Jeopardy! Season 37 (2020-2021)

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

Wow -- when a new reply is posted, that poster's avatar shows up really really big at the bottom of my screen. 

I hope you enjoy my dog face looking back at you all big and everything.

Shout out to my Prison Break peeps, we were the $2000 clue today. I miss you guys.

31 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

They're still working out some glitchiness....

How dare you call me "some glitchiness."

[ams1001]

17 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

I hope you enjoy my dog face looking back at you all big and everything.

Sadly, sometimes it only shows the top of the avatar at the bottom of my screen (but it's covering up the notification bar so I don't know what it's trying to tell me) so I only saw the top of your dog head.

[saber5055]

2 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

so I only saw the top of your dog head.

That's all you need to see to give a pup some head pats. :-))

[ABay]

8 hours ago, Grundoon59 said:

Always a treat to hear W&M as a clue/answer.  So many happy memories for this proud grad!  My favorite Harvard vs., William and Mary moment is from the musical 1776 when Adams and Jefferson are debating whether inalienable rights should be used in the Declaration.  Adams tries to win the point with announcing he was a Harvard grad.  Jefferson shoots back that he attended William and Mary to considerable response from the other delegates and Adams backs down.

And then Adams says, outside Jefferson's hearing, that he'll just speak to the printer later. He was obnoxious and disliked, you know.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

...So-so night.  Couple boneheaded answers, though. I said JJ Wyatt instead of JJ watt and hassock instead of cassock.  I need a game show called close enough.

I'll join you in participating from home on "Close Enough," LOL.

 

 

[GreekGeek]

That was a good game, with three evenly matched players. New champ seems like fun; I liked his Blarney Stone story, and it’s always cool to hear a New Englander say “lobstah.”

I knew arroz con pollo, the Solomon Islands, taverna, Actium, and the face that launched a thousand ships. For FJ I said rhinoceros horn, and I wondered if that would have been an acceptable answer.

[Cotypubby]

3 hours ago, 853fisher said:

I haven't heard of Voya (or financial planning, if you were to look at my accounts), but I too have felt like I recognize him, although I haven't seen any of his IMDB credits.  I found a CV, but his commercial credits are available only by request.  How very thoughtless.

I also feel like he’s so familiar! He looks a lot like Paul Giamatti as well, so that might be it, cause I haven’t seen anything on his IMDb page.

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

They're still working out some glitchiness....

 

Yeah, I can’t see anyone’s usernames when reading on my phone. They’re covered by a white box. Hope they get it all sorted soon.

[j5cochran]

59 minutes ago, ABay said:

And then Adams says, outside Jefferson's hearing, that he'll just speak to the printer later. He was obnoxious and disliked, you know.

"I know that, sir!"

[853fisher]

I liked Kelly's New England accent too.  Between listening to him and Gina McCarthy, Biden's climate czar, today and starting the Netflix series about the art theft at the Gardner Museum last night, I've really felt like I was in Bahston.  I wonder if many are kissing the Blarney Stone these days?  It would have been more of the feat he made it sound like in the days when you had to be held by the ankles and dangled from a height.

If you, like me, wondered what "Cayman Brac" meant, "brac" is a Gaelic word for a bluff like the one that dominates the island's topography.  I sheepishly admit that the kaffiyehs with a "red and white check" design made me think of a checkmark, so it's no surprise that I ended up confused there.  It wasn't a great game for me overall.  I did laugh at the "hot springs aat this city" clue for Aachen.  You can bet I was rolling my eyes at the typo before I was chastened when the correct response came out.

I imagine Mike has some interesting stories to tell, but that interview was tragic.  "You've done 70 national commercials?"  "Yeah, I've been lucky enough to make my living doing commercials!"  "Good luck today!  Well, Monica, choose again."  I'm sure I heard a conspicuous edit in there.  Perhaps a followup question led him to name a company and the J! team didn't want to include that?  It's always jarring when two tell a story and the third gives a sentence.  I can't blame guest hosts for that: this section was ropey at times even with Alex at the helm, and I'm sure sometimes it's like getting water from a stone.

