Mondrianyone

And don't forget "bas-relief." Yes, "base-relief" is wrong, but who except Pepé Le Pew pronounces it "bah re-LYEFF"? Thank you, dcalley, for mentioning the rule change, which I didn't know about. That's why I hit myself in the head with a throw pillow and screamed "You idiot!" when I saw that wager. Apparently I'm the idiot.

Looks like Gwen ran away with Philip's sandwich, too. I'll give him credit for amassing such an impressive total in just three days, even if he did it in a pretty annoying way. But I guess my feeling that he didn't have the goods to carry this off over the long haul was correct. I'm sorry we'll never learn the proper spelling for Mr. Coco . . . Cocoa . . . Koko . . . Keaukeau? And I think whoever said early on that he might be a stutterer and not being slow strategically may be right. He talked just as slowly and painfully in his chats, when there was no strategic advantage.

Imaginary conversation here at the Mondrianyone household: Me: I had the greatest idea today, honey. Let's get a terrier! Mr. M: What kind of terrier? Me: Oh, I don't know. A very fierce one. Mr. M: Yeah, and . . .? Me: And then I'll quit my job and stay home all day to watch it. 'Cause I couldn't possibly hold down a job and have a dog, too. Mr. M: But you work at home! Me: Shhh! It's almost time for Jeopardy! That dreamy math professor is still champ!

I'm not quite as taken with Philip as most of the rest of you. He seems like a very lovely man, but that doesn't necessarily make for an enjoyable, watchable contestant. What with the slowness in choosing clues and the slowness in answering, plus the chicken-strangling buzzer technique, I'm not having fun with him. I wickedly wished he'd lost on that crazy giant DJ wager (which I was sure I'd misheard till I double-checked with Mr. Mo, who happened to be passing through the room at that moment). Unless Philip's a genius of deception, I don't get the feeling he's good enough to pull off wagers like that on a regular basis. But I've been wrong before. . . .

Mine, too, but I think that ship has sailed, sadly. Anyone who pronounces "Mont Blanc" to rhyme with "Font Flank" could stand some gentle educating. I don't mind at all when Alex lets people know what the correct pronunciation of a word is--just the opposite, I appreciate it. I don't even mind when he goes into a French rapture (Frapture?). The only time I get annoyed is when he thinks he's right and he's not, and he makes a show of correcting someone incorrectly. Don't get me started on Nabokov.

I swear you are living in my head, Carpe. Every time I come here, you've already said everything I was thinking. The list of answers I didn't come up with tonight is longer than the list I knew. But I'm proud to have worked out FJ (although I should've known the poem--it's embarrassing that I didn't). My first thought was the Matterhorn, but Alex (God love him) pronounced "Chamouni" so Frenchily that I knew the place couldn't be in Switzerland. And then I remembered the French ski resort of Chamonix, so I picked out the Frenchiest mountain I could think of, since a vale is a valley, and voilà, Mont Blanc. I'm short of breath from all that deducing. Can someone explain something I just don't get? When the DD has been exposed (or both of them have in DJ), what is the point of continuing the game in the middle of the board? I understand people going for higher values toward the end of the game, when they're behind, but tonight the DD was gone at the very start, so why pick the $800 clue in that category rather than go up to the top? Because you think your opponents won't do well in the harder clues and you will? To build up an intimidating lead early? That doesn't usually play so well. But I assume there's a good reason.

I realize I was mostly annoyed at Annie for that reckless wager because if she'd gotten it wrong, I personally would've been sentenced to at least one more day of Brent. When I was a kid, I made fun of my grandmother for yelling at the TV during The Price Is Right. And now I've become her. Sorry, Grandma.

Alex said "rhymestone." I played it back three times, because I couldn't imagine he'd say something that dumb, but he did. I started to write a poem about it, and then I realized that would be even dumber than saying "rhymestone." But I would like to know where he thinks the river Rhyme flows. Through Limerick?

