Jeopardy! Season 37 (2020-2021)

[dcalley]

It's great that there was a women in STEM category and I appreciate that Olay is promoting women in STEM, but it's enraging, depressing, and offensive that they follow that with an ad for an anti-aging cream. Sigh.

(I know that's what Olay is known for, but still. They should have just advertised the company instead of an "anti-aging" product, IMO.)

Edited February 9, 2021 by dcalley

[ams1001]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

I kept only getting half of the movies.  

Me, too! Can I count that as 2.5 points? (Actually, I did get one...A Star is Born on the Fourth of July. Counting half a point for the rest doesn't change my total percentage much, anyway.)

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

There was only one TS (Iran) in the first round! (I didn't get it, either.)

I got Iran and said “Hapsbergs” before the contestant, which is pretty good for me. 
I can picture a lot of the answers/questions in my mind’s eye, but the names or titles are just beyond my reach. 
 

I would’ve gotten GUI wrong because I always thought it was Graphic User Interface, not Graphical.

[ams1001]

2 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I would’ve gotten GUI wrong because I always thought it was Graphic User Interface, not Graphical.

I use Access a lot at work and frequently use SQL view to edit queries...today I learned what SQL stands for...

[Bastet]

I'm a bit surprised no one guessed Bali as the Indonesian island, but then again I'm not - probably no one wanted to risk $2000 on a guess.

The contestants certainly did better than I did tonight.  I ran the b_g words, facts & figures, and forests categories in the first round, but missed two each in the other three.  Okay, not great, not bad.

But then in DJ, I shot right past bad into terrible.  I ran only the vocabulary category, didn't correctly guess a single royal house, A Star is Born on the Fourth of July was the only movie clue where I knew both films, and I missed two or three in all the remaining categories.  I had no idea on FJ.  One of my worst games ever.

[GreekGeek]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I said Paris for FJ, thinking of Murders in the Rue Morgue.  It's a bad start, boys.

I had the same thought. I’m irked that I missed it, since I’m a big Dostoevsky fan (though I don’t know Russian).

The only TS’s I knew were Angela and Carnival of the Animals.

The new champ is impressive. I hope he stays awhile.

[Clanstarling]

12 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I said Paris for FJ, thinking of Murders in the Rue Morgue.  It's a bad start, boys.

I got the right book - but the wrong town. That's what I get for never delving into Russian literature. As a lit major I used to say I was never in a good enough mood to counteract a semester of Russian lit.

10 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I would’ve gotten GUI wrong because I always thought it was Graphic User Interface, not Graphical.

I said Graphic, but knew in my dim recesses of a mind that it was Graphical. I am old enough to have started working in tech when GUIs began. I remember seeing the first windows based interface and wondered why anyone would want to have that many windows open. 🤣

[shapeshifter]

8 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

I said Graphic, but knew in my dim recesses of a mind that it was Graphical. I am old enough to have started working in tech when GUIs began. I remember seeing the first windows based interface and wondered why anyone would want to have that many windows open. 🤣

So I guess "Graphic User Interface" became a kind of verbal shorthand for "Graphical User Interface"?
But I bet it would have been wrong for Jeopardy. 😞

I found the first GUIs annoying for a lot of the databases I was working with. Searching the text-based LexisNexis was always potentially more precise. 
But in the early 90s when I suggested to my higher-paid colleagues that it would be great when eventually we would have more than one screen at the same time, they scoffed. At this moment I have 18 tabs open, and thanks to programmers who saw the same kinds of advantages to coding things a certain way as did I,  if my zillion tabs get closed with another hidden browser window still open, History will bring them all back. </end-geek-talk>

[MrAtoz]

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

I'm a bit surprised no one guessed Bali as the Indonesian island, but then again I'm not - probably no one wanted to risk $2000 on a guess.

Indeed, I can think of a few Indonesian islands--Java, Sumatra, Borneo, as well as Bali--but I didn't see that the clue gave any way to narrow it down.

