Jeopardy! Season 38 (2021-2022)

[853fisher]

Someone online compiled a few examples of incomplete or badly written answers accepted: these are supposed to be John Denver, Crete, and Jefferson.  "John Denve" is the most recent, from January, with the same production team we have now.  That call would not have affected the outcome of the game either way, but that can't be the standard for judgment.  My perspective has shifted a bit - now it seems to me that Sadie really did get the short end of the stick.

10 hours ago, Leeds said:

Where I live (in North America) every live performance, from poorly rehearsed and talentless kindergarten classes to poorly rehearsed and talentless professional performances, gets a standing ovation.  It's very irritating, not least because if you don't stand you're seen as a grinch, rather then someone with some standards.

No children in my life right now are old enough to perform, but I attend various professional and amateur performances regularly.  I literally cannot recall one in the last ten years that did not end in a standing ovation.  I recently read a pan of a theatrical performance, under which was a reader comment like "well I saw her play it last week and she got a standing o, so what now?"  I thought, so did the piano soloist I once saw who ground a performance to a halt because her sheets were out of order...twice!

[MrAtoz]

On 6/18/2022 at 12:02 AM, 853fisher said:

On the subject of pronunciation, it was quite right to correct "Bih-zette" for the French composer.  However, the thoroughly American English "George" that came with the correction was just as tragic.  That would be "Zhorzh," s'il vous plaît et merci.

I don't get so upset about things like that, to be honest.  We often Anglicize names from other languages.  Do you pronounce the capital of France as "Par-ee," complete with French-style R?

[Clanstarling]

Taking standing O's to small talk.

[853fisher]

2 hours ago, MrAtoz said:

I don't get so upset about things like that, to be honest.  We often Anglicize names from other languages.  Do you pronounce the capital of France as "Par-ee," complete with French-style R?

No, I don't, but if I were to say Pahree, I would pair it with Frahnce.  If Bizet was worth correcting, and I agree it was because the Anglicized pronunciation is not (to my knowledge) in common usage, Georges was also worth pronouncing the Francophone way.  That was what got my attention, more than the initial pronunciation of Bizet.  It seemed odd to “correct” half the name than add another half that was “incorrect” in the same way as the initial response. Maybe I'm mistaken and an Anglicized George is common for his name - I'll have to pay attention the next time I get to hear his music performed.

Your point about the standardization of Anglicized pronunciations for many things is still a good one, and thought-provoking to this language-lover.  When I moved to San Francisco, I knew better than to get fancy with the city's name, but I revealed myself to be a newcomer a few times with Hispanophone pronunciations of Visitacion Ave and so on.  I thought I had figured out the rule, until I told someone I was going to the Moss-cone Center.  George Moscone, God rest him, would never!

Edited June 19, 2022 by 853fisher

[MrAtoz]

5 hours ago, 853fisher said:

Your point about the standardization of Anglicized pronunciations for many things is still a good one, and thought-provoking to this language-lover.

Another point worth remembering is that even when we think we're pronouncing something the way native speakers would, we often aren't totally.  Consider the former chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.  Yes, most of us remember to pronounce her first name with a hard g, so we say Ang-uh-la rather than Anj-uh-la.  But English speakers, at least the ones I've heard, tend to pronounce her last name as Mur-kul.  In German, it's much closer to Mare-kul.

[M. Darcy]

On 6/18/2022 at 11:20 PM, proserpina65 said:

To me, Outlander is romance. 

If I remember my 90s history correctly, I think that was actually some drama over where the books should be shelved - fiction or romance.  

[SoMuchTV]

47 minutes ago, M. Darcy said:

If I remember my 90s history correctly, I think that was actually some drama over where the books should be shelved - fiction or romance.  

This comment has it all!  History!  Drama!  Fiction!  Romance!

[MrAtoz]

Just one more reason why I don't like strict genre categorizations.  So many books and movies plausibly fit into multiple categories, and that's okay.