35 minutes ago, GreekGeek said:

For FJ I said rhinoceros horn, and I wondered if that would have been an acceptable answer.

I'm afraid they would likely not have accepted that, because the clue asked specifically for "this region named for its resemblance..."

[Bastet]

26 minutes ago, 853fisher said:

I did laugh at the "hot springs aat this city" clue for Aachen.  You can bet I was rolling my eyes at the typo before I was chastened when the correct response came out.

I've been to Aachen, but, reading that clue on the archive, I still took a beat to realize "aafter" and "aat" were hints, not typos, before saying, "Oh!  Aachen."

[zoey1996]

 

15 hours ago, HelenBaby said:

Isn’t he the guy who’s in those Voya commercials for financial planning? 

13 hours ago, 853fisher said:

I haven't heard of Voya (or financial planning

Voya have the orange squirrels and rabbits in their ads.  https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7iu9/voya-financial-squirrel  https://www.ispot.tv/ad/INBI/voya-financial-best-vacation-ever

[zoey1996]

On 4/20/2021 at 2:58 PM, saber5055 said:

The new champ has a pretty full IMDB page.

Thanks for that! I've never seen anything that's listed for Mike.

[Mindthinkr]

It was a lackluster night for me. All I got was How to Get Away with Murder. I’d never heard of the Horn of Africa. Still I enjoyed the close game. 

[shapeshifter]

29 minutes ago, Mindthinkr said:

All I got was How to Get Away with Murder.

That TS surprised me.

[MrAtoz]

16 hours ago, HelenBaby said:

Isn’t he the guy who’s in those Voya commercials for financial planning? 

I think it's TD Ameritrade, not Voya.  If it's the same guy, he plays a financial planner.  See this commercial:  https://www.ispot.tv/ad/nInc/td-ameritrade-kale-zero-commissions

There are a whole series of those, so (if that's him) it would certainly be the kind of ongoing national campaign that would give an actor a nice steady paycheck.

[ams1001]

2 minutes ago, MrAtoz said:

I think it's TD Ameritrade, not Voya.  If it's the same guy, he plays a financial planner.  See this commercial:  https://www.ispot.tv/ad/nInc/td-ameritrade-kale-zero-commissions

There are a whole series of those, so (if that's him) it would certainly be the kind of ongoing national campaign that would give an actor a nice steady paycheck.

According to the info section, the actor is named Jim Conroy. He does look a lot like him though...

[MrAtoz]

15 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

According to the info section, the actor is named Jim Conroy. He does look a lot like him though...

Huh.  All these years I've been looking at commercials on that site, and I've somehow never noticed that it lists the actors' names down below. 

[Clanstarling]

19 hours ago, 853fisher said:

The trick I was taught, over 13 years of Catholic education, was that if we're talking about just one Gospel that is different from the others, it's John: the others are "synoptic," but John diverges in structure and narrative.

Now that's a useful bit of information. Thanks!

18 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Or as I would phrase it, "From your lips to the gods."

Or a more secular version might be: "From your lips to the ears of the producers and writers."

13 hours ago, ABay said:

And then Adams says, outside Jefferson's hearing, that he'll just speak to the printer later. He was obnoxious and disliked, you know.

I just used this line recently. I forget why, but I think we were watching something about the founding fathers and John Adams was being talked about. I loved 1776.

I got Anjou partly because of phonics, and partly because I've been buying a lot of  Anjou pears these days.

Our daughter joined us to watch Jeopardy, and she knows all things mythological, so I was beat on the ones I knew (the majority).

I did pretty well overall. Almost ran a few categories. I don't keep track, I just look at J! Archive when I post.

Geography is my worst subject (well one of my worst) and I would have bet absolutely nothing in FJ. But much to my amazement, not only did I get it, but it was an instaget!

 

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by Clanstarling

[saber5055]

12 hours ago, 853fisher said:

 I wonder if many are kissing the Blarney Stone these days?  It would have been more of the feat he made it sound like in the days when you had to be held by the ankles and dangled from a height.

