Jeopardy! Season 39 (2022-2023)

[South]

7 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

While technically it's call a defroster and think many people commonly call it the defrost and use that form as a noun or verb. 

Count me in on that, though I get the consternation

[30 Helens]

I think the common use of “defrost” as the name for either the act or the thing itself qualifies it as an acceptable answer. Or it didn’t bother me, at least. 

Now, “SpongeBob” yesterday… the clue asked for the name of the show, which is SpongeBob SquarePants. I thought that needed a BMS. For all we know, he thinks that sponge wears a grass skirt.

But overall, every time a contestant gives an answer and Mayim says “yes” before immediately correcting that contestant, I want to stick pencils in my ear. Maybe I should just make it a drinking game. I’d be drunk before the Double Jeopardy round, and nothing would bother me.

Mudd came easily to me yesterday, but Roget, not so much. Mainly because when I was thinking of lists, I was nowhere near a thesaurus. That’s a reference book of synonyms. I was thinking along the lines of events or facts presented in a list and ended up with… Guinness. Or Ripley. Meh. Not even close.

[ProudMary]

Another nitpick at the judges:

If the category is Alliterative Authors, shouldn't the contestants have to provide both the first and last names to show the alliteration?

[Clanstarling]

As far as the categories went, when I was good, I was pretty darned good. When I was bad, I was awful.

Nearly ran three categories: Royal, Mermaids, and Y (no fair having two "york" clues when you could have had Ypsilanti!  - my pre-guess)

I ran Official State Stuff.

I got Roget but I had ... low confidence ... that I was right.

4 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

Another nitpick at the judges:

If the category is Alliterative Authors, shouldn't the contestants have to provide both the first and last names to show the alliteration?

Yes! Though it seems we've been down that road before.

Edited March 8, 2023 by Clanstarling

[proserpina65]

On 3/7/2023 at 10:46 AM, DrSpaceman73 said:

According to that book and a military commission that convicted him at the time it happened. 

His relatives for over a century and a half tried to have his conviction overturned and never have succeeded. 

There are differing opinions about the validity of that military commission's decision.  I don't particularly care one way or the other, but Mudd's guilt or innocence is still something being debated now and not a fact set in stone.  I won't belabor the point, though, because that's not the purpose of this particular forum.

15 hours ago, Trey said:

The answer of York should have been accepted right away.  I am glad they reversed it. Not that it made any difference to the outcome. 

I'd argue that they should not have reversed the decision because York is the city, not the county.  I guess maybe because "shire" is the equivalent of the word "county"?  Is that your reasoning?  I'm assuming that was the judges' thinking.

14 hours ago, ProudMary said:

I wonder if the judges said something to Mayim between show tapings, because unlike yesterday, today she did the correct thing by overruling the incorrect noun, "sophomore" and waiting for the correct adjective, "sophomoric." A step in the right direction, I hope.

I was particularly annoyed when she accepted "Spongebob" for the clue in Quotable TV Shows on Monday instead of requiring the actual title of the show.  So hopefully you're correct and she'll do less of that when she comes back.

[Trey]

6 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I'd argue that they should not have reversed the decision because York is the city, not the county.  I guess maybe because "shire" is the equivalent of the word "county"?  Is that your reasoning?

Yes.  I was going to put that in my post but changed my mind.

[proserpina65]

1 minute ago, Trey said:

Yes.  I was going to put that in my post but changed my mind.

Thanks for the clarification.  I can see that line of reasoning.

[shapeshifter]

22 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

Another nitpick at the judges:

If the category is Alliterative Authors, shouldn't the contestants have to provide both the first and last names to show the alliteration?

20 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

Yes! Though it seems we've been down that road before.

Do category titles default to serve only as clues (rather than as requirements) unless there is a stated requirement of “Each response will…” or “Each response must include…”?

 

——————

 

Regarding Monday’s game:  
I was surprised that for the J! category of HOW OFTEN DOES IT HAPPEN? the $1K clue was:

• A jubilee year as recounted in the book of Leviticus in the Bible

––and then even more surprised it was a TS. 
But then a little Googling revealed that in popular/secular usage, the term “jubilee” can be used for celebrations that are not just observed every 50 years, such as the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

So it is understandable the contestants might have hesitated to respond, perhaps wondering if it was a tricky $1K clue, even if any of them were familiar with the biblical reference.

