853fisher

Janelle James is beautiful as a rule, but wow, she did look really sensational. I think the way she made up her eyes brought it all together. She'd better keep Ava's face mask away from them! I also agree the writers misjudged Barbara and Melissa's attitudes here. They came across like "we really can't stand Janine at all" rather than "it's nice to have a break from that thing she does that pushes our buttons." At least Jacob stood up for her - but who knows what they were going to say about him when he left the room? I think I'm just going to let this subplot out of my mind. I guess it's par for the sitcom course that someone will be out of character once in a while.

I say yes. Source: that was all I had too. ;) But seriously, I think there's a case to be made that it's a valid way to express the character's name. No incorrect information added, unique identifying information given. On the other hand, if they ruled it wrong, I don't think I'd feel I could complain. It's hard to say without having read all the fine print that's only furnished to contestants.

Dollars to donuts Xanni will be invited back if they do Second Chance again. I don't dislike Cris, but I don't feel especially attached to him either. I was willing those last few clues to go the other way for a little more suspense. Anne of GG crossed my mind too, but those are some of my mother's favorite books, so I knew the author was L.M. Montgomery. I don't think PEI is one of the prairie provinces either. Who else could it have been? I knew it wasn't Little House... or Wizard of Oz, which come to mind when prairie is invoked I have no idea where I pulled Sarah P&T from at the last second, since while I recall having heard of it when I was young, I don't think I ever read it. Oh well - correct is correct!

Going back a little while, I was surprised that the ToC did not have a named sponsor the way Second Chance did with Moderna. I guess it could just be that there was always a budget for the ToC and Second Chance, planned later, required a top-up. It's not important, just made me take notice. I don't recall whether previous TOCs have had a special sponsor, but if they could ever sell a year, it would have been this one. Even if a sponsor was only wanted for one or the other, if I were in pharmaceuticals, I'd probably prefer to be associated with the "got it right the first time" group!

I knew they were hinting at Yellowstone. Unfortunately I thought I remembered learning the Montana parts are in Butte Co. Nope - Butte is half a state away and in Silver Bow Co. No part of the park is actually in Yellowstone Co. - it was previously its own county equivalent subdivision and is now nominally in Gallatin Co. (seat - Bozeman) and Park Co. (seat - Livingston). I think Glacier Co. is a good guess. That includes parts of Glacier National Park and the Lewis & Clark National Forest as well as the Blackfeet Reservation. Sam's guess of Flathead Co. is where Kalispell is. Holly's guess of Bozeman is warm since, as above, most of Yellowstone Park is in the same county. Fun fact: the new population of Yellowstone County is 167K. Only 10/56 counties have populations over 20K and 12/56 have populations under 2K. Like and subscribe for more than you ever wanted to learn about Montana counties!

My take on the glut of super champs lately is that the availability of resources specifically to prepare for J!, rather than generally to study trivia, is unparalleled. Some will be more inclined and/or successful than others, but I think the ceiling is higher now in terms of what can be “moneyballed.” I think, even relatively recently, few upcoming contestants undertook intense preparation for Jeopardy! any more than they would for other game shows. Then came a huge online archive of clues from the show, making it easier to gain and share deeper insight into what the show likes to ask and how. From that have been assembled heat maps of where the DDs show up, essays about how best to handle this, thousands of pages of discussion about strategies for that, etc. I’ve even seen things like panels and seminars on “how to succeed at J!” offered at various events, sometimes with the involvement of show staff, and preparation tools like flashcards tailored to the show’s material made available for sale by private individuals. I read an interview in which Amy said spending time among hardcore trivia people made her realize she was good at J! more than at trivia. I’m sure she was in part being characteristically modest, but I’ve heard others express similar sentiments. Why would people be harnessing these resources so effectively now and not 2 or 3, 5, or 15 years ago? That I can’t quite answer. It would seem that we’re past the cohort that, some have argued, had nothing to do during COVID but prepare. So I think other factors like the changes in testing etc must indeed be relevant too. I think one other last piece could be the increase in posts from contestants about their own games, on Reddit or Twitter. There was never so much on-the-ground info about where the light for this is, where the screen for that is, etc. Whatever the reasons, I find it all very interesting.

I think it is the person who liaises between the various departments of a vendor and their client. Where I work, our customer success manager for a certain software offers occasional trainings, takes questions that are beyond her to others at her company, is the person I would call if I needed to reach someone about it, etc. It seems to me like more or less what has traditionally been called an account manager, but the people who build hierarchy charts have some justification for why they’re not the same, I’m sure. I wish they’d asked the woman who worked in film acquisition about her work instead - that sounded a lot more interesting to me!