No one is, the castle and stone closed in March 2020. So people have to get their gift of eloquence another way now. I think the present way of kissing the stone is for wimps, I liked the old way of being hung by your feet over the wall.

[Trey]

An okay game for me.  I got the ts's or missed DDs of arroz con pollo, Anjou, and the face that launched a thousand ships.  I had all the words for How to Get Away with Murder but they were all garbled.

Pretty much an instaget FJ.

[shapeshifter]

59 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

Almost ran a few categories. I don't keep track, I just look at J! Archive when I post.

Same here, as seems to be my ability. I usually miss at least one per category --more if it's sports. Heh, I almost feel about sports categories the way those upthread feel about bible categories.

I am not quick enough to keep track and also follow the game. As it is, my mind wants to wander after each clue to some related thing or follow a squirrel of a memory.

I have been recording each Jeopardy show on my old DVR because if I don't, Murphy's Law seems to accurately dictate that I will get a call from a daughter or old friend, but if I record it, there will be no interruptions. 
So I could watch it after it airs and pause after each question to note my answer, but that seems a bit like cheating and also way too much work.

 

 

 

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Same here, as seems to be my ability. I usually miss at least one per category --more if it's sports. Heh, I almost feel about sports categories the way those upthread feel about bible categories.

I am not quick enough to keep track and also follow the game. As it is, my mind wants to wander after each clue to some related thing or follow a squirrel of a memory.

I have been recording each Jeopardy show on my old DVR because if I don't, Murphy's Law seems to accurately dictate that I will get a call from a daughter or old friend, but if I record it, there will be no interruptions. 
So I could watch it after it airs and pause after each question to note my answer, but that seems a bit like cheating and also way too much work.

 

 

 

We record ours on our old Tivo. For similar reasons. Also, when we watch it, we don't have to wait for commercials. We can either fast forward (if it's still in the process of recording) or skip the commercials entirely if it recorded the entire show. Plus we can go back if we think we heard something wrong.

 

[Roaster]

Ugh, Dan, wagering.

When it comes to FJ you need to Go Big or Go Home.  You're going home.

(Like the other two contestants, I said 12 Years a Slave.  Dan knew the right answer but missed his chance to be the new champ by not betting it all.)

[Vgmastr]

Man, that FJ was a big bowl of fail.  The clue specifically mentioned a title character and two of the three contestants name a movie that doesn't have a character in the title.  Then, what was that wager?  Did he not do the math right and realize he had exactly half of the leader's total or did he just give up and play for second?  I really think proper betting strategies needs to be part of the contestant exam.

[ams1001]

Round 1 - Ran The Netherlands and Big Business, missed one each in Music Scales and Words & Phrases, got TS of Gouda and Michener (the only one I got in Electoral College Alumni), and got the DD. 70% for the round; not too bad.

Round 2 - Ran  nothing, got no TS (I got as far as Milan but couldn't come up with Kundera), but I got both DDs. 43% for the round; ugh.

Final: Did not get. (I also thought of 12 Years a Slave but there's no character name in there so I knew it was wrong; I haven't seen either movie but they are both on my long list of things I want to watch.) 56% overall. 

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I am not quick enough to keep track and also follow the game. As it is, my mind wants to wander after each clue to some related thing or follow a squirrel of a memory.

If they go through whole categories in order, I can usually keep up with marking my grid; it's just a 1 or a 0 in an excel sheet, but sometimes I miss which clue they picked, especially when they jump around. The more they jump around the board, the more likely I am to have to go to the archive after the round is done. And I always go back to check for the triple stumpers, because I can never keep track of those. I've tried to develop a system for marking them but I can never keep up when I try.

[Katy M]

I had a pretty bad game tonight.  But I did get FJ.

I got the missed clues of Michener, rijksmuseum and Saturn.

 

[DrSpaceman73]

My god.......so stupid with wagering.   One of the worst I've ever seen.  

There was no way he was winning with that bet, gave the game away.  

[Katy M]

29 minutes ago, Vgmastr said:

Man, that FJ was a big bowl of fail.  The clue specifically mentioned a title character and two of the three contestants name a movie that doesn't have a character in the title. 