I remember once reading a vehement (and I mean vehement, with name-calling and everything!) online argument about whether Alien is a science fiction movie or a horror movie.  What to me seems like the obvious answer--it's both--never seemed to occur to anybody.

[Clanstarling]

21 hours ago, 853fisher said:

No, I don't, but if I were to say Pahree, I would pair it with Frahnce.  If Bizet was worth correcting, and I agree it was because the Anglicized pronunciation is not (to my knowledge) in common usage, Georges was also worth pronouncing the Francophone way.  That was what got my attention, more than the initial pronunciation of Bizet.  It seemed odd to “correct” half the name than add another half that was “incorrect” in the same way as the initial response. Maybe I'm mistaken and an Anglicized George is common for his name - I'll have to pay attention the next time I get to hear his music performed.

Your point about the standardization of Anglicized pronunciations for many things is still a good one, and thought-provoking to this language-lover.  When I moved to San Francisco, I knew better than to get fancy with the city's name, but I revealed myself to be a newcomer a few times with Hispanophone pronunciations of Visitacion Ave and so on.  I thought I had figured out the rule, until I told someone I was going to the Moss-cone Center.  George Moscone, God rest him, would never!

I had relatives who pronounced El Camino Real as El Cam In O real (as in real estate). Also a local Bay Area printer got San Tomas Expressway wrong once, and sent out a flyer that read:  Santa Moss Expressway. The customer was also not very good at checking out their work. Made me laugh harder than it should have.

Pronunciation can be tricky - whether it be due to language origins, or just differences of local opinion.

1 hour ago, M. Darcy said:

If I remember my 90s history correctly, I think that was actually some drama over where the books should be shelved - fiction or romance.  

I was pissed to see it in romance - but I did understand the difficulty in identifying a genre. Maybe it should have just been put in Fiction. 

Edited June 20, 2022 by Clanstarling

[30 Helens]

On 6/19/2022 at 11:36 AM, 853fisher said:

Someone online compiled a few examples of incomplete or badly written answers accepted: these are supposed to be John Denver, Crete, and Jefferson.  "John Denve" is the most recent, from January, with the same production team we have now.  That call would not have affected the outcome of the game either way, but that can't be the standard for judgment.  My perspective has shifted a bit - now it seems to me that Sadie really did get the short end of the stick.

She may have gotten the short end of the stick, but it was still a correct ruling. Those other examples were bad calls, IMO, and I hope that anyone who lost money as a result of those rulings appealed. It should not be enough to say, “Oh, she clearly knew the answer, let’s give it to her.” Part of the challenge is knowing the answer quickly enough to write it down in time, and that should be the only standard.

[853fisher]

8 minutes ago, 30 Helens said:

She may have gotten the short end of the stick, but it was still a correct ruling. Those other examples were bad calls, IMO, and I hope that anyone who lost money as a result of those rulings appealed. It should not be enough to say, “Oh, she clearly knew the answer, let’s give it to her.” Part of the challenge is knowing the answer quickly enough to write it down in time, and that should be the only standard.

Yes, it's true that bad rulings in the past doesn't mean future rulings should be equally bad.  That's a good point.  And the precise rules as furnished to the contestants, to which the rest of us are not privy, may well have changed over time.  (It was also pointed out that the judges may have perceived an e and an r in "Denver" written over one another, since they can watch what's happening and we see only the result.)

Someone shared an example from 1988 in which "who is Clint E" was accepted for Eastwood because, as Alex said, "I think we have to accept 'Clint E' because there are very few Western stars whose first name is Clint."  [Clint Walker says hello.]  Of course I think that was a terrible ruling, so to use that as a reason why something similar should be accepted wouldn't seem to make sense.

In a way this is a blessing and a curse of Jeopardy's exceptionally well documented history.  If they make a call someone thinks is a bit off on the "$100K Pyramid," there won't be a 100-comment thread detailing every relevant clue Lois Nettleton or Nipsey Russell ever gave or exactly what Dick Clark said afterward.

