Jeopardy! Season 37 (2020-2021)

[ams1001]

Is it bad that I was rooting for Ollie for the accent?

[Katy M]

FJ was an instaget.

I got the ts of Charles Perrault, Slave, and nuclear.

I got the entire category of orial right

[Browncoat]

I had no idea for FJ, and I knew I wouldn't know it as soon as I saw the category.  Any history, and I'm going to bet zero.

I rooted for Ollie, too, for the accent.  

And I only got two TS -- 51 and Afghanistan.  

[853fisher]

I was disappointed nobody knew the Buddhas of Bamiyan.  I find their story fascinating and am on the library's waiting list for a book about them.  It's been very thoughtless of my neighbors to spend their found time these days reading things I want too. 😉

3 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

I had never heard of Magic: The Gathering.

It is very popular among other self-described nerds around my age (I am in my late 20s), but it has never been to my taste.  I prefer more traditional board, card, and parlor games.  Having successfully avoided role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons for years, I recently participated in one over Zoom to humor some fraternity brothers.  I loved the company but the game just wasn't for me.  At least with the trading card games like M:TG I can say I just don't have a deck, but I don't know what I'll do if someone offers to lend me one or something.  I absolutely understand the appeal, it just doesn't reach me.

[M. Darcy]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

Is it bad that I was rooting for Ollie for the accent?

Me too! 

I was surprised they all missed FJ - I thought it was easy. 

[shapeshifter]

19 hours ago, GreekGeek said:

New champ reminded me a bit of Leonard on The Big Bang Theory (in looks, not personality).

I didn’t see it until you mentioned it, @GreekGeek, but then I kept seeing Johnny Galecki/Leonard Hoffstedder every time the camera showed contestant/champ Michael Colton (“screen writer”!) tonight. Especially when he smiles. 
 

I got nuclear and Afghanistan, and yelled “Mothra!” before the contestants finally got it 
––and Porgy & Bess ––never seen the opera, but know “Summertime” (“and the livin’ is easy / Fish are jump in’ / And the cotton is high…”) ––sang it as a lullaby to all my babies.

Edited February 27, 2021 by shapeshifter

[ams1001]

Just now, shapeshifter said:

and yelled “Mothra!”

I thought Mothra! in the voice of the guy who says it in "Two By Two" from the Book of Mormon soundtrack (heard the song on my way home yesterday).

[Mindthinkr]

7 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

Book of Mormon

Loved that. Saw it twice on Broadway. 
 

I was happy enough with my game tonight and I am tired (first vaccine). I came up with 51, Afghanistan, the DD of Porgy and Bess, nuclear, all of the medical abbreviations and 4 out of the 5 Opera clues. I had no clue for DJ. Good for all of you who got the asterisk clue. 

[GreekGeek]

I knew Oxford, Perrault, slave, and blackball. FJ was something I vaguely remembered: 3 names, could it be the XYZ Affair?

I also was rooting for Ollie, especially after he owned that opera category. It’s great when a contestant isn’t terrified by it. I’m also pleased that they stopped calling it “The Dreaded Opera Category.”

[Bastet]

I'm surprised (and a little disturbed) 51 was a TS.  Slave and blackball I also would not have predicted to stump them all.  But another good game, although I was rooting for Syed to continue his comeback and win the whole thing.

I could have sat here until I died and not come up with Magic: The Gathering or Shiva, but with more time I'd have come up with Oxford.  Those were my three misses in the first round -- if I don't count the baseball nicknames category, all of which I knew, but half of which I couldn't get out of my mouth before Syed answered so quickly; he dominated the hell out of that category.

In DJ, I was terrible in opera, missing three, and even worse in Large & in Charge, not knowing any and only correctly guessing one (Jabba the Hutt).  But I ran the other categories.

FJ took some thinking, but I got it in time.  I'll have to go back and look, but I feel like that happened several times this week.

[Prevailing Wind]

I thought FJ was easy, but then, my email address is xyz@...

Once they mentioned The Anvil Chorus, I paid less attention due my singing.  The cats were glad when I quit.

I got all the "same name cities," pre-guessing Portland/Portland

[Driad]

In case anyone wonders how Portland, Oregon, got its name ... each of the two founders wanted to name it after his home town: Boston, Mass., and Portland, Maine.  So they flipped a coin.

