Jeopardy! Season 39 (2022-2023)

[Kimmmmmm]

3 hours ago, Browncoat said:

It took me a few seconds tonight (with a brief detour to "yellow", which I knew was wrong) to get to the correct FJ, but I did get there in plenty of time to write it down.  And we got a "Hello!" from Ken!

I also got the TS of mile, Washington, tobacco, Ecce Homo, India & Bangladesh, and Wordsworth.

Incidentally, the town of Buchanan in Virginia is lovely (and only a couple of hours from where I live).

It does not hurt my feelings that middle woman didn't win.  Actually, I didn't really root for any of them tonight.

I very much wanted the middle woman to win.

[zoey1996]

I couldn’t get past “yellow.”

I once got to see the Austin bats!

[30 Helens]

2 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Not the 50 yard dash?  That and football instead of Halloween had me wondering where they found that woman. But she ended up with a decent game. 

She was obviously nervous as hell in the beginning, hence the ridiculous “football” response. 50-yard-dash was also bad, but that kind of fumble happens often. I liked her— I could see her confidence building throughout, and I appreciated the way she was able to put an embarrassing start behind her and not let it affect the rest of her game.

1 hour ago, annzeepark914 said:

You just never know how some of these towns' names are pronounced (e.g., Lima, OH=Lime-ah; Cairo, NY = Cayro).  There are more but I just can't think of them right now 😊

Lima, NY is also “Lime-ah”. Northeasterners are clearly bean fans.

I had a terrible game yesterday, mostly due to ongoing lack of sleep. Then I basically missed the FJ clue because I was arguing with my husband over why he didn’t like the Chicken Caesar Cobb salad I made for dinner. (“What do you mean, ‘too much lettuce’? That doesn’t even make sense. It’s a salad.”)  I realized much later that I had inadvertently left out the chicken. Like I said, lack of sleep. (I still liked it, and I still think “too much lettuce” is a dumb reason for not liking a salad.) 

I did pretty well today, by my standards. 63% in the first round, 50% in the second, including the TSs of Rocket, freelance, tobacco, Washington and Lincoln.  FJ was an instaguess, and it kept me from ending the season in a hole. 

I will miss the daily game, but I will miss all of you even more.  I won’t be watching the reruns because that is no fun for me. I’m not sure if I will be watching recycled games in the fall— even though the clues aren’t new, I’m sure I would still get most of them wrong, so the challenge is still there. But bypassing the writers would make me feel squicky, so…

In any event, I hope to see many of you in Small Talk in the interim.

 

[Bastet]

I was too stressed out to concentrate on last night's game, so I skipped it and just checked the archive for FJ, which I got right.

Tonight, I still wasn't at full concentration, but could at least settle down to watch.  As others have said, Sharon had a couple of doozy wrong answers, fumbling (pun intended) the first clue and later guessing 50-yard dash for something done in four minutes.

I ran working, Texas, and sheep, and got all but Maria Callas in women (I think on a better night, I could have pulled that out of my brain), but it was not a great first round overall, as I missed three each in the other two categories.

In DJ, I only ran money (and only thanks to a couple of lucky guesses, but it counts), but I got all but one each in everything else other than anthems, in which I missed two.

FJ took me longer than it should have, but it came to me.

Out of curiosity, I checked all games this month:  Six had religion categories, three of which were about the Bible.  No other subject showed up that many times over the course of the month. 

It goes in bursts, though; in June, there were no religion categories, just individual clues within other categories.  But in May, there were four religion categories, six if you include a category about churches and one about hymns & spirituals.  Only two exclusively about the Bible that time. 

The worst was a couple of seasons ago, when over the course of just two weeks, six of those ten games had religion categories!  IIRC, four of them were about the Bible.

As for anagram categories: two in July, one each in June and May.  (But I think if I went back farther, I'd come across a period where there were several of them, as I remember them seeming more frequent at one point.)

[Browncoat]

9 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

I knew someone from that town. She pronounced it as BUCK annon. 

As it should be.  I meant to give Ken kudos for pronouncing it correctly.

8 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Two different places. Buchanan VA (pronounced like the president), and Buckhannon WV (honestly I lived there 3 years but I have no idea where the name came from).

Buchanan VA (the town and the county) are not pronounced like the president.  One of my coworkers is from the town, and I grew up not far from the county, and they are both pronounced BUCK-annon.  

 

[bad things are bad]

Clickbait trash site US Sun is calling out Ken for being mean about the 50 yard dash answer.

I was surprised she didn't get FJ

[Prevailing Wind]

Ooooh...he's so mean!!

[ams1001]

4 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Ooooh...he's so mean!!

I love it when people are all aghast and "Alex would never!" at Ken's mild ribbing.

....um, yes he would.

[Clanstarling]

20 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Enough with the damned religion categories.  I'm definitely sending them an email  about that.

I actually approved that there was an entire category about non-Christian religions.

I'm not religious at all, but I have no problem with world religion categories. I think world religions is a legitimate area of knowledge, and especially relevant in history and literature.