I could be wrong, but I thought the clue mentioned that the city was settled in the 1780s, not necessarily that it was a state capital in the 1780s. So Juneau is still not the right answer, but at least it's not off by almost 200 years. (If that really is how the clue was framed, which may be me misremembering. I'll go ask the cat.)

Our cat got FJ! Two old English majors watching with a cat sitting between them, and when the category (no pun intended) for FJ was announced, my husband said (in the cat's voice, as we do, go ahead and judge), "Must be T. S. Eliot," and we both laughed because of course the cat would think it would be the author of "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats." And then the clue came up, and more laughter ensued. Because that's who it was! So now we know that our cat is smarter than your average Jeopardy! contestant. And also psychic. Mine, too. Their loss.

Then I guess it's a good thing I didn't use Wikipedia as a source! Not that it didn't come up, but it was more interesting to read about the harvest at sugar-industry and environmental sites. I think I actually learn more the sketchier the judging is, because that's when I look things up. It turns out that burning sugarcane is a pollution issue in South Florida, among other places, where my family lives--and this is the first I've ever heard about it. Oh, Jeopardy!, this is why I can't quit you. Even when you annoy me, you still give me a little something every day. ;o)

No. Because I also got around to Googling cane/stalk in relation to burn-off sugar harvesting, and they're obviously two different names for the same thing. Took about two minutes to find that out. I wonder how much a J! judge makes. I suspect more than they're worth. I was glad to see Chris win.

Good question. I wondered about this myself. Does anyone here know?

I got Guinevere (thanks, Mists of Avalon), but I wasn't sure it was right until Alex said so, because the category name was so misleading. If they'd called it "Women of Legend," there wouldn't have been any doubt as to what kind of answer was wanted. But it's so customary to describe someone at the top of his/her field as "legendary songstress Aretha Franklin" or "legendary hitter Ted Williams" that they left a lot of uncertainty room by naming it the way they did--real person or not. I didn't notice whatsisname, the outgoing champ, being as gracious to whatsername, the incoming champ, as Tim was to him yesterday. Which is too bad. That was nice to see. Hope we get to see Tim again. ETA: Sorry, replied before reading other responses, or I would've been less windy about "legendary." Maybe.

Boy, did I actively dislike Maria, Our Lady of the Pissy Faces. I don't think I've ever flipped the bird at a J! contestant--not once but three times tonight! For one thing, getting credit for that "upside down" answer was a gift she totally didn't deserve. Yes, it's an alternate term for owing more than your house is worth, but what the hell does it have to do with needing to hold your breath? That was the clue, and it wasn't responsive to the clue. I liked her until she got that wrong and started acting as if she deserved to win, even when she was slower than her opponents and didn't know the right answers. Blech. In Alex's defense (jeez, I seem to say that more often than I like to), I think he said he didn't know the answer when he first read the clue. I assumed he meant in the run-though before the show, and somebody explained it to him before airtime. Or maybe not.

If you exclude his surname, Dodgson, the letters left from the rest of his name, Charles Lutwidge, are the letters used to anagram those two possible pen names. Here's what Wikipedia says about the name Lewis Carroll: This pseudonym was a play on his real name: Lewis was the anglicised form of Ludovicus, which was the Latin for Lutwidge, and Carroll an Irish surname similar to the Latin name Carolus, from which comes the name Charles. The transition went as follows: "Charles Lutwidge" translated into Latin as "Carolus Ludovicus". This was then translated back into English as "Carroll Lewis" and then reversed to make "Lewis Carroll". This pseudonym was chosen by editor Edmund Yates from a list of four submitted by Dodgson, the others being Edgar Cuthwellis, Edgar U. C. Westhill, and Louis Carroll. But I think you're right, that it's just something you needed to know in a general way. There really wasn't enough time to unscramble the names and compare them to the letters in his actual name, but if you know that Lewis Carroll was a fake name--and that he was a mathematician and had that kind of brain--that helps a lot to make the educated guess.