[Cotypubby]

On 2/25/2021 at 9:40 PM, Mario500 said:

(suspects "Turbulence" (or "turbulence") was an acceptable possible response due to its connection to "Turbulent" (or "turbulent"))

Doesn’t matter what you suspect. Again, turbulence would not have been an acceptable possible response because it did not fit the category. The answer had to start with and end with T. Turbulence does not end with T. I also heard him say turbulence. If the judges heard “turbulence” he would have been ruled incorrect so either they missed it, or they rewatched it and judged that he actually did say “turbulent.”

[Cotypubby]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

I'm surprised (and a little disturbed) 51 was a TS.  Slave and blackball I also would not have predicted to stump them all.

I guessed Slave because it seemed to fit the clue, but it was a high value question and Slave seemed to easy an answer and it would be something trickier. Not sure I would have rang in had I been on the show. I wonder if the contestants thought the same thing. 

Not one iota of a clue on FJ. I could have stared at that for days and never come up with the right answer. All I could think of was the Dreyfus Affair. 

I was also rooting for Ollie because of his accent and because of his nice outfit!

[Trey]

Not a great game for me but I enjoyed watching it.  The contestants seemed better than average.  I loved seeing Syed running the baseball nickname category and Ollie's interview was very amusing.

I knew about the XYZ affair but it did not come to me.  Nothing came to me so no FJ for me.

The Jeopardy! curse didn't kill Mr. Potato Head but it sort of sideswiped him - just this week it was announced on the news that he will no longer be Mr. Potato Head but just Potato Head.  Carrying things a little too far imo.

Edited February 27, 2021 by Trey

[853fisher]

4 hours ago, Trey said:

The Jeopardy! curse didn't kill Mr. Potato Head but it sort of sideswiped him - just this week it was announced on the news that he will no longer be Mr. Potato Head but just Potato Head.

Initial reports definitely indicated the toy would just be Potato Head going forward.  It made sense to me: plastic is cheap enough that they could put two mouths, one with a mustache and one with lipstick, both the bowler and the purse, etc in each box and make some of that expense back by having to manage only one SKU.  Maybe I just had odd friends, but we tended to mix and match accessories anyway and have silly fun however we wanted.  Then it was stated a day or two later that Hasbro intends to continue producing Mr. and Mrs. as well as the neutral Potato Head set, so it seems it was much ado about nothing.

I am generally sympathetic to ideas that push back against the binary notions of "boys' toys" and "girls' toys" some perceive, but I think in this case they overplayed their hand in search of publicity and ended up looking silly when they seemed to quickly walk back most of their initial comments.  I don't know anyone who thought anthropomorphic potatoes being presented as a stereotypically male and female married couple was a serious problem needing to be corrected either.  But this whole affair has gotten me thinking about Potato Heads for the first time since the last Toy Story movie, so perhaps they've achieved what they wanted to.  More than anything else I feel guilty for enjoying fries last night.

Edited February 27, 2021 by 853fisher
fleshed it out a little more

[ams1001]

12 hours ago, Cotypubby said:

Not one iota of a clue on FJ. I could have stared at that for days and never come up with the right answer. All I could think of was the Dreyfus Affair. 

I thought of that too but realized it was not the right time frame. I feel like I vaguely knew there was such a thing as the XYZ affair but I couldn't have told you the first thing about it.

[Clanstarling]

On 2/25/2021 at 5:20 PM, Prevailing Wind said:

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/march+to+(the+beat+of)+a+different+drummer

I first guessed Somalia, knew it wasn't right, but I was geographically close. I sort of sensed Eritrea was involved, but didn't get far enough in my thinking before time ran out. My excuse is I got my first Pfizer Covid vaccine today.  Bwaahahahaha (That had nothing to do with it.)  I'm not liking MR. He's got one level on his amplifier - he's always on...well, not eleven, but maybe nine?

 

I also sensed Eritrea was involved, but went completely blank on which country was impacted.

On 2/25/2021 at 5:06 PM, Browncoat said:

I had no idea for FJ.  In my defense, the countries in Africa are not the same now as they were when I was in middle school.

Maybe that's why I didn't remember either!

16 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

––and Porgy & Bess ––never seen the opera, but know “Summertime” (“and the livin’ is easy / Fish are jump in’ / And the cotton is high…”) ––sang it as a lullaby to all my babies.