However, I do get tired of the focus on Christian religions and the Bible specifically.

Anagrams, however, (especially the ones where you have to figure out WHICH word is the anagram) can be canned forever, as far as I'm concerned. 😄

Gonzo just popped into my mind as paired with Journalism. I pretty much ignored the rest of the clue and went with it (with low confidence). But it was right, and I ended the season with one of my best FJ weeks.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Clanstarling

[annzeepark914]

This may be sacrilegious...but I like Ken a lot more than Trebek. He's been a player so he knows what the contestants are dealing with. Also, he took on this job without any game show history experience and has been doing it so smoothly. And of course, it doesn't hurt that he's the GOAT (but isn't smug about it). 

[Clanstarling]

Just now, annzeepark914 said:

This may be sacrilegious...but I like Ken a lot more than Trebek. He's been a player so he knows what the contestants are dealing with. Also, he took on this job without any game show history experience and has been doing it so smoothly. And of course, it doesn't hurt that he's the GOAT (but isn't smug about it). 

Then we are a sacrilegious household too. We have said, more than once, that Ken is a better host than Trebek (as much as we loved him). His experience as a contestant makes him uniquely qualified as the host of this show.

[possibilities]

I'd like to see more science categories. 

 

[ams1001]

 

[ProudMary]

Here's my two cents: Echoing others, I also think Ken is an even better host than Alex had been, which is a statement I NEVER thought I'd make. Alex had years to perfect his skills and he was a master of preparation. IMO, he worked diligently to achieve the final, polished product he delivered to us week after week, year after year. I think Alex had a good deal of inherent knowledge on a variety of topics and then made sure he learned additional information behind the clues with which he was presented for that week's taping where he knew his knowledge wasn't as strong. I believe Alex worked very hard to insure that his audience got the best possible viewing experience and he gave us that gift for more than three decades.

On the other hand, Ken has a freakishly staggering amount of inherent knowledge, which allowed him to become the Jeopardy! GOAT. Add to that the ridiculous number of times he has competed on the show and there isn't anyone else with his comfort level, knowledge of the game and the workings of the show. He was able to hit the ground running in a way no one else could. Also, he has always seemed very comfortable with the idea that he's a nerd! He doesn't appear to have any social anxiety when it comes to engaging in small talk. Ken's a perfect fit and I wish he was the sole host across all Jeopardy! programming.

Regarding Ken's comment to Sharon's 50-yard dash response, I have to admit that I laughed heartily at how absurd it seemed. Between that and her "football" response, I was ready to write her off. Initially, I had no issue with Ken's comment. But...as someone who belongs to the "I hate the way Mayim Bialik hosts Jeopardy!" group, it occurs to me that if Mayim had made that comment, I'd have been in this thread accusing her of once again being condescending. While I don't think Ken intended to be mean, he did go for the easy laugh there.

[proserpina65]

I had a really good first round Friday, ran Women, Sheep and Texas and got all but 1 clue in Working Words and Old.  Would've gotten all but 1 in Fast if I could've come up with UFC in time or realized that a time around 4 minutes had to be the mile.

It came apart for me in DJ.  I only ran British Lit, and only got all but 1 clue in National Anthems.  (Got India but said Pakistan instead of Bangladesh.)  I totally blew the money category, getting only Franklin and Hamilton.

I did get 6 of the many triple stumpers and one of the 2 missed DDs, though: the Old Pretender, the Rocket (a total guess), William Wordsworth, Manchester, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Hadyn and tobacco.

It took me a moment but I did come up with gonzo journalism in time.

I know Hadyn wrote it and it's a classic and all, but if Germany doesn't want me to think of Deutschland Uber Alles every time I hear their national anthem, they need to change the music.  Doesn't matter that it's a different verse of the poem, the tune is exactly the same.

[proserpina65]

On 7/28/2023 at 11:15 PM, Kimmmmmm said:

I very much wanted the middle woman to win.

I didn't.  She was too slow picking clues.  I like the champ well enough.

On 7/29/2023 at 12:40 PM, Clanstarling said:

I actually approved that there was an entire category about non-Christian religions.

I did appreciated that category.  Had it not been one of several over the last month, I wouldn't have complained about it at all.

On 7/29/2023 at 1:47 PM, possibilities said:

I'd like to see more science categories. 

 

I wouldn't, but that's because science isn't a good area for me.  However, I want to see a better range of categories overall, and if that meant more science (or math or politics or whatever category is bad for me), so be it.  Although if every FJ was opera-related, I wouldn't complain. 😃

On 7/29/2023 at 12:43 PM, annzeepark914 said:

This may be sacrilegious...but I like Ken a lot more than Trebek. He's been a player so he knows what the contestants are dealing with. Also, he took on this job without any game show history experience and has been doing it so smoothly. And of course, it doesn't hurt that he's the GOAT (but isn't smug about it). 

I don't believe Ken is a better Jeopardy host than Alex was, but I do think he's stepped into some pretty big shoes with grace, humor and a minimum of fuss.  Which surprises me, because I was not a Ken fan previously.