 

——————

 

I will miss the college students, just like I miss answering college student questions like I did before I retired as a college librarian, and even missed the students when they were (mostly) just gone over the summer before I retired.

I missed high school students too, having worked with them earlier, but the college students are there primarily because they want to be there.

[Prevailing Wind]

10 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

Now, “SpongeBob” yesterday… the clue asked for the name of the show, which is SpongeBob SquarePants. I thought that needed a BMS. For all we know, he thinks that sponge wears a grass skirt.

To be fair, Spongebob's pants are actually rectangular, whether or not he wears a grass skirt over them. LOL

[Driad]

All squares are rectangles.

Mark Twain wrote: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”  Presumably he approved of Roget's work.

[Prevailing Wind]

6 minutes ago, Driad said:

All squares are rectangles.

But not all rectangles are squares.  "Squarepants" is a misnomer.

[ams1001]

I, too, was annoyed by accepting just SpongeBob, then I saw a comment elsewhere that pointed out that the Wikipedia entry for the show begins with "SpongeBob SquarePants (or simply SpongeBob)" ...

...still bugs me but I guess they figure enough people call it that that it makes it an acceptable alternative?

[Browncoat]

The local TV station that shows Jeopardy! is off-air due to a brush fire that ruined a cable or something, so last night and tonight were archive games for me.  I have discovered that I do much worse when I'm not watching!  It doesn't help that I can't see photos for the video clues on the archive -- I feel certain I would have gotten one of the TS last night if I could have seen the photo.

Anyway, Tuesday night -- did not get FJ, but gave myself the TS of quail (I know what a quail looks like!)

Tonight, FJ was an instaget, and I got the TS of drummer and Virginia Woolf.  I suspect I would have gotten border collie if I'd seen the photo.

I really hope they get the cable or whatever it is fixed soon -- at least before Ghosts tomorrow night!

[ams1001]

Come on, Maya, I'm rooting for you. You can come from behind! 

March 8:

80% / 67% / 73%

Decent first round; ran Bible and Antonyms (sorry, but that was a dumb category), missed one Famous Pair and Native Americana, and two Mountains and Reality Shows.

Not so decent second round; ran Health & Medicine and Shake It Off but missed one Auntie Hero and three each in the rest. Never even heard of any of the fan names, except for Beliebers, but Sheerios seemed pretty obvious so I got that, too.

FJ was easy enough; had to run through a few state capitals before getting to the right one, but got there in plenty of time.

My only TS were Virginia Woolf and border collie. But I got all three of the DDs.

19 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I really hope they get the cable or whatever it is fixed soon -- at least before Ghosts tomorrow night!

Probably won't help with Ghosts, but you can usually find J! on youtube by searching for "Jeopardy" and the date. There are usually 2 or 3 uploads by late afternoon (eastern time).
 

[Katy M]

I was being ridiculous with FJ. I said Portsmouth, that's not a capital, Manchester, that's not a capital, Concord.  I never made it out of New Hampshire.

I got the missed clues of Virginia Woolf and drummer.

I got the entire categories of Bible, pairs and antonyms right.  So, really good first round.  OK, second round.

[Driad]

49 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I really hope they get the cable or whatever it is fixed soon -- at least before Ghosts tomorrow night!

CBS will have it on their website CBS.com starting the next day.

[Deskisamess]

Pummel and pommel are not the same thing. The answer referred to a saddle, the correct response should have been pommel.

[Driad]

3 minutes ago, Deskisamess said:

Pummel and pommel are not the same thing. The answer referred to a saddle, the correct response should have been pommel.

According to J-archive, the clue was "Sounding like a part of a saddle, it means to beat with the fists."  So I'd say pummel was correct.  Hoping Maya has a better day tomorrow.

[SoMuchTV]

6 minutes ago, Deskisamess said:

Pummel and pommel are not the same thing. The answer referred to a saddle, the correct response should have been pommel.

Well, the category was "U" BELONG WITH "ME" and the clue was “Sounding like a part of a saddle, it means to beat with the fists” so I think “pummel” was what they were going for. 

