SyracuseMug

The clue mentioned 1910, which is the year Halley's comet appeared, so I couldn't stop thinking it had to be part of the answer.

I lowered the speed to 0.25 and heard "intranet," although even then it wasn't perfectly clear.

Even numbers of the Interstate generally run east/west, while odd numbers run north/south. I figure this should be common knowledge, especially among Jeopardy contestants. 😉

I would assume that if the existing champ wins the tie-breaker, that person will be a returning champ, who would then face the earlier champ who comes back. I believe this happened once before, where the "coming back" champ simply took the middle podium.

I've never heard of it either, but as a child I spent countless hours playing with a jigsaw puzzle of the U.S. Each state was its own piece (except for the very small ones), and I quickly learned that there were two sections running in a straight line up and down. The first was North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The second was what we just saw in this Jeopardy clue. Hence it stands to reason that I knew the answer immediately. 🙂

I’m still a little miffed by one of the answers from Tuesday’s show, where a BMS should have been requested: From chapter 1 of this classic: "On a bright may morning in 1888, John, Lord Greystoke, and Lady Alice sailed from Dover..." The contestant answered “What is Tarzan?”, which is not the name of the book. It’s just the name of the main character. Imagine if we saw this clue instead: “This 1960 children's novel, by American writer Scott O'Dell, tells the story of a twelve year old girl named Karana, who is stranded alone for years off the California coast.” Or: “In this 1954 novel by William Golding, a group of British boys are stranded on an uninhabited island and attempt to govern themselves, with disastrous results.” Could I confidently say, “What is Island?” to the first example, and “What is Lord?” to the second? I think not, so why should “What is Tarzan?” be any different? Tarzan of the Apes is the only legitimate answer.

I would suggest you go to the archive and check the contestant list from each season. It shouldn't take a lot of time to find each string of one and dones. There probably won't be many.

Taft is one of the two pieces of trivia I alluded to yesterday. The other is that in 1898, Coolidge opened a law firm in Northampton, Massachusetts (where my grandmother was born not long after). She grew up near his residence and knew at least one of his sons, who would have been a few years younger. Hence, Coolidge has always been among my favorite presidents, so of course I knew FJ right away. The “Taft” addition was just the icing on the cake.

I haven't seen the episode yet, but I looked at the archive and for me it was also an instaget. 😉 I'll refer to the two pieces of trivia which got me there, a bit later.

I played that song a gazillion times as a kid, and as soon as I subtracted 48 from 1989 (to get 1941), I knew it was the Bismarck. It also helped that I’m familiar with the dates of other famous ship sinkings. Titanic was 1912, Lusitania 1915, Andrea Doria 1956, and Edmund Fitzgerald 1975. Incidentally, I also remember a TV show or movie (maybe Twilight Zone or Night Gallery) where the same man survived both the Titanic and Lusitania, and then showed up on the Andrea Doria. I believe there was a supernatural element involved, but the details are sketchy.

The judges could have reversed his ruling, hence they deserve the blame for not doing so. Would it have made a difference in the final outcome? I don't recall.

I got it pretty quickly because I knew that Castor and Pollux were twins whose sister was Helen of Troy. She in turn was married to Menelaus (King of Sparta) before Paris abducted her. Greek mythology is also one of my strongest subjects, though like you, I’m a little rusty when it comes to remembering all of the Argonauts. 🙂

The poem was set to music back in the nineties by the Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt. She also performed "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Both songs can be found on YouTube with a quick search. I've been enjoying them for years.

I don’t. The word is derived from the Latin fortis, so I see no logical reason why the French pronunciation should supersede the Italian pronunciation (or vice versa) in determining how we should say it in English. In my mind, the “correct” way is at best arbitrary.

Interestingly, Ghiberti won the commission for those doors over Filippo Brunelleschi, who later built the dome of the Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore). Both men submitted a bronze panel depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac, and though Ghiberti's was chosen, Brunelleschi's is also considered a masterpiece. I'm sure you knew this, but I thought others might enjoy a bit of trivia. I learned it from an episode of Nova on PBS: "Great Cathedral Mystery." 🙂