GreekGeek

It sometimes happens that a title is changed or abbreviated and becomes an acceptable alternative. J! regularly accepts Alice in Wonderland rather than Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz without including "Wonderful", which was in the title of the original book.

I think they were expecting the response to be Tom Sawyer, without adding "The Adventures of."

Tonight I knew plead, piebald, the Four Tops, Dumas, little gray cells, and 80 proof. I came up with Castor and Pollux for FJ, although I was pretty sure it was wrong. I did not know that Eros, Deimos, and Phobos were brothers. According to one of the earliest Greek poets, Hesiod, Eros was always "there" from the beginning of creation. Other sources had him as the son of Nyx (Night). No mention of a dad. Only later was he imagined as the son of Ares and Aphrodite (and went from a powerful life force to the cutesy cherub we know). I also wondered about the "Lying Kings" answer of Odysseus. Yes, he was a schemer, but it was Clytemnestra's husband Agamemnon who had Iphigenia brought to be sacrificed on the pretext of marrying Achilles.

I don't normally believe the "death in threes" thing, but it's been a shock to lose James Caan, Larry Storch, and Tony Sirico within a week. I loved F Troop as kid. It's the type of show that couldn't be made today because of its Native American caricatures. And Corporal Agarn was my favorite. There was one unusually grim episode called "The Day They Shot Agarn." Of course they didn't, but there were some moments that weren't played for laughs at all. Very well acted all around. I didn't know Passaic (Agarn's home town) had made him an honorary citizen: Story here.

I didn't realize the movies had the actors pronouncing it without a distinct "r", so now I understand what Yungsheng was doing.

I never heard of a Bahama Mama, but if they look similar it might have been accepted. It does sound delicious! I didn't think Yungsheng pronounced "expelliarmus" correctly even after he corrected himself; I was surprised he received credit for it. Hawthorne was my only TS too, and I almost said Washington Irving. I couldn't quite come up with Thomas Mann in time, but I knew 1947 was much too late for Goethe. At least I managed to figure out FJ tonight.

I like Misfits Market. They started out as sellers of fruits and vegetables that were larger or smaller or just not as "pretty" as the grocery store ones but otherwise perfectly good. They've expanded to include a variety of groceries and pantry staples at cheaper prices than the stores. I've bought quite a lot from Penzey's online but did not realize they had brick and mortar stores too--shame on me! King Arthur Flour has a good array of baking supplies, but they can get pricey.

West Branch, Iowa. As far as I know, there is no notorious building nearby. My mind went to the JFK assassination also, and I thought of the Texas School Book Depository. I thought 78 rpm records (heck, any vinyl records) were before Jake's time so I'm not surprised he missed it. What was shocking to me was that he thought Diana Ross is 90+ years old. That seemed vaguely familiar, and sure enough, it happened only a few months ago.

I didn't know her either and I never heard of Better Things (Stranger Things, yes). I did know Harold Lloyd and the clock picture. I remember first seeing it on the front page of the New York Times the morning after the first Joe Frazier/Muhammad Ali fight, because that was when Lloyd died. I guess they figured it didn't need the bms. because only one George Bush is deceased. Rhode Island was my guess too. And I also wondered about "Hays code" vs. just "code." I also knew Echo, knob, and the "noninvasive" DD. I wondered if there was a story behind Eleanor's "2016" wager.

I never would have known FJ either. I was trying to think of characters’ names starting with D, and all I could think of that remotely fit the time frame was “The New Dick van Dyke Show.”

I knew jealousy (DD), microsurgery, conscience, thunder, work (woohoo, more Greek derivatives!), Wallis Simpson, the Rubiyyat, and canopic jar. I knew FJ wasn’t Byron but thought of John Masefield, who wrote “Sea Fever.” Wrong sea voyage poem!

I had the right quote but the wrong part of it. I said “Full speed ahead.”😖

I did know Hugh Lofting for some reason (he wrote the Dr. Doolittle books) but figured he was a) too obscure and b) too late for 19th century literature. But I managed to think of Poe in time. I didn't get Luxembourg and never heard of sneezeweed (I had heard of sneezewort, which apparently isn't the same thing), but I knew the same TS's plus Escoffier. Mayim''s "Ah-uh Ur!" reading didn't do the "Got milk?" line justice. I was glad the judges reversed the ruling on "Tweedledum and Tweedledee." The question specified the one with four e's, and Megan's additional info made it wrong. For a moment in FJ, I thought she would pull off another miracle win. I was uncharitably pleased when it didn't happen.

I thought they might require the first name of Ravel also, given the category, but I guess they couldn't without announcing in advance that the contestant must give both the M and the R words/names. There was some controversy about this during at least one of Matt's games, but they've generally been pretty lax about demanding full names, unless the person happened to be Kit Carson of course. Is Megan the luckiest champ ever? I was sure either Jenny or Rob or both would know archipelago. I was rooting for Rob because he had such an impressive comeback after that bad first round. Two FJ Greek derivatives in a row, woohoo!