[Bastet]

Sadie's answer being ruled incomplete and thus unable to be accepted seems to comport with what has been said about the rule (I'm sure there's more detail to it than has been summarized) and was thus the right call. 

But it's unfair they are inconsistent about that.  "John Denve" should not have been accepted; this is an almost exact scenario to Sadie's, only Sadie actually got a little bit of the N down, while that contestant had nothing of the R.  I assume "Jeferso" is for "Jefferson", and that should not have been accepted (leaving out an F, fine, but not leaving off the N).  I don't even know what the hell the one in the top right is supposed to be.  (From Malta being crossed out and replaced with something with five letters starting with CR, my only guess is Crete, but that looks nothing like "ete" for the rest of it.  It looks like "Cr[either o or a][upsidedowntriangle]r".  In other words, illegible.

So what's the solution?  Accept Sadie's answer, and subsequent incomplete answers, because they've set precedent via a few previous bad calls?  Or acknowledge those bad calls as such and get consistent about enforcing the rule?  I vote the latter, but that would require them to be consistent in enforcement going forward.  And, in looking back, they better examine their subconscious bias in who they let slide and who they didn't.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Bastet

[853fisher]

I have seen it suggested that contestants have at least the option to use a keyboard instead of handwriting.  I know this was done for Eddie Timanus, the blind ToC semifinalist, and I read it was also done for at least one other contestant.  (To be clear, I haven't seen anyone, least of all Sadie, claim that her ability to write the response was affected by a medical condition.)

I can think of various learning and motor disabilities that affect handwriting, as well as conditions like blindness.  There are systemic obstacles to having some of these diagnosed.  If they introduce an option like a keyboard more widely, I think it would be better to offer it to everyone for any reason or no reason than to require some sort of documentation of a specific disability.

It does seem to me that use of a keyboard could introduce its own problems as well as eliminate some present strategies.  For example, I recall Matt Amodio saying he sometimes liked to write two responses immediately and cross out the one he decided against at the last second.  And of course use of a keyboard would introduce the possibility of typos, which could be harder to correct.

While I don't believe that any big change is necessarily required, I have been interested to read some of this commentary.  I understand the argument that part of the challenge is coming up with the response and writing it quickly (except for contestants who would be unequivocally disadvantaged by that requirement), but I think I feel that need not be an essential element of this phase of the game, at least for my enjoyment.  So perhaps the use of technology here would be worth pursuing.

Edited June 20, 2022 by 853fisher

[SoMuchTV]

18 hours ago, Bastet said:

So what's the solution? 

Give them a keyboard to enter their answers?  I guess that’s crazy talk.  

ETA:  I made my comments several hours before I saw that Andy at The Jeopardy Fan site had made similar comments.  Great minds and all...  :-)

Edited June 21, 2022 by SoMuchTV
Edited after seeing other info.

[Bastet]

8 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

Give them a keyboard to enter their answers?

The fundamental question would still remain, though - if they leave off the last letter, so it's clear what they intended but they didn't finish it in time, is it acceptable?  The answer should be no, but if that contestant had typed, rather than written, "John Denve", typing vs. writing isn't the issue.

Also, it's a lot easier to make a mistake in typing than writing (hitting the wrong key, needing to backspace and correct) and maybe not faster enough (especially for those who can write in cursive, which is apparently going the way of the dodo) to make that worthwhile, so I don't know how many contestants would prefer that method.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Bastet

[SoMuchTV]

20 minutes ago, Bastet said:

The fundamental question would still remain, though - if they leave off the last letter, so it's clear what they intended but they didn't finish it in time, is it acceptable?  The answer should be no, but if that contestant had typed, rather than written, "John Denve", typing vs. writing isn't the issue.

Yeah, I know, it’s not a perfect solution. I’m just thinking it would take away some of the ambiguity and judgment calls  of handwriting. And hasn’t any contestant lately already gone through the online test, so presumably have some familiarity with entering text via a keyboard? (With accommodations as needed, of course, but that was already the case.)

