto a digital channel here that I don't have!
But the internet does the trick
61 - rbrown205
Sorry if I broke the rules, perhaps I misunderstood you to mean that we are not to post the answers to the quiz that had a PRIZE connected to it. I wasn't going to do that, but was answering only the other ones. Is that what you are saying, that we should not post even the non-prize answers until the contest deadline?
62 - Val
Barbara, Entry submitted. If you receive 2, I apologize. I accidentally hit enter when I had only finished first two questions.
I am glad you cleared up the "artist" term as well. I thought you meant musician. Some musicians I consider artists (I think that may have been an easier question to answer ;). Looking forward to your next interview and almost finished with this year's review of seasons 1-4. Less than one month to go!
63 - Barbara S Barnett
rbrown--no worries. Understand why I had to delete--you did give an awfully big clue to the first contest question--whether it was correct or not, we'll learn on Monday!
Fabulous interview with jeremy cassells.
64 - anonymoose
So, when do we find out who won?
65 - barbara s barnett
Need to get through all the entries. I will post the answers either later tonight or tomorrow.
66 - Orange450
Oh pleeeeze tonight!! (No pressure :-)) I'm *so* curious!
67 - barbara s barnett
Have a meeting till 10. Maybe when I get home.
68 - betsy
I'm so anxious!
69 - anonnymoose
how many entries were there?
70 - bryan prior
i think for the george washington question you may mean to say he was a cop... not a doctor? i could be wrong?
71 - Southpaw
Wish I could have participated... I only just found out about the challenge this morning -_-;
oh, well...
on the subject of House being Jewish... as many have said, he's definitely not, he's just incredibly well read. Just remember the episode "It's a Wonderful Lie" when he went to watch the clinic patient perform in the nativity play...not that that's solid proof, but I personally would feel uncomfortable attending services in a church
72 - Amanda Mason-Thomas
anyone know when we'll know?
73 - anonymoose
i asked the same thing, as soon as the entries are all gotten in, apparently. I'm still waiting.
74 - barbara s barnett
My congratulations to all winners of the contest. Of the many, many responses, only seven people got every answer correct. An eighth entrant (Cynde) got four perfectly correct, but then answered the “artist” question with an elaborate answer about House’s very eclectic tastes (which is actually true), so I gave her full credit and a perfect score. The remaining two I picked at random from all of the responses with four answers correct.
Hardest questions seemed to be the “artist question” and the “Trolley Song” question. I will be emailing the winners and sending out the shirts next week.
Perfect scores:
1. Bernice Yella
2. Harriet Schabes
3. Pamela Friedlander
4. Caroline Evans
5. Pat Mundy
6. Mary Cooper
7. Cynde Janiszewski
2nd place tie randomly selected:
8. Jo Nash
9. Karen Kent
10. Steve Luciano
75 - Housecall
I feel like I am Queen For A Day, Miss Universe and a a Mega Millions Winner:)
Thank you for allowing me to have an opportunity to finally win something in my life:)
It was alot of fun.
Thank you Barbra!