I don't know about that. A title character doesn't have to be a proper name.  Vivian is the title character in Pretty Woman.  So, I would say Solomon Northrup is the title character in 12 Years a Slave.  But, since it referenced last name, I would have gone to a movie with just a first name.

[Browncoat]

"Title character" to me means the name of a character is in the title.  Unfortunately, I came up empty for FJ tonight -- I've even seen the movie in question!  Kimberly's bet was smart, as was Kelly's bet, but damn, Dan.  What was that?

I did get Michener, Gouda, "What We Do In The Shadows" (before the incorrect guess), and protozoa.  

Kimberly's vocal fry was killing me. 

[dcalley]

Did Kelly Donohue really just say, "I provide about 90% of the value" in his two-person trivia team made of up him and his wife?! WTF!

[shapeshifter]

18 minutes ago, dcalley said:

Did Kelly Donohue really just say, "I provide about 90% of the value" in his two-person trivia team made of up him and his wife?! WTF!

He quickly added that his wife provides 90% of the value in everything else. 
 

1 hour ago, Vgmastr said:

Then, what was that wager?  Did he not do the math right and realize he had exactly half of the leader's total or did he just give up and play for second?  I really think proper betting strategies needs to be part of the contestant exam.

I understood the Marine’s wager to mean he believed he had about a 49% chance of knowing the correct response for that category. 
For me, the real WTH?!? was Kelly’s wager of $1, which would have lost him the game by $1 if the Marine had bet everything. 
I guess Kelly’s wife’s value to their team is wagering. 

[Katy M]

30 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I did get Michener, Gouda, "What We Do In The Shadows" (before the incorrect guess), and protozoa.

For protozoa, I tried to say monozygote.  I still think I need points for most creative wrong answers.

[shapeshifter]

For the category of SON, for $1200 “It's no ‘Grand Illusion’: this film director was the son of Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste,” if I had said just “Renoir,” would that have been sufficient since there isn’t another film director with that last name?

[secnarf]

1 hour ago, Vgmastr said:

Man, that FJ was a big bowl of fail.  The clue specifically mentioned a title character and two of the three contestants name a movie that doesn't have a character in the title. 

I also said 12 Years a Slave, thinking that the "slave" in title was the title character. I wasn't convinced that it would count, but couldn't think of anything else. But, there is a character referred to in the title.

Never would have come up with Django Unchained.

[DrSpaceman73]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

He quickly added that his wife provides 90% of the value in everything else. 
 

I understood the Marine’s wager to mean he believed he had about a 49% chance of knowing the correct response for that category. 
For me, the real WTH?!? was Kelly’s wager of $1, which would have lost him the game by $1 if the Marine had bet everything. 
I guess Kelly’s wife’s value to their team is wagering. 

Of course it would have but what choice did he have?   I guess you wager zero and hope it doesn't end in a tie, bit then they have that stupid tie breaker question now, toss up, so either way it's a risk.  At least with the $1 bet he knows he wins if he gets it right. If he bets zero he could know it and end up losing.  

 

As it turned out luckily for him it didn't matter. 

Edited April 24, 2021 by DrSpaceman73

[dcalley]

1 hour ago, dcalley said:

Did Kelly Donohue really just say, "I provide about 90% of the value" in his two-person trivia team made of up him and his wife?! WTF!

LOL to the Fake Jeopardy! Stories account's take: "I make my wife sit through bar trivia with me in order to stroke my ego."

[Bastet]

I can't decide if the Gouda TS surprises me, but the Amsterdam answer certainly did. 

I only ran business and The Netherlands in the first round; I missed two each in electoral college, TV characters, and music scales and one in words & phrases (I have somehow never heard "milk of human kindness" in my life).

In DJ, I ran skyscrapers and 3 O's, but missed two each in all the other categories.  (Points for consistency?  No?  Didn't think so.)

I finished off my bad game by having a total brain fart with FJ; I could not remember the character's name, so I was sitting here with "Someone Unchained" as my answer until just after time ran out, at which point it finally came to me.  Which obviously doesn't count.

