Jesse

Wow! That's impressive.

I'm willing to bet that Vanjie wasn't up there because Ru wanted to put the fear of god into Brooke and Yvie, and assumed they would both kill the lip sync, so no one would have to go home. It was way better TV than Brooke v. Vanjie with Vanjie going home at this point.

I've found full episodes just searching Jeopardy and the date.

On the possibility of James getting tired, IIRC, they tape two days a week, so maybe this was the end of the second day in a row, and now he'll have time to recover? I do think stamina is a big piece of J! success, in addition to buzzer timing and knowing everything. For my part, I was so glad I got the GM clue, because I used to work for a place that got funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and I could never remember where his money came from. (Does nonprofit fundraising get me in the race for doing good in the world???)

That really sucks about the classroom grants! And yeah, I also didn't watch the show for years after being on it in 1996.

I was on Jeopardy in 1996 -- back when people could only be five-day champs, and I was on the fifth day.

On the "mispronunciation" of names, my best friend growing up had a Polish last name, which she and her cousins pronounced completely differently -- the cousins' family gave up on trying to get Americans to say it the Polish way. Steven seems like a nice guy, and he's obviously good at this game, but I think it's kind of cute/sad that all his fun stories seem to be his wife's ideas! (Cosplay, Oscars party....)

Clinton did make me laugh when he kept saying, "So your dessert inspired by Belgian waffles is.... Belgian waffles."

I almost said Felix Salmon for FJ, but got my act together in time.

I liked how at the end of the episode, all of the non-Rebecca issues were resolved by having adult conversations: Heather tells Hector to get his shit together, Valencia realizes she could propose (and still be A Bride, which is where I think her hangup was coming from), even Paula and her new boss about the "unofficial dress code." So I'm hopeful for the love quadrangle.

It's not like Ru is calling her "Dr [Actual Last Name]," though. "Dr Ganache" makes me laugh every time. (Full disclosure: I have a terminal master's.)

I was looking at her hands, and she seems to have a lot of jewelry on (rings and bracelets), so that's my diagnosis of why her buzzer technique is so loud! For whatever that's worth. I can't believe I couldn't come up with Spotlight.

For what it's worth, there's a steak house in New York called Strip House, so I was a little surprised they didn't come back and give it to him.

I would have thought Alex would have gotten Pulp Fiction because the soundtrack was so, so popular (among a certain demographic including me), but I just looked him up, and he's only 34! So it was Before His Time. That's got to be devastating, though. I was out last night, and got a text from my mother that she had gotten FJ! Which I guess is also demographic, but wouldn't US presidents be one of the things you would really study up before a tournament like this? I figured it was Eisenhower, but didn't know when he was elected.

Along those lines, I thought it was Neandertal now, no H?

I'm sorry to some of you, but I now want a full half-hour of Team Ken strategizing, because Monica with those two is killing me!

I just caught up on the three tournament shows and also this thread. I like the tournament! I think it's fun to see the old players, and am enjoying most of them. Yeah, I liked Arthur on the show, and really liked him after reading his work later! Bummer he didn't want to do this, but I bet the internet hate has finally slowed down for him and he didn't want to start it back up again. Because he's a weirdo, is my answer! That's just an odd dude with odd ways. In short, go Julia.

Wow, I thought the clues today were super easy overall, and it makes me wonder if the staff was saving all of their hard clues for the tournament!

I am feeling some kind of way about this, but mostly: #justiceforManila

Totally agree re: Paige and her mother. I was glad to hear a parent say "Do you want a break?" instead of "Are you ready to get back out there and WIN????" And yeah, that tart from Davis was really impressive.

She was better than I was afraid she'd be, but still.

I'm definitely not saying those songs are actual hits! But I was at least familiar with those four, and I just watch this show. So I wouldn't be trying to learn the song from scratch if they told me I was going to have to lipsync to it at some point in the next month.

If you don't already know the words to all of Ru's songs (at least the "hits"), you shouldn't be on All-Stars. (See also Amazing Race and driving a stick, Survivor and making fire, etc.)

I was kind of horrified that Marcus kept making Ben hug him, after Ben said he didn't like hugging!

For what it's worth, I would have written the exact same thing as @j5cochran! So everyone would know I knew who it was, just couldn't remember the name of the island. Such a good game! You acquitted yourself very well.