[853fisher]

It was fun to see "My Melancholy Baby" mentioned.  It's one of those songs that has been covered many times.  Bill Frawley, who later played Fred Mertz, is said to have introduced it to the public in 1912 when he was in vaudeville.  Here he is singing it from an album released shortly after "I Love Lucy" ended.

[ams1001]

Not a bad first round…ran the whole right half of the board! (Horse Idioms, Chemical Compounds, and Mashed Up TV Shows*). Missed one in Air Travel and two in Ham…but only got one in Washington Slipped Here (only one I got was the Oath of Office), which kinda dragged down my score. In DJ I ran nothing…missed one Belgian and one Song, two Plays and Sadjectives, three Zodiac Signs, and four Old Names on the Map. (I guess History in general is not my friend tonight. Especially annoyed because I've read the book Worst President Ever, about Buchanan, but of course couldn't think of who came before Lincoln when I needed it.)

TSes were eustacian tube (very familiar with that one...), What We Do in the Shadows/Only Murders in the Building, electron microscope, and somber (DD)…and Les Liaisons dangereuses, assuming it would be accepted in English.

*and I haven't even seen most of the shows. Home Improvement, probably a number of eps of Touched by an Angel, and an episode of I Dream of Jeannie here and there...the more recent shows I've never watched.

Edited June 21, 2022 by ams1001

[853fisher]

Ketty had a 1 in 9 chance (because 3 of the zodiac clues had already been played) on that DD, before any of the information from the clue.  That, and the state of play, seemed to make her big bet the right call.  It's too bad it didn't work out, but I think she can hold her head high.

If Megan wins 9 games, I'll be certain she's a cat.  She's had some lucky breaks, but she's no slouch.  The coryat scores were very close today ($10,000, $10,200, and $10,400), and so were the correct answers given (16, 17, and 18).  In some ways I find this kind of game more exciting than a blowout.

[PBnJay]

I got a kick out of today's game when MB announced the DDs since I heard them in @shapeshifter's voice. Now I want Shapeshifter's recording on my tv remote so I can press it to let Shapeshifter and MB make the DD announcement at the same time. That would greatly improve my enjoyment of this show, at least while the current person is "hosting."

[Roaster]

Another good FJ wager from Megan.  Even if she hasn't racked up a lot of money, she's making for some interesting games.

[Prevailing Wind]

Zodiac sign with the most legs... "Cancer!!"  Hey, what about Scorpio? Scorpions have 8 legs, too, y'know

[Katy M]

I didn't get FJ.  I was also thinking solo and had saloon stuck in my head, which I knew wasn't right.  

I got the missed clues of eustachian, electron microscope (after thw rong answer, taurus, melancholy and somber.

I got the entire categories of WAshington and horse right.

I had a great first round and it was pretty much downhill from there, LOL.

I was actually annoyed with myself for 3 missed questions.  I used to work at a travel agency and couldn't get Midway, I just read a book about the settling of Canada and remembered it talking about a town named York, but couldn't remember where it was, and when I was a kid I had a  Woody Woodpecker comic book I must have read 1,000 times and the line "why so glum, chum, why so sad lad?" has been stuck in my head ever since and I didn't get glum.

1 minute ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Zodiac sign with the most legs... "Cancer!!"  Hey, what about Scorpio? Scorpions have 8 legs, too, y'know

Crabs have 10 legs. Which I only know because I just looked it up.  Because I was eager to give myself more points since I said Scorpio.

Edited June 21, 2022 by Katy M

[ByaNose]

I knew Aquarius because I knew the Fifth Dimension. So I was very proud of myself with my continual use of useless knowledge.

Ketty never recovered over her Double Jeopardy answer. She really should have only wagered $2000 to stay in step with Megan & Tory. And, the second Double Jeopardy just put her into a tailspin. Bummer! Megan has got to be the luckiest multi winner with the wagers she and her opponents have been posting. That said, a win is a win. She almost seemed embarrassed by it. She has a 5 Day total of $52,002. Most winners seem to have that much in 2 or 3 games but it’s not horrible and she’s a 5 Day winner and eligible for the Tournament of Chamions. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Edited June 21, 2022 by ByaNose

[GreekGeek]

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?