Of the 10 contestants with the longest streaks, here is how many of their regular season wins were runaways: James Holzhauer - 90.6% (29/32) Ken Jennings - 87.8% (65/74) Amy Schneider - 87.5% (35/40) Cris Panullo - 85.7% (12/14) Matt Amodio - 84.2% (32/38) Jason Zuffranieri - 73.7% (14/19) Julia Collins - 60% (12/20) David Madden - 57.9% (11/19) Mattea Roach - 52.2% (12/23) Ryan Long - 37.5% (6/16)

I don't follow college sports and couldn't find another "in" to the FJ clue, so I was reduced to listing southern colleges hoping an auto manufacturer would come up. Hmmmm. William & Mary...Sewanee...Florida A&M...Oldsmobile U...no such luck! ;) I was sort of looking forward to feeling of being "back to normal" after the near-month of tournaments, but in a way it seems like it's not, because we still have a champion of unusual dominance. For me it's not quite good or bad, it just is. I kind of wish the host wouldn't make pointed comments about how a player could / should wager. It seems it could put a thumb on the scale, however light or inadvertent, and I imagine it would annoy me if I was up there onstage just trying to think.

I'm with those who think the show is hitting its stride. The only character not working for me is Maroun. It's a good thing to have different points of view represented in the DA's office, but I think the writers should tone back things like a very junior ADA chewing out the Army representative. I sometimes think the character would be more at home as a public defender, and just wouldn't succeed with the DA. I also think the actress does just a bit too much, like when the defense said they'd pursue an insanity defense and she seemed to me to be responding to "be indignant!" in Acting 101. I can live with her but I think she's the weak link. Speaking of "big" acting, did anyone else notice the older woman in the middle of the front row of the jury? I don't know whether I noticed her once and kept looking at her or whether she really was doing a lot. It just seemed to me like she was, very subtly, pulling focus by reacting just a bit bigger than everyone else - nodding and shaking her head, for example. I genuinely expected her to become important to the plot in some way. I don't want to go too far off-topic but I feel the pain of those missing Marshall Field's! Macy's gobbled up Hecht's in the DC area where I was raised, just a year before they would have celebrated 150 years in business. Where I've made my home as an adult, in San Francisco, the Emporium was consolidated into Macy's in its 99th year. A relative on my mom's side, from New England, still gives gifts in Filene's and Jordan Marsh boxes - also now Macy's. I'm sure there are some economies of scale, but at the cost of local character and goodwill built up over decades. There are many benefits to a more unified and connected world, but this kind of consolidation and seeing the same brands in every city is a small indignity I've always hated.

I see Wiktionary (which I have found more reliable than it sounds) gives the same International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for jazz and hands ("æ") and wedding and bells ("ɛ"). So fair enough. I am probably driving myself a little wacky, sitting here going jazz hands, jaaaaazzzz haaaaannnnnds, wedddddddding belllllllls, etc. (I'm sure I would have responded correctly to either of those clues with or without the assonance hint anyway.)

I wish I had the vocabulary to describe what I think the difference is. If it's at all helpful, I will say that I think "wedding bells" is closer to matched than "jazz hands," and I think the relationship between the vowels and consonants may be more different than the vowels themselves. But just speaking the vowel sounds, I can feel my mouth changing between them. I don't believe these clues were wrong - I just had a little trouble wrapping my head around them because, to me, the pairs don't all relate to each other like "rain...Spain...stays...mainly...plain" or some of the other famous examples. Truthfully, although I love words and wordplay, I couldn't have defined assonance before the first clue was revealed.

Ditto. I thought it was like the long "a" in "the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain." "Early bird," "blowhole," and "leetspeak" today made sense to me. "Wedding bells" and "jazz hands," the way I pronounce them, don't seem to have quite the same vowel-rhyme.

Comments are swarming elsewhere about the FJ clue. The Epistle to the Hebrews has indeed been traditionally attributed to Paul, but most modern scholars believe it was written by an unconfirmed other person, in imitation of Paul's style. In fact, questions about the attribution to Paul go back to the third century. Interestingly, it has been pointed out that the LDS Church, of which Ken is a member, is one group which holds that Paul did write it. I bring this up because some have asked, "even if the writers missed this, why didn't Ken catch it when he looked over the clues before the game?" Meanwhile, the Epistle to the Romans, the answer given by Sam and ruled incorrect, is uncontroversially attributed to Paul. It would also apparently be the correct response to the clue if Hebrews is discounted. This is what I've gathered from some light research. Perhaps others here are more knowledgeable. I'm curious to learn more. It really would be disappointing if this was the error it seems it might be, especially because it couldn't easily be mitigated, depending on how it might affect the eventual result of the tournament.