[Mindthinkr]

I missed FJ and was mad at myself because I just read the book about 6 months ago. The correct answer floated through my mind, but I discarded it in favor of Paris. 
 

[shapeshifter]

58 minutes ago, Mindthinkr said:

I missed FJ and was mad at myself because I just read the book about 6 months ago. The correct answer floated through my mind, but I discarded it in favor of Paris. 

I'm glad I'm not the only one with the floating answers problem. 🙂

[proserpina65]

Friday's FJ was the perfect example of "if it's in your wheelhouse, it's easy as hell" - I had to give very little thought before coming up with the Spanish Armada.  My major in college was Medieval & Renaissance Studies, I had a class which focused heavily on the reign of Elizabeth I, and I still have one of the required books which was a detailed look at the Armada.

Last night's FJ, on the other hand, was a "I was never going to get that one in a million years" clue.  I've never read any Russian literature, and know so little about Dostoevsky's work beyond the titles of a few of his books, that I had no chance at all.  I said "Paris", thinking of The Murders in the Rue Morgue, even though I knew the date was too late for Poe and that's a short story anyway.

Not sure I like the new champ, but he was a real machine, and might be fine for a few games.

[853fisher]

I like the idea of the week of categories drawing attention to women in STEM.  I don't see the commercials where I watch, but yikes on the connection to Olay's anti-aging cream.  If the Monday category was Technology, perhaps we will get the other three letters the rest of the week, but what will the fifth be?  I'll look forward to it.

It was a great idea to invite Reshna Saujani to present the category.  I might have said she was someone who would be nice to see as one of the guest hosts, but I thought she wasn't a natural at reading the clues.  And fine, that's not her line.  Perhaps they are on to something by booking mostly TV personalities after all.  Just not you-know-who.

[proserpina65]

On ‎02‎/‎03‎/‎2021 at 11:40 PM, Cotypubby said:

When Ken explained the connection between Apollo and the name “Sun King” that was an “ohhh!” moment for me, but I was totally wrong. I also guessed Morpheus, thinking “of the night” meant the god of sleep. Not sure how night=god of the sun, but ok.

Not really sure either, but mythology is a good subject for me, and I knew Apollo was the only god to have the same name in both the Greek and Roman pantheon.  Plus, he's god of the Sun, so the connection to Louis XIV, the Sun King, made it obvious to me.

On ‎02‎/‎04‎/‎2021 at 8:00 PM, Katy M said:

I said  CNN for FJ.

I thought as that, but came up with C-Span first and decided to stick with it.

On ‎02‎/‎05‎/‎2021 at 10:46 AM, Trey said:

I got lots of answers plus the ts's or missed DDs of Plains of Abraham, Jersey Boys, and Shakespeare's Sonnets.

I knew the Plains of Abraham because of the painting of General Wolfe's death there.

[proserpina65]

On ‎02‎/‎04‎/‎2021 at 8:02 PM, Browncoat said:

Song Of Myself was a surprising TS -- if it's Walt Whitman and it isn't Leaves Of Grass, it has to be Song Of Myself.

I don't think I've ever heard the title, but then, I'm not big on American poetry in general.

On ‎02‎/‎05‎/‎2021 at 9:26 AM, illdoc said:

Thanks to a viewing of "I, Claudius" a couple of years ago (which everyone must see), I'm fairly confident on order of Roman emperors (and a few other things).

That's why I knew Tiberius.

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

That's why I knew Tiberius.

I knew Tiberius.  I served with Tiberius.  Sir, you're no Tiberius!  (Sorry, I'll see myself out.)

[Prevailing Wind]

Whereas, I only know Tiberius as Capt. Kirk's middle name.

[ams1001]

9 hours ago, MrAtoz said:

Indeed, I can think of a few Indonesian islands--Java, Sumatra, Borneo, as well as Bali--but I didn't see that the clue gave any way to narrow it down.

I thought of Java but then I thought it's majority Muslim, not Hindu, so I figured it was wrong.

5 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Not sure I like the new champ, but he was a real machine, and might be fine for a few games.