[shapeshifter]

On 4/23/2021 at 10:27 PM, Bastet said:

I have somehow never heard "milk of human kindness" in my life

My father —who was born in 1923— used the phrase sarcastically, as it was apparently first used by Shakespeare (see  https://www.dictionary.com/browse/milk-of-human-kindness--the ), which I find interesting, since my father's parents didn’t come to this country and learn English until 1921. 

Edited April 26, 2021 by shapeshifter
changed "his parents" to "my father's parents" so it wouldn't be misconstrued as "Shakespeare's parents"

[Cotypubby]

Even though I knew “12 Years a Slave” was not right because that does not have a title character, my brain would not come up with another film. And it’s funny because when I saw “German dentist” I immediately thought “Christoph Waltz from that Tarantino movie!” and then convinced myself that I was mistaking that for “Inglorious Basterds.” 🤦‍♀️

Oy the middle guys wager. WTF was that? That was one of the stupidest wagers I can remember seeing on the show. He would have won if he bet to actually win the game instead of giving up and trying to get 2nd. Idiot.

[853fisher]

I tend toward the effusive, so I admire a bit of cool under pleasure.  Kelly's very casual "eh, moon for $1200?" right after his bold DD made me laugh out loud.  I sure didn't like his comment about his wife, though.  Of course I don't know them, and maybe she found the followup hilarious.  But why, of all things to say after "my wife and I do trivia nights together," would you pick, basically, "and she's really not very good"?

I had forgotten that silly business where Mr. Peanut was killed off, only to be reincarnated as a baby or something like that?  Whatever.  As long as they don't cut the corners off the Blue Diamond, my needs in nuts will continue to be met.

FJ came pretty quickly, although I wasn't sure.  A few years ago at a benefit I saw a very sexy burlesque routine to one of the songs from the soundtrack, so while I've never seen the movie, the title and one-sentence synopsis I looked up have stuck with me too.

My most interesting new fact is that Dollar Tree has 68 years of, erm, roots.  $1 in 1953 is worth $10 today, but K&K didn't become "Only $1.00" until 1986 ($2.50 today) and took the current name in 1993.  Before the "Tree" hint, five-and-dime and the letter K triggered an association with Kress.  Now there's a blast from the past!  Of course they were well-established by the 1950s.

Strange nobody had any comments on that funny wagering. ;)

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Cotypubby said:

Oy the middle guys wager. WTF was that? That was one of the stupidest wagers I can remember seeing on the show. He would have won if he bet to actually win the game instead of giving up and trying to get 2nd. Idiot

Sorry to be so stupid about a show my parents watched religiously, but if the middle guy had wagered everything and not known the answer, would he have gone home with nothing instead of $13,601? Or is it just $2K he gets to keep if he comes in 2nd?

Edited April 24, 2021 by shapeshifter

[853fisher]

2 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Sorry to be so stupid about a show my parents watched religiously, but if the middle guy had wagered everything and not known the answer, would he have gone home with nothing instead of $13,601? Or is it just $2K he gets to keep if he comes in 2nd?

Assuming the wagers and responses for the champion and the other player were the same, if the middle guy had bet everything on a wrong answer, he would have gone away with $1,000 for finishing in third place.  I didn't think it was such a stupid question.  It certainly wasn't half as stupid as that wager (sorry, Dan!). ;)

[Prevailing Wind]

5 hours ago, 853fisher said:

Before the "Tree" hint, five-and-dime and the letter K triggered an association with Kress.  Now there's a blast from the past!  Of course they were well-established by the 1950s.

I remember them! In downtown Miami, Kress was on the same side of Flagler Street as Kresge's. Woolworth's was across the street.

I must not have been paying close attention, because some of the clues/answers y'all are mentioning are not in my memory bank at all, but some of them are (like the Dollar Tree one.) Insta-Cart delivered my groceries just as the FJ answer was revealed. I wouldn't have gotten it anyway.

[shapeshifter]

7 hours ago, 853fisher said:

7 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Sorry to be so stupid about a show my parents watched religiously, but if the middle guy had wagered everything and not known the answer, would he have gone home with nothing instead of $13,601? Or is it just $2K he gets to keep if he comes in 2nd?