"Summertime" was Mr. Starling's signature song in the band he was in. So it was a no brainer for us.

4 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

It is amazing to me that Dungeons & Dragons is still popular.  That role-playing games was popular way back when I was in high school more than two decades ago.

It was already gaining popularity when I was in college (it was created in 1974). So it's been popular for a very long time. I never played it, but my kids (in their late 20s and early 30s) are still playing it.

[Prevailing Wind]

Mr. Potato Head became dead to me once they created a plastic potato and accessories with no sharp points so you could stick 'em into a REAL potato.  America in the 50s =  Land O'Plenty - we could waste food by sticking facial features on it.  Nobody ever thought of sticking ourselves with the sharply-pointed features.

[HissyFit]

Modern potatoes are bred to be fairly uniform in size and shape. Good for cooking but boring as cheap toy bodies. Decades ago, my brother and I would fight over misshapen spuds that would make unusual characters. I remember a particularly gnarly favorite we played with until it began to sprout. Usually, before they were that far gone, they were boiled, chunked, and fed to the dogs. No waste.

[Miss Anne Thrope]

As an adult one of our more frustrating experiences is planting potatoes and at the end of the season digging them up.  You never know what you're going to get until you dig them up.  (Still, we plant them every year, so yeah - it is fun.  In a torturous kind of way.)

WRT Final Jeopardy!, I went with South Sudan (which is landlocked) and was very wrong. Must study African geography more often.  Worked late Friday so missed FJ, which I would have guessed correctly. Oh well.

Edited February 28, 2021 by Miss Anne Thrope

[Trey]

2 hours ago, Miss Anne Thrope said:

As an adult one of our more frustrating experiences is planting potatoes and at the end of the season digging them up.  You never know what you're going to get until you dig them up.  (Still, we plant them every year, so yeah - it is fun.  In a torturous kind of way.)

We plant potatoes mostly to be dug up early for "new" potatoes.  This way we avoid losing the potatoes to the weeds in the late summer.

Yes, I do watch Jeopardy!.

[PaulaO]

I bet negative whenever FJ! is pre 1900-history, or world capitals, or Africa.  Negative betting means I get the money I wagered when I answer incorrectly.

[853fisher]

Was the returning champ wearing a zippered undershirt?  There was something odd going on around his collar.

Having read that he often records the intros at his home studio, I was surprised to see Johnny Gilbert in-studio under the circumstances.

Those who work with him have only nice things to say, and he has to be a fairly savvy guy to have gotten to where he is, but Mike is coming off as almost a little doofy to me at times.  I still think he's doing fine filling in on what sounds like short notice, but while some of his comments between clues are interesting, others are obvious and silly.  "That would be roughing it, being avalanched in your stagcoach!"  We got the joke, Mike.

The London Monopoly category was fun.  I think I could've gotten 5/5 just from learning about London over the years, but I recently decided to really splurge and spend a few bucks to get boards from around the world and other bonuses for the Monopoly and Clue games on my phone.  All that money I usually spend at the movies has to go somewhere! 😉 Anyway, it's been the UK version for me for a few weeks now.  Lucky break.

Edited March 2, 2021 by 853fisher

[Browncoat]

1 hour ago, 853fisher said:

Was the returning champ wearing a zippered undershirt?  There was something odd going on around his collar.

I think it was his microphone.

I had no problem translating the title of the book in FJ, but that didn't help me in the slightest with actually being able to come up with a response.  

I did get the surprising TS of space shuttle -- I mean, they were holding a model of a space shuttle in the photo!  I also got CIA.

[Katy M]

I got FJ right.

the only missed clue I got was CIA.

And I got the entire category of tv right.  I'm totally an '80s kid.  I rock '80s pop culture.

Just now, Browncoat said:

I did get the surprising TS of space shuttle -

they might have thought they wanted a specific shuttle--Challenger, Columbia, Endeavor, etc.  I, meanwhile, confidently answered Gemini, because there were exactly 2 of them.

[Prevailing Wind]

I though the FAA answer was logical, given Dulles Airport. I guess I need to go look up if it was named for Alan or John Foster Dulles.

I got FJ because of the "many islands" mentioned in the clue, otherwise I was thinking "South Pacific." I noticed "many islands" just in time to write it down.  The nationality rhyme time should have been easier for me than it was.  I love any category with "Road Trip" in it.