[annzeepark914]

TS's Border Collie and (distant) drummer. If Border Collies spoke English, they could easily win this tournament. Go Justin! 

[Quickbeam]

Going to the University of Delaware pays off again! 

[SomeTameGazelle]

51 minutes ago, Katy M said:

I was being ridiculous with FJ. I said Portsmouth, that's not a capital, Manchester, that's not a capital, Concord.  I never made it out of New Hampshire.

I started from England (Dover to Calais is just fixed in my brain) and I knew Dover was the capital of Delaware so I didn't have to think any further.

I had never heard of Bruno Mars' Hooligans or Rihanna's Navy and although I came up with Olivia for Livies I couldn't get to Rodrigo. 

[Prevailing Wind]

55 minutes ago, Katy M said:

I was being ridiculous with FJ. I said Portsmouth, that's not a capital, Manchester, that's not a capital, Concord.  I never made it out of New Hampshire.

Having no real idea where Richmond, UK is, I still stuck with Richmond, VA.  ETA: It's landlocked.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Prevailing Wind

[ams1001]

48 minutes ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

I had never heard of Bruno Mars' Hooligans or Rihanna's Navy and although I came up with Olivia for Livies I couldn't get to Rodrigo. 

Never heard of any of those and I never would have come up with Olivia Rodrigo anyway.

[Bastet]

I can't imagine the pressure Maya feels to represent, so I don't want to pile on, but I am bummed about today's results and hope she pulls off an epic comeback tomorrow.  Jackson is my second favorite, though, so good for him. 

Assuming the archive is accurate as to taping dates (which I've never known it not to be), the three semi-final games were taped on the same day as these finals, so that's a lot of mental energy expended in one day with just a lunch break!

The Virginia Woolf TS saddened me, but I can't say I'm surprised by it.  The drummer TS did surprise me, though.

I ran a Bible category, y'all.  (It's not unprecedented, but it is quite rare.)  I also ran mountains and antonyms.  I got all but one in Native Americana, and missed two each in pairs and reality shows (not bad since I've never seen any of the shows), so had a decent first round.

In DJ, I ran Asia, vocabulary, and shake it off, and got all but one in health (I had no idea 988 existed; that's fantastic -- and I hope most people know it's available!).  I missed two in aunts (one of which was Auntie Em, and I cannot believe I did not put Kansas + aunt together; I'd like to say I forgot the category [since "aunt" wasn't in the clue like it was in the rest], but it was the third clue in a row chosen from that category, so even if I did, that's just as big a brain fart).  Had that been it for the round, I'd have done very well, but I was terrible in fans -- the only clue I managed to figure out was Justin Bieber.

I got FJ about halfway through the music, so in time to write it down had I been competing.  I very, very briefly thought of UK port cities before remembering I'm a wiz at state capitals and instead started going through the capitals of the 13 original colonies until I got to one that is also a UK port city.

[Browncoat]

9 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Having no real idea where Richmond, UK is, I still stuck with Richmond, VA.  ETA: It's landlocked.

It’s on the James River, and there is river traffic to the Chesapeake Bay/Atlantic Ocean, so it’s not a terrible guess.

[TaraS1]

FJ was an insta-get for me, simply because I used to love those "Border Patrol" shows and they were always intercepting illegal stuff at the Port of Dover lol

I like all three of the finalists, but Jackson is a fellow Kentuckian so I'm rooting for him to bring it home.

[Mindthinkr]

One thing I’ve learned from watching Jeopardy is that I’m very out of date on a lot of pop culture or the new music stars. The only TSs I got was Border Collie (shoutout to @saber5055) and drummer. FJ was an instaget as I have traveled that route many times. 

[MrAtoz]

14 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I, too, was annoyed by accepting just SpongeBob, then I saw a comment elsewhere that pointed out that the Wikipedia entry for the show begins with "SpongeBob SquarePants (or simply SpongeBob)" ...

...still bugs me but I guess they figure enough people call it that that it makes it an acceptable alternative?

I've been trying to think if I've ever heard anyone actually call the show by its full title "SpongeBob SquarePants," and I don't think I have.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, just calls it "SpongeBob."