[chessiegal]

5 minutes ago, GreekGeek said:

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?

According to this, chomping started in the US in the 1930s.

Quote

The original phrase is, indeed, champing at the bit, but chomping at the bit emerged in America in the 1930s according to the Oxford English Dictionary and chomp has overtaken champ in common use. 

[BuckeyeLou]

31 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Zodiac sign with the most legs... "Cancer!!"  Hey, what about Scorpio? Scorpions have 8 legs, too, y'know

Scorpio was my guess too...

[DrSpaceman73]

17 minutes ago, GreekGeek said:

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?

Yes basically everyone says chomping so it's been deemed acceptable.  Even though it's technically wrong. 

She had no need to bet more than $201.  He had to miss or it didn't matter.  Still won but cost herself like $9000

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, 853fisher said:

Ketty had a 1 in 9 chance (because 3 of the zodiac clues had already been played) on that DD, before any of the information from the clue.  That, and the state of play, seemed to make her big bet the right call.  It's too bad it didn't work out, but I think she can hold her head high.

24 minutes ago, ByaNose said:

Ketty never recovered over her Double Jeopardy answer. She really should have only wagered $2000 to stay in step with Megan & Tory.

I have to agree with fisher here. Even though it didn’t work out, the odds were good for a big move here. 

[Bastet]

Archive game for me due to hockey. 

Wow, what an evenly matched game between all three right up until Ketty missed the Taurus DD near the end of DJ.  And then everyone winds up with almost nothing after FJ.

Damn TV category -- if not for that, I'd have ran the entire first round.  I missed two, which is good since I've watched zero of the ten shows, but I was getting them via cultural osmosis until the last two in the category-- I'd heard of What We Do in the Shadows, but not Only Murders in the Building, so only came up with half of it, and in the $1000 clue I'd never heard of either show so had no idea what was being referred to.

I only ran sadjectives in DJ, though.  I almost ran old names, but took so long to guess Toronto I can't give myself credit for it.  I was terrible in zodiac, missing all but Aquarius, but did okay in the rest, missing two each.

FJ was an instaguess I figured had to be correct.

[853fisher]

To make up for any time in my life I’ve been an insufferable know-it-all, I’d like to confess before God and everyone that, although I did get to eustachian in time, my initial response to the clue about the tubes involved with equalizing pressure in an airplane was “fallopian.” I realized my mistake when I couldn’t quite recall any advice along those lines in the in-flight exercises page of my usual airline’s magazine.

Edited June 21, 2022 by 853fisher

[Prevailing Wind]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

Crabs have 10 legs. Which I only know because I just looked it up.  Because I was eager to give myself more points since I said Scorpio.

Well, count me gobsmacked. I don't know why I didn't know that - when I was a kid, we lived along a canal in Miami and had land-crab holes all over the backyard. Nana's cat cornered one in the outside shower and bore a scar across his nose the rest of his long life.

[SomeTameGazelle]

I am not crazy about before-and-after categories but at least they have a linking word between two otherwise unrelated phrases. Even though I was able to come up with most of the responses the concept of the TV show mashup irritated me as there was no reason to put any of those combinations together.

The clue about another word for dull or sullen with U as the only vowel was one of those cases where my brain screams that all of the options with U have been used up and it is not possible to come up with a new word.

I've always heard it as locking the barn door so I wasn't sure closing the barn door would be accepted.

Since the film adaptation was Dangerous Liaisons I didn't know that the play had the novel's French title.

ETA: I guessed "Venus" instead of "Aquarius" for the hit song. Planets are not Constellations.

I really hoped that Ketty would be rewarded for her bold Daily Double bet and was disappointed that she didn't come up with Taurus which was very obvious to me. And Tory played a good game as well so I was prepared for it to go any direction in FJ.

