Kathira

I never read the book, but the movie of The Natural with Robert Redford is very good. And Redford was gorgeous. (It was an instaget for me.) I realized who Barton reminds me of - Gilbert Gottfried.

FJ was one of those where the answer jumped into my brain instantly, but I wasn't sure so I tried to come up with something else. But I couldn't think of anything else. So Maginot Line it was. I'm sorry you didn't win again, Elaine/Stavia, but at least that Evan guy didn't win. He was driving me crazy with his slow picking. I'm happy that Brandon will have money to fund his travel and study of religion. I was afraid he had jinxed himself when he said what he wanted to win the money for.

Now I remember why people didn't like Matt. It's the flat serial killer eyes. He's a very dominating player, though. I like both him and Ken - another dominating player with a flat affect (at least when he's playing). On the other hand, I also like Buzzy, so there's no accounting for taste. FJ was an instaget tonight, but I missed the same TS's they did.

I remember Ryan's Hope. Being from Rochester, NY, I did think of Susie B. first for FJ, but then got Red Emma. She has Rochester connections, too.

I was the same. I got Somalia, but then I was sunk. And yeah, the pianist was killing me. Worse than the actors in that Geico commercial with the slow talking soap opera actors. I also got propofol. I think it was involved with Prince's death as well as Michael Jackson. Or was it fentanyl? Bad stuff, either way.

I'll join you all in the Austin hate, but I like Buzzy. I think he's actually funny, in an awkwardly endearing way. Unlike Austin, who only thinks he's funny. Also, have they given up dinging people for not saying "What is?" Colby did it right off the bat and I was sure they would call him out on it, but nope.

I just watched Widows with Viola Davis and Michelle Rodriguez and was happily surprised to see Jon Michael Hill as charismatic, influential and somewhat slimy preacher. He only had a couple of scenes, but he was definitely a highlight.

I'm coming down with something and had a fever last night, but I still managed to get mock apple pie and dredged Sweden up out of the depths. It's a long country and extends further south than you might think. Oh, also Checkers. I thought the clue for that one was oddly worded.

I did get lice. (LOL) Also the Pony Express which seemed like a surprising stumper. The Iditarod? Really? I also ran the sci-fi category and was sad to see both Pern and The Kindred missed. We have a local "If Everybody Read the Same Book" program and The Kindred was the choice a few years ago. Last year was The Distance Between Us, which was very good also. This year is American War by Omar El Akkad. I haven't read it yet, but I plan to.

Why is snow white? - https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/question524.htm From the article - "Snow is a whole bunch of individual ice crystals arranged together. When a light photon enters a layer of snow, it goes through an ice crystal on the top, which changes its direction slightly and sends it on to a new ice crystal, which does the same thing. Basically, all the crystals bounce the light all around so that it comes right back out of the snow pile. It does the same thing to all the different light frequencies, so all colors of light are bounced back out. The "color" of all the frequencies in the visible spectrum combined in equal measure is white, so this is the color we see in snow, while it's not the color we see in the individual ice crystals that form snow." When the ice crystals turn into water, all that fancy light bouncing off crystals stuff stops.

That's how I got to her, too. I briefly considered Whitney Houston, but I was pretty sure she wasn't from New York. For state foods, I pre-guessed New York's apple.

FJ was an instaget.

A good start to the week. I did get The Red Badge of Courage, but it was strictly a guess. Alex's reaction to the pre-emption aswer was cute. "We don't like pre-emptions."

Finally caught up after a busy week. It was good run of FJs for me. I got The Handmaid's Tale, Tony Blair, and Texas Rangers. I did briefly consider the US Marshalls, but I figured the liberated from Spain element called for Texas. Also got a couple of missed DDs, the Fall of the House of Usher and Light and Truth. I like Steve-O. His happiness at winning was so real and open. So many contestants try to restrain themselves. I suppose the Hopi name he mentioned was a middle name. Or it really is his name and just goes by Steve-O because no one can pronounce whatever he said it was. He seems like a very genuine person, if you know what I mean.

I realized it right away because a local golf course used to be the site of a major LPGA tournament and they marketed the tickets around Christmas time with an ad jingle that said that unless you bought a pass there would be "No-L, No-L, No-LPGA." It was annoying enough to be memorable.