I was kinda rooting for the other guy, because he was nice to look at. 😍

[853fisher]

Good FJ for me.  We were raised in MD just outside DC.  The big fourth grade social studies project everyone looked forward to, at least in my circle of bookish friends, was to create dioramas about every county, one to every student or two.  It was a great opportunity to learn more about the state, where I think 2 out of 3 counties have some land on the Chesapeake or a tributary.  I was tempted by NH, which has half as much Atlantic coastline, but decided it couldn't possibly have half as much internal shoreline.  Turns out MD has over 26X as much as NH.  DE also has marginally less Atlantic coastline and far less internal shoreline than MD.  I will have to write Miss O'Donnell, who is still the fourth grade teacher at my old school, and let her know she taught me something.

Erica Joy Baker, who presented the Engineering category, started the spreadsheet at Google a few years ago which was used to prepare analysis and suggest solutions regarding pay gaps in the company.  Now she is at Github, the code hosting platform, and does a lot of philanthropic work.  I wish there was time in the show for even 60 or 90 seconds of introduction for these guest presenters, but there really just isn't.  I loved seeing Julia Morgan mentioned too.  She had a long association with the Hearsts and many of her works survive around the Bay Area. 

I liked Myles' diction even THough he was left well behind by Morgan and John.  I cringed a little at Morgan's story about the Mensa pageant, which sounded exactly as awkward and self-conscious as I might've expected such an event to be.  I was consumed by curiosity and found this writeup about the proceedings, which did little to change that perception.  I’m glad they were able to raise money for their own foundation, but other than the charity, it all seems so very try-hard.

Edited February 10, 2021 by 853fisher
Maybe a bit much the first time

[Katy M]

Complete guess (or maybe educated guess), but i got FJ righ.

My only ts was Bob Hearts Abishola.  Only other one I got in that cat was Friends, so weird I got that one.  LOL.

 

[chessiegal]

As soon as I saw large estuary in FJ? I knew it was Maryland, as we live on the shore of said estuary.

[ams1001]

Geez, I did even worse than yesterday, but I did get FJ and all three DDs.

 

[Mindthinkr]

I just got May and March. I also got FJ so there’s my one for the week 😂

[shapeshifter]

I was a little heart 💔 broken that none of them knew Bob Hearts 💕 Abishola, especially since last night’s episode was exceptionally good.

I knew Month Of The Book “Seven Days in May,” probably because my mom read every NY Times bestseller and many more books every month, many of which lined shelves in our small den (pre-Kindle).

For FJ I settled on Maryland first, but there was too much time to change my mind, and if I was there I probably would have guessed wrong —especially because 31 miles of coastline seems like less than the way it looked in my mind. 

My mom always said after every Jeopardy show that she should have been on there making money——and she should have. I, OTOH, would just embarrass myself as pictures of answers floated by without anything more than first letters of words. Thanks again, Mom, for making flash cards for me for the history test in grade school.

 

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I was a little heart 💔 broken that none of them knew Bob Hearts 💕 Abishola,

I've heard of it (well, to the extent I know there's a show called "Bob Hearts [rather than loves] Someone"), but couldn't tell you a single thing about it, so that one stumped me, too, as there was nothing in the clue that could have led me to it via cultural osmosis.

If I was to choose a makes me sad TS for this episode, as a childhood fan of the space program, I'd go with mission specialist.  But I wasn't surprised by any of the TS, so good game as a viewer.

And good game as an at-home player; in the first round, I joined the contestants in failing to come up with Trappist monks and interlocking grip, and also didn't know the Spongebob clue, but I think I got everything else.  In DJ, I missed two each in pairs, books, and TV shows, but ran the other two categories.  And I got FJ.  So it was a nice bounce back from my terrible performance last night.

Edited February 10, 2021 by Bastet

[Prevailing Wind]

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

For FJ I settled on Maryland first, but there was too much time to change my mind, and if I was there I probably would have guessed wrong —especially because 31 miles of coastline seems like less than the way it looked in my mind.