[zoey1996]

My first thought on FJ was Southampton, but that’s not a state capital. Then I went to Portsmouth, and couldn’t go beyond that. I’ve been to both of those in England, but I’ve also been to Dover.

[Clanstarling]

3 hours ago, MrAtoz said:

I've been trying to think if I've ever heard anyone actually call the show by its full title "SpongeBob SquarePants," and I don't think I have.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, just calls it "SpongeBob."

We do - but that's because we basically sing out the refrain from the theme song. LOL. We can be an irritating bunch.

Not a terrible night for me, but not great either. I nearly ran 4 categories, and had three right answers in 5 of them. Tanked on fan names (except for beliebers), but that wasn't unexpected.

No FJ either because I missed "capitol" in the FJ clue and struggled with finding a state that sounded like a port . D'oh!

Edited March 9, 2023 by Clanstarling

[proserpina65]

17 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Come on, Maya, I'm rooting for you. You can come from behind! 

Me, too.  The other two are intolerable.

17 hours ago, Katy M said:

I was being ridiculous with FJ. I said Portsmouth, that's not a capital, Manchester, that's not a capital, Concord.  I never made it out of New Hampshire.

I started with Southhampton but knew that wasn't a capital.  It did, however, make me think of Dover (due to a discussion I read somewhere about Kenneth Branagh's Henry V).  Then I was all "Is Dover the capital of some state?", followed by "D'uh, the state right next to you, dumb ass", and got it in time.  But boy did I feel stupid for the moment of doubt about Dover, Delaware; you'd think I'd remember it better if for no reason other than accidentally running a red light there on the way back from the beach last September.

17 hours ago, Driad said:

the clue was "Sounding like a part of a saddle, it means to beat with the fists."  So I'd say pummel was correct. 

Pummel and pommel are not pronounced the same, though, so I find that clear extremely poorly written.  Even though I did get it correct.

16 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

I had never heard of Bruno Mars' Hooligans or Rihanna's Navy and although I came up with Olivia for Livies I couldn't get to Rodrigo. 

The only one of those I'd heard of was Beliebers.

4 hours ago, MrAtoz said:

I've been trying to think if I've ever heard anyone actually call the show by its full title "SpongeBob SquarePants," and I don't think I have.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, just calls it "SpongeBob."

Same here, but what we call it is not actually the name of the show, and I expect Jeopardy to be more precise.

 

[SomeTameGazelle]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

The only one of those I'd heard of was Beliebers.

I had not previously heard of Sheerios but I felt confident guessing Ed Sheeran (even though I am not very familiar with Ed Sheeran and indeed part of my brain sometimes draws Ed Sheeran when it ought to go for Sam Smith).

[ProudMary]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

Same here, but what we call it is not actually the name of the show, and I expect Jeopardy to be more precise.

Sadly, that ship has sailed. 😢

 

[SHD]

19 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

I had never heard of Bruno Mars' Hooligans or Rihanna's Navy and although I came up with Olivia for Livies I couldn't get to Rodrigo. 

I guessed The Who for Hooligans, which I still insist should be the correct answer.  LOL

[Browncoat]

Woo hoo!  My local station is back on air, so I'll be able to watch tonight!

[SomeTameGazelle]

2 hours ago, SHD said:

I guessed The Who for Hooligans, which I still insist should be the correct answer.  LOL

I had that album.

[Katy M]

FJ was an instaget.

I got the missed clues of dustbusters, overture and commencement (that one really surprised me).

I got the entire category of 20th century right.

I read My Name is Asher Lev a few years ago, but couldn't remember his name.  Which annoys me especially because I would have cleared that category also.

[Browncoat]

Instaget FJ for me tonight.  

I also got the TS of spleen, dustbuster, basal, open, Ruhr, and overture.  I should have gotten commencement, but it just wouldn't come to my brain in time.

I was rooting for Maya, but am okay with Justin.

[BuckeyeLou]

I thought the FJ was pretty easy, especially "Iron Ladders".  Awww...Mayim went over & hugged Justin at the end.  Justin was so excited, I was happy for him.

[Bastet]

Damn.  I knew that low game one total was going to do her in, but I was really hoping against hope for an epic comeback win by Maya.