Very easy FJ. I also got The Book Thief and December 25th. I like Haley. We were preempted for MLK Day stuff yesterday, so I missed John's reference to his husband, but I wouldn't be surprised if Haley had a wife. Spouses don't always come up in the Q&A section, so we may not find out for sure unless she's on for a while.

We're preempted tonight for an MLK Day special on race issues in our community. I'll have to see of I can find it online later.

Even Alex admitted that today's FJ was easy if you know it but hard otherwise. It was an instaget for me, although I was never a huge fan of the show. I figured it was a bad sign when the first clue was a TS (Kool-aid, duh) but it was a good game overall. Maybe I'm old and broken, but "rotator cuff" seemed obvious. And I love horseradish with roast beef. Yum.

No, but I never got any further than "that painter guy." I would have needed a lot more obvious clue than just Scottish and Samoa. Although also in the "who else could it have been" category is Aristophanes. Whenever they ask about Greek comedies, it's him. Nobody else is really as famous, and The Birds is one of his best known plays. The other one is Lysistrata, which is the one where the women go on a sex strike to get the men to make peace. I also got Jared Padelecki, although I stopped watching Supernatural years ago, at least partly because I could never remember which one was Sam and which one was Dean. Every once in a while I try again and nope, still can't tell 'em apart. And the episodes are depressingly similar, too.

Very nice Jackie Fuchs article in Slate - https://slate.com/culture/2018/12/jackie-fuchs-jeopardy-runaways-jackie-fox.html?via=homepage_taps_top

My math was bad, but I still got Devil's Tower. After all, how many blockbuster movies feature national monuments other than Close Encounters? DH guessed North by Northwest, but he missed the date part of the clue and besides, we learned earlier this week that Mount Rushmore was completed in the 30's. I also got Prester John and Finland.

I wonder if they'll have her back because of it. I watched it after learning about her medical problem and watched for it. I think it must have happened during the first half of the show. She did seem pretty out of it for most of the game, though. I assume she must have told the producers that she felt well enough to continue but she clearly wasn't on top of her game. At the end, Alex shook hands with all the players as he normally does, but he really held her hand and they seemed to be having a longish conversation. She waved her hand as if to say she was fine, didn't mind or something along those lines. I missed FJ too. Boo hiss.

Also, the other Greek-named option, Ecclesiastes, is the Greek version of name of the author (commonly rendered in English as the Preacher). And even if you didn't know that, it sounds like ecclesiastic, which should remind you of the church. Church, ecclesiastical, Ecclesiastes.

Yesterday, I got lunge (I fenced in college, too), ronin, Scotchgard, rafting, law students and Shaft (shut yo' mouth). The 9/11 Star Spangled Banner FJ surprised me with my emotional reaction. It actually caught in my throat. Today, I loved the guy who was a Porta-Potty cleaner, but I like Adrianna, too. She's a good champ. My gets were intimidate, elucidate, Frank Sinatra, Antietam, 150, 4, and Evangeline. I agree that "Reiner" needed a BMS. FJ was an enbarrasing miss. That's the kind of thing I feel like I should know. I thought of James (Jesus's brother) or Stephen, although I know the Feast of Stephen is after Christmas, and finally settled on Peter. Oops.

We've been away for Thanksgiving so I did a big catch up today. From last Wednesday, I got micro-loans, dead reckoning, and Lake Ponchartrain, but totally blanked on prematurely dead 19th century presidents. I went for Garfield, which was obviously wrong. Thursday, I got Captain Kidd and the FJ of E.T. I briefly considered Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, but Alex was right the "not a dry eye in the theater" element could only have been E.T. Friday gets were Charleston and seal, and for FJ, I knew one had to be Montreal, but the only other one I could think of was Mexico City. Ok, on to today. I wasn't sad to see J be one and done. I'm glad he won on Friday, becasuse of hsi story of how how hard he tried to get on the show, but that was enough. The new champ seems fine, but I won't be surprised to see him also be one and done. I got angels, TE Lawrence, Ruth, Song of Solomon and Revelation. I was really sad that they didn't finish the category. I'm usually pretty good on Bible categories. My Masters of Divinty ought to be good for something, LOL. I totally whiffed on FJ. I went with James Fenimore Cooper, who I knew had to be too early, but once I thought of him, nobody else came to mind.