Expand  

Assuming the wagers and responses for the champion and the other player were the same, if the middle guy had bet everything on a wrong answer, he would have gone away with $1,000 for finishing in third place.  I didn't think it was such a stupid question.  It certainly wasn't half as stupid as that wager (sorry, Dan!). ;)

I can only surmise that Dan (military guy in the middle) somewhat like me, had a momentary lapse and thought he would take home his final score?
I had noticed since I started watching regularly after Alex died (shortly after my Mom passed) that the scores for the losers change to $2K and $1K, but I just thought: That’s odd. I was also confused about the totals for charity seeming off. 
My excuse is that when I used to watch with Mom and Dad, it was never about the money to them; it was about knowing the answers/questions.

And if Mom and Dad were a Jeopardy team (like Kelly and his wife are a trivia team) Dad would have been the first to declare that Mom provided 90% of the team’s value.  When they were in their 80s, Dad would start dinner during the commercial break and often miss some of the show so Mom wouldn’t miss any of it.

Maybe Kelly’s wife is always telling folks that he provides 90% of their team’s value, and he always pipes up that she provides 90% of the value in all of their other endeavors, so he thought it would be cute if he said it on national TV. 

 

I’m still not sure about Kelly’s strategy of the $1 wager. Maybe he felt just moderately confident about the category and didn’t want to risk a tie breaker with a more difficult category?
I’ve never seen a tie breaker. 

[Clanstarling]

12 hours ago, Katy M said:

I got the missed clues of Michener, rijksmuseum and Saturn.

I got Michener, but when it came to rijksmuseum, all I could think of was "I think there's an 'r' and a 'j'"

12 hours ago, dcalley said:

Did Kelly Donohue really just say, "I provide about 90% of the value" in his two-person trivia team made of up him and his wife?! WTF!

Yeah, that one was a puzzler. Maybe it's a standard line that his wife likes (given the 90% in other things), but it comes off as "yeah, my wife is stupid." To me anyway.

Was anyone else offended that Dickens did not get the burial he wanted?

I've never seen Django Unchained, but German Dentist got me to Christoph Waltz, who I love despite not liking Tarantino movies. And that got me to Django.

I had a decent run at the boards, but nothing close to running any individual board.

 

[HelenBaby]

23 hours ago, ams1001 said:

According to the info section, the actor is named Jim Conroy. He does look a lot like him though...

Yeah, he looks very similar and yes, I did get the company wrong. Shows how much I pay attention to the product being advertised. 

[Katy M]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

I’m still not sure about Kelly’s strategy of the $1 wager. Maybe he felt just moderately confident about the category and didn’t want to risk a tie breaker with a more difficult category?
I’ve never seen a tie breaker. 

tie breakers are all about who has the fastest finger.  Question is usually something pretty much everybody knows.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

tie breakers are all about who has the fastest finger.  Question is usually something pretty much everybody knows.

Thanks, @Katy M. Just like on Steve Harvey's Family Feud (for some reason or other, it was good TV for chemotherapy). 

So maybe Kelly was pretty sure the military guy would have a quicker trigger finger. Sounds reasonable.

Edited April 24, 2021 by shapeshifter

[saber5055]

4 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

German Dentist got me to Christoph Waltz

German dentist got me to Marathon Man, which was definitely after the Civil War. Cold Mountain got me to Civil War time but no German dentist and no title character. I like Tarantino and Waltz and would have seen the flick for them, I just don't like Jamie Foxx so I saved myself the long trip to the nearest theater. Long story short: I had nuttin'.

[dcalley]

On 4/24/2021 at 8:40 AM, shapeshifter said:

I’ve never seen a tie breaker. 

I believe this is the only one (in regular games): https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/behind-scenes/jeopardy-first-tiebreaker

On 4/23/2021 at 10:27 PM, Bastet said:

(I have somehow never heard "milk of human kindness" in my life).

The only place I've heard it is in an Indigo Girls song: https://genius.com/Indigo-girls-love-will-come-to-you-lyrics I'm not a Macbeth fan, I guess.