But driving through Ocean City makes it seem SO much longer.

 

[Clanstarling]

13 hours ago, chessiegal said:

As soon as I saw large estuary in FJ? I knew it was Maryland, as we live on the shore of said estuary.

No fair! 😆

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

If I was to choose a makes me sad TS for this episode, as a childhood fan of the space program, I'd go with mission specialist.  But I wasn't surprised by any of the TS, so good game as a viewer.

I was sad about that as well. My connection/love of the program started early, and when we were posted in Spain, the top floor of our school (a converted barracks) was a Gemini tracking station.

[proserpina65]

17 hours ago, chessiegal said:

As soon as I saw large estuary in FJ? I knew it was Maryland, as we live on the shore of said estuary.

Yeah, me too.  I was raised the banks of the Susquehanna River, about 5 minutes away from where it turns into the Chesapeake Bay.  I was a bit surprised, however, that Maryland actually has 31 miles of ocean coast, but I'm guessing that includes Assateague Island.

[Browncoat]

Instaget FJ for me last night.  

I also got Trappist, Bob ❤️Abishola, and May.

And we got a "Hello!" from Ken!  

[853fisher]

Fun game, although I made lots of mistakes.  I read a book about "legalese" called "The Party of the First Part" years ago, which my mind swirled into "part and party" today.  I also came up with "feud" instead of "fief" for a four-letter F word in feudal times.  I knew it wasn't right, but...  I poured myself more coffee after that, so let's hope it helps.

I think it might have been nerves, but Joy Buolamwini, who read the Women in STEM category, seemed just tickled to death to be there!  Her group, the Algorithmic Justice League, "aims to raise awareness of the social implications of artificial intelligence," as exemplified by the shortcomings of facial recognition on darker faces.  I was glad they worked that into a clue, but the wording was pretty clunky.

I like John and hope he continues to succeed.  I think DC was the 7th state/territory in which gay couples could be married.  It's astounding that so much changed in such a relatively short stretch of time on that subject.  I know many heavily tattooed people but rarely see them on game shows etc., so while it wasn't his day, Jared felt familiar to me somehow.

The clue about A1 Steak Sauce having a song title mentioning the Woah dance was gobbledygook to me, but while I usually crave knowledge, I'm just fine with that, I don't think I need to know any more.  Some things are better left as mysteries.

Edited February 11, 2021 by 853fisher

[ams1001]

Ken totally didn't remember that elevator incident.

I like it when they go through the clues in an orderly fashion...it makes it so much easier to keep score. They jumped around more in the second round and I had to go to the archive and check a couple spots cuz I got lost.

Did a little better today; 77% in J, only 54% in DJ, no FJ (for overall score of 64%). I ran What Does Not Kill Us… and Government & Politics; also got the DDs in Croatia and Public Sculpture. Only got one Math clue (compound interest)…there's a reason I majored in English…

I said Zeppelin for FJ. Guess I needed to be more specific.

For those who, like myself, said "what the hell is a woah dance?"...you're welcome.

 

[Katy M]

I got FJ, but again, total guess.

I got the ts of supplement, Ralph Waldo Emerson, quiet, Mary  Higgins Clark, mustangs and Belle.

I got the entire category of government right. I got a few questions wrong, Ishoul have got.  like Clarence Darrow and Cortez.  

[Browncoat]

No clue for FJ tonight.  In fact, I had no idea for any portion of the clue.  

I did, at least, get supplement, quiet, Belle, mustangs, and Emerson.

[SoMuchTV]

57 minutes ago, 853fisher said:

The clue about A1 Steak Sauce having a song title mentioning the Woah dance was gobbledygook to me, but while I usually crave knowledge, I'm just fine with that, I don't think I need to know any more.  Some things are better left as mysteries.

I just laughed at every point on that one (the clue, the answer, did anyone guess?) because I had no idea and I’m not ashamed of that!

[ABay]

"Wow, there was a German statesman named B-52?" was my first thought for FJ

[Prevailing Wind]

FJ: I guessed Fokker.