What a crazy finish! I know people have won with $1, but that's the lowest total in a long time enabling a champ to retain the crown (no pun on FJ intended). I knew eustachian tube, What We Do in the Shadows/Only Murders in the Building. Smithfield, electron microscope, Les Liaisons Dangereux (Would they have accepted "Dangerous Liaisons" or was that the movie title only?), Tracy Letts, melancholy, glum, and somber (DD). I did not think Megan should have received credit for "chomping at the bit." The word is "champing." Or has "chomping" become so commonplace that it's an acceptable alternative? Like "Daylight Savings" vs. "Daylight Saving" time?

Has anyone here read The Man Who Loved Children? Sam and Henny Pollit are some of the worst parents ever. The title is Henny's sarcastic description of Sam. He does love the kids in his way, but he also treats them like his servants, forcing them to work on his stupid household projects. The climactic one is the boiling of a marlin for oil, which takes all night. He is especially overbearing towards his oldest child, Louisa, from his previous marriage. Louisa is a budding literary talent, but he blows off her work because he thinks the arts are useless and only cares about science. He makes endless speeches in his own weird baby talk, mostly about how everyone should be like him. Oh, and he loses his job halfway through the book and doesn't look for another, preferring to moan about what an unappreciated genius he is. Henny is arguably worse. There's some sympathy for her because she's overwhelmed by too many kids and not enough money, but her attitude to Louisa is horrible. Instead of being grateful and affectionate to her stepdaughter, who handles a lot of the child-rearing and other household duties, she calls her fat and disgusting. She should never have had one child, let alone six, whom she seems to hate most of the time (except for her oldest son, whose money she steals). She and Sam have endless shouting matches, but won't get divorced because Sam won't let her break up the family!

I agree regarding "Harriet Tubman." It looked as though Sadie's handwriting was messy but that she did write the whole name. "Gehrig/Gerick" just seems like "Barry/Berry" all over again. Since the book's title just has "Leibowitz" and not "Isaac Leibowitz", I doubt they would have required the full name.

I never saw "Beaches," but I hate the song "Wind Beneath My Wings." Or rather I hate its message: "Thank you for being invisible and always letting me hog the spotlight."

Yes, You Tube is overall an excellent source of J! episodes you happen to miss. You don't even have to wait until the next day if you live in the U.S.. I think there are some rules about copyright, though, which would account for the missing clues. Last night I saw one that ended right before FJ! Fortunately there was another video. It's also possible to have some with weird angles, or sound going out during the FJ "think music", or strange inserts. Also beware of someone spoiling the result in the thumbnail or the description, although this hasn't happened lately.

I took it to mean they were doing their homework at 4 AM, not that the class met then. And that they were kneeling on the floor using the bunk as a desk. Kit Nixon? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) I did the same second-guessing as many of you, but thought the other Watergate-related names would have been considered too obscure. Kissinger didn't occur to me. I got SPCA, birds of a feather, manatee, Ted Hughes, and death. Can someone explain why those were "clever" crossword clues?

Or someone thought Mary Tyler Moore was old enough to have worked with Buster Keaton! I suppose it was hypothetically possible, since Keaton died in 1966 and MTM was on TV in the early 60's...naaah.

I thought of Babar first, then changed my mind because of the date. I never read The Little Prince, but I knew the narrator was a pilot and figured there was a connection with WW2.

Curious: How does "Hard Mode" pretty much guarantee getting the word within the 6 chances? I haven't tried it; it sounds as if it would be more difficult. I'm also wondering about the code and the future words. If you have a good memory or write them down, wouldn't that spoil the game?

A discussion on the main thread got me wondering: Do you play word or trivia games online, and if so, which ones? I got into Wordle a few months ago--after the time when it seemed that was all anyone did. I'm sad that my fifty game streak was broken today. It was those cursed rhyming words--I was down to my final guess and had all but the first letter and a 50/50 chance of being right.😢 There's also Word Hurdle, very similar except you have the option to play with four, five, or six letter words. I'm up to 28 wins on that, almost caught up to my prior streak of 30. For trivia, I play the New Yorker's Name Dropper quiz: you get six clues one at a time to name a famous person, living or dead.

November 2022. Fifteen players start out: the professors' tourney winner, the college tourney winner, and 13 from regular games. Here are the current standings. When the contestants missed "bray" and "chez" right off the bat, I feared the game would be a dud, but it wasn't. I wondered if they would have accepted "melee" instead of "fray" or "psychology" without specifying "clinical." I also knew Jill Biden because I remembered the flap over her calling herself "doctor" when she isn't an M.D. I got FJ but thought it was kind of obscure, not the sort of thing most people would know if they aren't myth buffs. A movie buff might remember that Castor and Pollux Troy were the baddies in the Travolta/Cage movie Face/Off. Agamemnon and Menelaus wasn't a bad guess; Achilles and Aeschylus was. Aeschylus was not mythic!