The Top Chef premiere is extended tonight and will cut into J!, but I didn't want to just read the archive for this final game, so found a version to watch on YouTube.

The commencement TS really surprised me.

I came so close to running the entire first round, but I joined the contestants in not knowing Mirror in the business category.  I'd never heard of it.  I knew it wasn't Peloton, but couldn't think of anything else, so had no guess.

With ballet & opera and robots as categories, I knew I had no chance of coming close to running DJ.  To my utter surprise, I ran ballet & opera -- but robots went as expected, with me only coming up with Volkswagen.  The only other category I ran was words.  I got all but one in geography and missed two each in the rest.

FJ was an instaget, and I think too easy a clue for FJ in a tournament final.

[annzeepark914]

3 minutes ago, BuckeyeLou said:

I thought the FJ was pretty easy, especially "Iron Ladders".  Awww...Mayim went over & hugged Justin at the end.  Justin was so excited, I was happy for him.

I really liked that hug.  And it was nice to see serious Justin celebrating.  FJ was so easy that I wondered if it could possibly be something (farfetched) else. I have a question about the dust buster. Wasn't the category about dirt? I said Dirt Devil. Or did I totally misinterpret the category (nothing unusual for me 🥴)?

[ams1001]

March 9:

77% / 57% / 67%

J!: Missed two in College Sports and one in everything else.

DJ: Ran Ballet & Opera, missed two First Words, Names in Titles and Robots, three Leaders, and four in Geography.

FJ: Beyond an instaget. A "high & skinny pyramid of iron ladders"…what else would it be?

TS: Mirror (no idea how I knew that), dustbuster, commencement, and overture (DD)

I was rooting for Maya (partly because she was the only girl), but Congrats to Justin!

14 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

I have a question about the dust buster. Wasn't the category about dirt? I said Dirt Devil. Or did I totally misinterpret the category (nothing unusual for me 🥴)?

It was dirt-related words, but didn't require the specific word. I think 'dustbuster' is more of a generic term at this point (though I did think Dirt Devil first because I have one, but we had a dustbuster when I was a kid).

[chicagofan]

Interesting that they told us not once, but twice in a matter of minutes that Ken would be back tomorrow.

FJ was an instaget, although I was second guessing myself since it seemed too easy. Was rooting for Maya, but would rather have Justin win than Jackson.

So so game overall however I did run 2 categories - Long-Ago 20th Century in the J round and Inside Ballet & Opera in DJ. Only 2 TS - Ruhr and overture (DD), but I felt like I should have known more. Commencement should have been one of them.

[ams1001]

2 hours ago, ams1001 said:

It was dirt-related words, but didn't require the specific word.

Actually, I'm not quite correct. The clues were dirt-related in some way, but the answers weren't necessarily synonyms for dirt; only one contained the word - Dirty Jobs; the others were filthy, George Carlin, and rice.

[SomeTameGazelle]

2 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I was rooting for Maya (partly because she was the only girl), but Congrats to Justin!

I was rooting for Maya too, and even though I was slightly rooting against Jackson I felt really terrible for him when he couldn't come up with overture. (I nearly didn't only because overture is not exclusive to opera so I took a moment to think about whether there was an opera-specific term.) Still it was satisfying to see Justin come from behind.

[MrAtoz]

I know it's been a few days, but to return to the question of Malala's surname, has anyone seen the poster for the upcoming movie "Stranger at the Gate"?  It says, right at the top, "From Executive Producer Malala."

I would say there is evidence that she is using her first name alone as her professional name, at least some of the time.

[Chippings]

Have to admit I was rooting for Justin, partly because he seemed to be an endearing kid, but also because he's just a freshman -- i.e. had only had several months of college -- whereas his competitors were two or three years ahead of him.  I suppose many of the questions / answers aren't involving things you'd have specifically learned In College, but even so  That was impressive

[30 Helens]

15 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

We do - but that's because we basically sing out the refrain from the theme song. LOL. We can be an irritating bunch.

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

So glad that tournament is over. Now I can start paying attention again.

[Mindthinkr]

I did pretty well. Lots of categories I missed running them by one. I did run the medical one. I got spleen, basal and overture. I also felt FJ was too easy for the Tournament, and it was an instaget.