[ams1001]

3 minutes ago, Katy M said:

they might have thought they wanted a specific shuttle--Challenger, Columbia, Endeavor, etc.  I, meanwhile, confidently answered Gemini, because there were exactly 2 of them.

That's what I was thinking; my first thought was Challenger.

I immediately focused on "many islands" in FJ (since I wasn't going to be translating the title given) so it was an instaget.

[Mindthinkr]

22 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

That's what I was thinking; my first thought was Challenger.

Same here. There were just a few TSs tonight. It really was a good competitive game. I ran a few categories and thought I was doing well until I missed FJ. 

[PBnJay]

Did Mike Richards say "good for you" to a contestant during the interviews? lol. Way to send a tribute to Alex. I got FJ since the clue referenced southern islands. Hooray for all those years of French classes.

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, Katy M said:

they might have thought they wanted a specific shuttle

That has to be what happened; there's no way none of the three recognized that as a space shuttle, so they must have been trying to come up with which specific shuttle was first (Columbia).

I thought the hunter-gatherer clue was too easy for a DD in DJ.

In the first round, I missed Cards Against Humanity (never heard of it), but got everything else.  In DJ, I joined the contestants in being stumped by Roughing It and cargo cults, and I also didn't know Flavian or Book of the Dead, but was otherwise still on fire (thanks in part to several lucky guesses).  And FJ was an instaget.  So, while the perfect game still eludes me, I'm off to a great start this week.

[Ailianna]

For The Book of the Dead, do you think they were already prepared to accept the formal title, The Book of Going Forth by Day? That was my first answer and then I went back to the more commonly known title.

[DrSpaceman73]

I was on the right track but for some reason thought micronesia.  

Duh....no, polynesia. 

 

[Clanstarling]

31 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

I was on the right track but for some reason thought micronesia.  

Duh....no, polynesia.

Did the same thing (went with micro because islands are small in that region - or so I tell myself). When Mr. Starling said Polynesia - I knew I was wrong. Oh well.

Overall, I did pretty well on the boards, it's just FJ keeps killing me each game. Sigh...

 

[Trey]

1 hour ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

I was on the right track but for some reason thought micronesia.  

Duh....no, polynesia. 

 

I also said micronesia.  Did not lead to polynesia.

My only ts was CIA.

Sometimes I'm just more of a spectator than a player🤨

[MoreCoffeePlease]

The new winner is unemployed, so his winnings are a godsend to him. (Look for a tweet from the Jeopardy account.)  I like him, especially his spiffy attire. I hope he goes on a long winning streak.

[853fisher]

I wouldn't mind more FJs I have the answers for 😉 but I've been finding them very interesting lately.  I kept going through different countries with which we have major relationships and ruling them out because I knew their PMs turned over between the dates given.  I ended up with India's Modi because, although I thought he had been elected in the past 5-10 years, I wasn't as sure he was wrong as I was about others.  Neither Israel nor Netanyahu crossed my mind, but I'm sure I would've ruled them out since I could remember other PMs in my lifetime.  Very sneaky of him to have been out of office for a decade between his first and second terms!

The stabile question reminded me of Mrs. Foley, the art teacher at our parochial school, who designated an area of her classroom "Calder's Corner."  Museums were cleared to reopen in my county today and I read that one will have a Calder exhibition.  Kismet!

Edited March 3, 2021 by 853fisher

[Prevailing Wind]

Today's current champion... https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0819946/

 

[Katy M]

I had no idea on FJ.  I said Justin trudeau, but knew it would be wrong.

I got the ts of Kailauea (which I'm sure I spelled wrong), Kennedy, Filet-o-Fish, load and upload (although I think he should have been given a "we need two words".  Alex had done that before), Philip, and fudge.

 

[M. Darcy]

I liked the Robin Hood category a lot. It took me a second but I got FJ. 

[secnarf]

I was actually yelling JFK at the TV - it was literally the only presidential birthplace I knew! (Though I did figure out van Buren after a few seconds).

Didn't get FJ, but I thought Tony Blair (UK is not part of the EU but still part of the continent of Europe?) and Fidel Castro (can't imagine him addressing Congress once, let alone 3 times) were not fantastic guesses. Not that I had anything better to offer.

[shapeshifter]

I knew Kilauea because Mom and Dad lived on its slope for the last 30 years of their 67-year marriage. And I knew JFK because Mom was his biggest fan. 
 