[853fisher]

23 minutes ago, ABay said:

"Wow, there was a German statesman named B-52?" was my first thought for FJ

You jest, but there I was like a jerk trying to think what the B stood for, and whether that could be the second president of the Weimar Republic. 😉  I think I might've had a chance if it had occurred to me that they were asking for the name of an individual aircraft rather than a type, because there are only so many people know with a name like the Hindenburg, the Spirit of St. Louis, etc.  As it is, I was stuck on looking for a type.  I decided de Havilland was obviously not German, so I said Sikorsky, just for want of anything better.

[BuckeyeLou]

For FJ, I guessed Messerschmidt...thinking of an Airplane,  not a dirigible. 

[shapeshifter]

I knew “Peace and Quiet” probably because being a TS gave me that extra second. 

[zoey1996]

2 hours ago, 853fisher said:

The clue about A1 Steak Sauce having a song title mentioning the Woah dance was gobbledygook to me, but while I usually crave knowledge, I'm just fine with that, I don't think I need to know any more.  Some things are better left as mysteries

I heard it as “whoa” and still had no idea.  Totally missed FJ as well.

[Bastet]

I like John's story about the clerk doing a little dance at getting to do marriage licenses for same-sex couples. 

Jared's reaction when the Mary Higgins Clark answer to his missed DD was revealed, because I just knew he was going to kick himself over not thinking of her. 

The quiet TS really surprised me, as did cha-cha, shot in the arm, supplement, and Ralph Waldo Emerson to lesser degrees.

I ran the legal, stronger, history, and Croatia categories in the first round and only missed one dance (the woah TS stumped me too; never heard of it), but missed three in What Doesn't Kill Us.  In DJ, I ran math, government, and F words, but I missed some authors and sculptures and was terrible with the synonym roles, only getting three.  I correctly guessed FJ, but was not at all confident in that guess.

[Clanstarling]

13 hours ago, 853fisher said:

I like John and hope he continues to succeed.  I think DC was the 7th state/territory in which gay couples could be married.  It's astounding that so much changed in such a relatively short stretch of time on that subject.  I know many heavily tattooed people but rarely see them on game shows etc., so while it wasn't his day, Jared felt familiar to me somehow.

I thought he looked like a better looking Ricky Gervais
 

12 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

FJ: I guessed Fokker.

I guessed Fokker, Mr. Starling guessed Messerschmidt. We even ran the recording back to see the wording of the clue - and were "okay, that's fair." I'm starting to get worried, so far no FJs this week 😒

[Katy M]

13 hours ago, ABay said:

"Wow, there was a German statesman named B-52?" was my first thought for FJ

Boeing the 52nd?

 

[ABay]

Once I clued in to aircarft rather than airplane, I thought they wanted the kind (Zeppelin) not a specific vessel (Hindenburg).

[bad things are bad]

I thought Zeppelin too, but my husband came up with Hindenburg, and he generally sucks at Jeopardy. I overthought it. 

[rubaco]

Seriously, those people don't know the Gordon Lightfoot song?! They need to hang out on this board.

I'm a fan of this champ because I'm a sucker for dimples.

[ams1001]

Gah, I suck this week.

The only category I ran was Title Instruments. I got no more than three in any other category. And not one DD. 😑

[chitowngirl]

The return of The Edmund Fitzgerald!

[Browncoat]

Oh good grief.  Walt Disney never entered my mind, but he seems so obvious in retrospect.  It has been a bad week for me in terms of FJ!

But I did get the TS of pale, edifice, bullet, Google, Lister, Superior, Concordia, and Andrea Doria.  

That woman reading the clues was slower than Oprah.

[Katy M]

I said Orson WElles, but then luckily changed to Walt Disney at the last minute just b/c he won a lot.

I got the ts of Lonestar (which I only got b/c I was talking to my mom on the phone about an hour ago and she mentioned it), Pele, edifice, Google, Lister and Andrea Doria.