There's a man in my house who I think you should meet. ;o)

That was the best game since the ToC. I first thought of Gene Hackman for FJ, except he wasn't in either of those movies. Then I thought of a long-standing joke we have around this house. Whenever there's an actor giving a great performance and my husband doesn't recognize him, it's Robert Duvall. So I always say, "If you don't know who it is, then who must it be?" If I start not recognizing Robert Duvall, we're both in trouble.

I was only half paying attention during FJ, and the first thing that popped into my head was the Enigma Machine (figuring that the Brits had gotten hold of one after the war). Then I saw the earlier date and did a quick course correction in time to get the right answer. Note to self: If I'm ever on Jeopardy! for real, don't just speed past the dates and don't decide on an answer and then try to make the clue fit it.

I wonder if the new college champ will throw some of those winnings his idol's way, now that Kanye is in such deep need. http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/15/10995374/kanye-west-mark-zuckerberg-debt-twitter

Definitely awful, and why the producers/writers thought it would be a good idea to have him do that is anybody's guess. The thing is, though, the Rev had a pretty stank attitude from the get-go, so nothing was going to make him happy. He said not a word about the steak, said as little as possible about anything at all. If it weren't for his wife, that might've been the most awkward five minutes of TV ever recorded. My feeling has always been that if you're going to be on a show to promote some product, or just to promote yourself and get a little face time, you're agreeing to be at least pleasant. You know what the deal is, you know what kind of program it is and who the players are and how they act, and if you can't be bothered to go along even to minimal standards of courtesy, then don't show up. Jeff was his usual schmucky self, but Rev was his own kind of asshole, too. If he was so much better than all that, he should've stayed home. Painful to watch, I agree.

I wouldn't expect them--or want them--to seem as slick as professionals in their chat segments. But I do think there's a fair amount of real estate between Don Rickles and rambling on endlessly the way some people (I'm looking at you, Columbia) often do. I get that they're nervous. I wasn't much older when I was on the show I was on, and I know I wasn't exactly Dorothy Parker back then. I just thought some coaching would be helpful. It's good that they do get a bit of prep. Thanks for the info.

I suspect that's Alex's sort of ham-handed way of highlighting how smart these kids are (or how smart we're supposed to think they are), by pretending to be too dumb to understand what they're saying. But the upshot usually seems to be that he just ends up looking dumb. Which he's not, mostly. I do wish he'd come up with some new reaction material, even though it can be a challenge when you're reacting to people who often tell their little anecdotes as badly as some J! contestants do. Question for anyone who's been on the show: Do they prep or rehearse you in chat techniques? That might be a good thing, if they don't already. Every once in a while, a book I've worked on pops up as a clue in some literary/publishing category. That happened tonight, and I was so surprised I almost forgot the answer myself!

Could be he dropped the l from their original spelling. I was excited to see Rashid as a judge, having seen a previous show featuring his work, some of which I really liked. Although I have a Bobble water bottle, which I think he designed, and I'd love to point out a few badly thought-out elements to him. Not nearly as heinous as his ensemble tonight, though. You show up dressed like that and all your credibility flies out the window. (Hi, by the way. I've watched since season 1, but I don't think I've posted on this show. At least not here at PTV.)

So what's wrong with that??? Ziad did it, too, I think. Maybe even twice. If I weren't as well adjusted as I am, it might drive me crazy. A good rule of thumb is that if it's not Wren, it's Inigo Jones. Except it's almost always Wren. That's a pretty recent book. She's been making the rounds promoting it in the past few weeks. [P̶o̶i̶n̶t̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶G̶l̶o̶r̶i̶a̶ ̶S̶t̶e̶i̶n̶e̶m̶ ̶a̶n̶e̶c̶d̶o̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶y̶p̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶d̶e̶l̶e̶t̶e̶d̶.̶] A story as pointless as Noah's sloth story--but not nearly as cute. He was wrong when he said it wasn't a story.