I spent too long focusing on the Greek angle of FJ and not on the date, so even though I eventually came to the conclusion that the only possible option was Monarchy I took too much time to get there. (Grumpy, burden of knowledge, think of mono- as single more than alone. 😡) Megan was the only one who was close to the concept so even though I thought she might lose this one, that answer and her smart bet satisfied me she deserved the win.

Edited June 21, 2022 by SomeTameGazelle
forgot about Venus

[ams1001]

12 minutes ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

I am not crazy about before-and-after categories but at least they have a linking word between two otherwise unrelated phrases. Even though I was able to come up with most of the responses the concept of the TV show mashup irritated me as there was no reason to put any of those combinations together.

I like Before and After categories, generally, because the wordplay aspect is fun. Thought this would be a sort of reverse B&A thing, but only two of them actually could have been an answer to a B&A ("What We Do in the Building" linked by the "in the" in both show titles, and "I Dream of Anarchy" linked by "of"). About halfway through the category I said "this is dumb."

12 minutes ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

I've always heard it as locking the barn door so I wasn't sure closing the barn door would be accepted.

I've always heard it as "closing the barn door."

Edited June 21, 2022 by ams1001

[Prevailing Wind]

When people tell you're closing the barn door after the horse is gone, you tell them, "I got another horse."  I love smartypants answers to know-it-alls.

[30 Helens]

I was feeling especially brilliant tonight— missed only 4 answers in the first round— and then completely lost my rhythm at the start of DJ. Stupid geography. 

FJ made sense once I saw it, but like some others, I got hung up on Greek etymology and couldn’t think of anything but variations on “solo”. Mono never entered my mind.

[South]

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

Sadie's answer being ruled incomplete and thus unable to be accepted seems to comport with what has been said about the rule (I'm sure there's more detail to it than has been summarized) and was thus the right call. 

But it's unfair they are inconsistent about that.  "John Denve" should not have been accepted; this is an almost exact scenario to Sadie's, only Sadie actually got a little bit of the N down, while that contestant had nothing of the R.  I assume "Jeferso" is for "Jefferson", and that should not have been accepted (leaving out an F, fine, but not leaving off the N).  I don't even know what the hell the one in the top right is supposed to be.  (From Malta being crossed out and replaced with something with five letters starting with CR, my only guess is Crete, but that looks nothing like "ete" for the rest of it.  It looks like "Cr[either o or a][upsidedowntriangle]r".  In other words, illegible.

So what's the solution?  Accept Sadie's answer, and subsequent incomplete answers, because they've set precedent via a few previous bad calls?  Or acknowledge those bad calls as such and get consistent about enforcing the rule?  I vote the latter, but that would require them to be consistent in enforcement going forward.  And, in looking back, they better examine their subconscious bias in who they let slide and who they didn't.

I gave you a “thumbs up”, but I must add “you got that shit right”.

[bad things are bad]

9 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

 I guessed "Venus" instead of "Aquarius" for the hit song

You're not the only one 

[MrAtoz]

12 hours ago, Katy M said:

Crabs have 10 legs. Which I only know because I just looked it up.  Because I was eager to give myself more points since I said Scorpio.

It's weird.  I've been doing some quick reading about crabs and scorpions.

Crabs are said to have 10 legs, but the front pair of legs are their claws.

Scorpions are said to have 8 legs, plus two claws.  Their claws are not considered to be legs.

Every place I can find online agrees with this.  I have no idea why crabs' claws count as legs, but scorpions' claws don't.

[Katy M]

2 minutes ago, MrAtoz said:

It's weird.  I've been doing some quick reading about crabs and scorpions.

Crabs are said to have 10 legs, but the front pair of legs are their claws.

Scorpions are said to have 8 legs, plus two claws.  Their claws are not considered to be legs.

Every place I can find online agrees with this.  I have no idea why crabs' claws count as legs, but scorpions' claws don't.

I don't know. My area of expertise ends with a google of how many legs does a crab have?  My best guess would be that maybe crabs sometimes use their claws to help with walking and scorpions don't?