Like Jon, I ran the guitar category and thought it was because he was from my generation, but it turns out he’s in the music profession. 

ETA: I got Singapore.

Edited March 3, 2021 by shapeshifter

[GreekGeek]

56 minutes ago, secnarf said:

I was actually yelling JFK at the TV - it was literally the only presidential birthplace I knew! (Though I did figure out van Buren after a few seconds).

Didn't get FJ, but I thought Tony Blair (UK is not part of the EU but still part of the continent of Europe?) and Fidel Castro (can't imagine him addressing Congress once, let alone 3 times) were not fantastic guesses. Not that I had anything better to offer.

I was surprised by the JFK TS also. I knew filet o fish and Philip II as well, but was stumped by FJ. I thought of Nelson Mandela, though I was pretty sure he was dead by 2015. (I looked it up and it was 2013.)

That “up” category should have been explained better. 

[shapeshifter]

14 minutes ago, GreekGeek said:

That “up” category should have been explained better. 

Seriously. Would Alex have given an example, or…?  
Anyway, now all y’all know how I feel about at least a couple of categories in every game.

[Browncoat]

I said Trudeau for tonight's FJ, knowing it was likely not correct.  With "non-European" in the clue, I tried to think of something in East Asia, then in North America -- the Middle East never occurred to me. 

I got Kilauea, because it's been in the news recently, and the surprising TS of Kennedy, along with Filet-o-Fish, load and upload, and cathode.  I wasn't sure on cathode -- the clue seemed weird to me and I couldn't decide if they wanted something more specific than just cathode.  

I didn't like one of the up clues -- I'm pretty sure uppity does not mean snobbish.  Or, I should say that I've never heard it used to mean snobbish.

[Bastet]

Between "groundbreaker" and the year, the Jackie Robinson TS really surprised me.  I was also a bit surprised by JFK (I didn't specifically know that's where he was born, but Brookline = MA = JFK went through my head pretty quickly), Kilauea, filet-o-fish, and fudge (just because they had so much extra time).

I loved the "Up" category; I enjoy those type of clues.  But I got off to a horrible start in the first round, only getting two right in Guitars (tuning and neck).  Thankfully, the only other one I missed was Van Buren.

In DJ, though, I didn't run a single category.  I joined the contestants in being stumped by Philip II, and also missed another one in that category (the sci-fi author I didn't write down).  Like them, I was stumped by Navoo, and missed another one in colonies, too (Singapore).  I missed one each all the rest.

But I got FJ after some thought.

[chessiegal]

32 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I didn't like one of the up clues -- I'm pretty sure uppity does not mean snobbish.  Or, I should say that I've never heard it used to mean snobbish.

That's the only way I've ever heard it used.

Quote

uppity

adjective Informal.

affecting an attitude of inflated self-esteem; haughty; snobbish.

 

[SoMuchTV]

58 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I didn't like one of the up clues -- I'm pretty sure uppity does not mean snobbish.  Or, I should say that I've never heard it used to mean snobbish.

 

24 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

That's the only way I've ever heard it used.

 

I’ve only ever heard uppity to mean acting above one’s station (in the opinion of the speaker). And I’ve only ever heard it followed by one word which I will definitely not repeat here. Maybe it’s a regional thing. 
 

Seems a little tone deaf to be using in a Jeopardy clue, but again, maybe it’s regional. 

Edited March 3, 2021 by SoMuchTV
Further thoughts

[ams1001]

13 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

I’ve only ever heard uppity to mean acting above one’s station (in the opinion of the speaker). And I’ve only ever heard it followed by one word which I will definitely not repeat here. Maybe it’s a regional thing. 

That's what I thought. I don't know if they're still in print but there was a series of books called Uppity Women (of The New World, of Medieval Times...). (Pretty sure they were in the bargain section when I worked in the bookstore years ago.)

[SoMuchTV]

1 minute ago, ams1001 said:

That's what I thought. I don't know if they're still in print but there was a series of books called Uppity Women (of The New World, of Medieval Times...). (Pretty sure they were in the bargain section when I worked in the bookstore years ago.)

Lol. Maybe “uppity” has been reclaimed. I can only think of ‘70’s era SNL and Richard Pryor’s job interview sketch. I’m not sure if uppity was one of the words but it sure seems like it could have been.