I loved the mention in Assonance of "Weddings Bells (Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine)." It was a big hit in 1929 and has been covered several times since. The line about friends "singing love songs" who "forgot 'Sweet Adeline'" refers to the barbershop standard - in other words, the narrator misses them all getting together to sing. Lennon and McCartney have both identified "Wedding Bells" as a song that spoke to them in the wake of The Beatles' breakup. Many interpretations are plaintive, as you might expect, but I couldn't resist linking to a hotter dance band version.

I think this could go on a while - I agree with those who have said a lot will come down to who gets the DDs. I do have a 1-2-3 preference for the winner, but I really would be happy for any of them. Good for Andrew, drawing first - not blood. First buzz? I'm suddenly transported back to mornings in my childhood home with the Sunday Washington Post. I looked forward to Parade and thought it was a good mix of mostly light stuff, but admit I haven't held one in my hand since I moved out. Sigh...

Apparently the next quarterfinal game will air in January. I've been hot and cold on these games, but overall enjoyed having them to watch before work Monday, so I'll be glad to have them back. I realize we don't really "know" celebrities, even those who have shared a lot. That said, I really think Wil is the real deal. I always like seeing him and am glad he did well. I'd love to see him win the whole thing. I thought the clue for "alligators," referring to the man who killed his fiancé and later himself (his remains were found having partially been eaten by wildlife), seemed oddly flip. It's hard to say why briefly, but it just didn't sit well with me.

I'm pleased Sam won because I like him. And a bit of a shakeup can add interest to a tournament. So all good from my POV. But now that we know we won't be getting all three "superchamps" in the finals, I look back on the way the exhibition match was approached a bit more wistfully - I would have liked to see them compete against each other firing on all cylinders, even if only as a one-off.

I've been getting many social media ads for the tournament. I'm glad the show is making a big splash but disappointed to see dozens of bigoted remarks about Amy under each one. The comments are generally much cruder under these ads, as opposed to the general posts on Jeopardy’s page for those who follow their account. I consider this a potent reminder that Amy’s going on TV and just being herself really is an expression of courage and something worth celebrating. I’ll get off my soapbox now, but I must say I’m proud of her and pleased she has made it to the final!

I went to the library this morning and who was staring at me from the bookshelf next to my desk but Alex, on the cover of his autobio! My imagined reason to swap Snickers for KitKats is that long thin sticks seem healthier somehow than heftier bars. ;) It was surprising to me too that nobody came up with Justice Jackson! I bet they all (or at least the two Americans) knew it on some level but couldn't spit it out. Maybe she is still new enough, without her name having yet been in the news too many times since her confirmation, that she hasn't quite made it to the "easy recall" portion of the brain. I had to fish for it for half a second myself, and I was relaxing over lunch, not under the lights.

Ken definitely did use "they" on today's show. I think this is a change from Mattea's first run but I'm not totally sure.

That wasn't at all what I expected, but I enjoyed it for what it was. All four people on the stage were clearly enjoying the game and each other's company. I might have preferred something a bit less loosey-goosey for a charity prize, but I think they all had a chance to shake the cobwebs off anyway, so onward. It's tough to believe Alex has been gone two years now. I remember where I was when I heard the news - I can't say that about a lot of things!

I thought Ray was lucky to get away with credit for "larynx." What he said sounded more to me like Larinex, the antihistamine. Count me with those who found the sobriety of the game refreshing. It also made the handful of quips or other funny moments "pop" more. I surprised myself by literally laughing out loud a few times. I really don't like "Big Bang Theory" and expected to feel the same way about Melissa, but she won me over with her sincerity. She certainly wasn't the best player ever, but I thought she was very charming. That big red question mark at the end of the Ulysses-length "clues for you" bothers me too, @SomeTameGazelle. Between that and the trophy, I hope they don't try to make that a big new symbol for the show.

RE the Tuesday exhibition match, Michael Davies (the executive producer) said that it was purposefully scheduled then, so that viewers will not miss a step in tournament play due to Election Day preemptions. He also said that he hopes to be able to put the match on the official YouTube channel as a one-off, so that those who do have a preemption can still enjoy it. As of whenever he was speaking (not sure when), it had not been worked out with everyone who has a piece of the rights to control where and how the show airs. Fingers crossed. RE today's final, I should have known better because "blue" was in the clue, but I just had a hunch that it was "Island of the Blue Dolphins." I did love that book, although obviously I didn't remember it with any great specificity!

It seems I am the outlier, although I guess I still feel that I expect the people onstage for the ToC to be better than us at home. I probably am more interested than the average bear in world politics / current events so while it seems I probably did overestimate how "easy" that category was for all of us at home, I still feel it should have been within the grasp of ToC level contestants. Maybe I'm just feeling sour about what seemed to me like a damp squib of a game to start. Shake it off, self!