[Welshman in Ca]

Due to ice hockey apparently being a big thing when it's 100 degrees here I missed yesterdays game although my dvr did record it I probably won't bother watching it.

[M. Darcy]

I got monarchy!  Even though I thought it was wrong because I thought the year was after Charles II had returned to the throne.  

[MrAtoz]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

I don't know. My area of expertise ends with a google of how many legs does a crab have?  My best guess would be that maybe crabs sometimes use their claws to help with walking and scorpions don't?

I asked about this on a forum that includes a bunch of scientists and other smart people.  If I understand right (no guarantees of that!), scorpion pincers are biologically different from their legs.  For one thing, they're attached to the scorpion's head, not its abdomen.

From what I understood, crabs' claws are specialized legs.  Scorpions' claws are more like specialized antennae.

P.S.  This message is a good example of why I would not want a keyboard to enter my FJ response.  Every time I typed the word "scorpion" in this post, I spelled it "scropion," and only noticed because a red line appeared under it.  Those kind of mis-typings are very common, particularly when you're typing fast, and hard to spot.  It could easily lead to a bunch of right answers being counted wrong purely because of typos.

[Clanstarling]

21 hours ago, ams1001 said:

TSes were eustacian tube (very familiar with that one...), What We Do in the Shadows/Only Murders in the Building, electron microscope, and somber (DD)…and Les Liaisons dangereuses, assuming it would be accepted in English.

Seems to me that it would be accepted in English - particularly since that's the way I answered it. 🤣

19 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

I am not crazy about before-and-after categories but at least they have a linking word between two otherwise unrelated phrases. Even though I was able to come up with most of the responses the concept of the TV show mashup irritated me as there was no reason to put any of those combinations together.

I'm not crazy about B&A categories either - for me this one was easy, because I didn't have to think of a linking word. I had all of them except Peaky Blinders - even though I know of the show.

9 hours ago, bad things are bad said:

You're not the only one 

Yup, Venus is what came to me too.

It was an okay game for me. Didn't get FJ, but as we often do, we researched a little bit to cement it into our minds (I always get the Cromwells mixed up). Being a particularly weird person, I laughed pretty hard at the fact that they hated Cromwell so much that they dug up his body and did stuff to it, like a toddler having a tantrum. (to be fair to myself, I've heard of such things in modern days, and don't think it's funny...)

[Roaster]

Another good FJ wager from Megan today.

I often criticize players for poor wagering, so I have to give credit to Megan during her run.  She's had luck for sure.  Today she needed luck to win when going into FJ in third place.  But I think many players would have found a way to still lose even with this good luck.

Megan has been playing it just right.
 

[ams1001]

Ran Kids Books and Medical Breakthroughs. 

TSes were Christopher Meloni and stem cells (DD). 

I got FJ but I just sort of threw it out there because of the reference to islands. Had zero assumptions that I was right.

A Pocket for Corduroy was one of my favorites as a kid. :) Oddly enough, I never read the first book until I was an adult.

How many times has Megan won by $2, now? Three?

[Katy M]

2 Greek roots in a row.  Apparently not my thing. I also for some reason thought I was looking for a different sea name, so I said the Mediterranean.

I got the missed clues of claret (guess) and Christopher Meloni (at the last second).

I ran geographic superlatives (believe it or not) and history (more believable.

And I call banana poop on Ravel.  The category was MR.  He  needed the first name.  AARGH.

[SoMuchTV]

3 minutes ago, Katy M said:

And I call banana poop on Ravel.  The category was MR.  He  needed the first name.  AARGH.

Did he, though? Unless it was specified when the category was introduced, I would think the standard rules would apply. 

[ams1001]

23 minutes ago, Katy M said:

And I call banana poop on Ravel.  The category was MR.  He  needed the first name.  AARGH.

19 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

Did he, though? Unless it was specified when the category was introduced, I would think the standard rules would apply. 

"M. R." was in quotes in the category title, though. I thought he should have had to give the full name, too.

[ByaNose]

What did the middle man answer? Apparently, it was wrong but I couldn’t read what he wrote.