Jeopardy! Season 40 (2023-2024)

[Browncoat]

I hate John Irving almost as much as I hate John Steinbeck, and I have successfully eliminated all memories of having read any Irving, so I did not get FJ today.  

However, I did get the TS of lurk, 403, inflation, Tombstone, hymnology (a WAG), Anatomy of a Fall (really good movie), and Suez Canal.

[shapeshifter]

43 minutes ago, kathyk2 said:

… Where have all the Flowers gone was one my Dad's favorite songs.…

Awww. I sang the response to that clue.
It helped that the the song title is already in the form of a question. 😁
Did your Dad play the guitar? 

 

2 hours ago, possibilities said:

I also missed last night's show due to a storm-related grid failure, and have not been able to get into the archives. 

I am not getting the usual message i get when it's about a security certificate, so I wonder if it's just periodically crashing from a lot of people using it at once because they missed the show due to weather or pre-emptions?

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

Were there storms on Monday? I've been getting the error since Monday night.

Just for "fun" try accessing this link to the archives, which would not be in your cache as a 404 — or 403😉 — for the Flower song:
https://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=8991#:~:text=30-,Pete Seeger,-answered this title

 

I got the TS of lurk, as should all of us, or else we should hang up our message board hats. Since it was a TS, I guess folks who get on the show maybe don't spend as much time online has we do…?

Edited July 18 by shapeshifter

[ams1001]

17 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Just for "fun" try accessing this link to the archives, which would not be in your cache as a 404 — or 403😉 — for the Flower song:

Nope. ☹️

Edited July 18 by ams1001

[Katy M]

48 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

hate John Irving almost as much as I hate John Steinbeck, and I have successfully eliminated all memories of having read any Irving, so I did not get FJ today.  

I'm with you on John Irving, but barring The Grapes of Wrath, I like Steinbeck (not love, mind you, but like).

[Cotypubby]

I knew all the French Cinema clues. The guess of Alfred Hitchcock as a famous French director had me 🤦‍♀️

Had no ide for FJ. I was thinking “T.S. someone” and my brain would not let it get past T.S. Elliott.

[Prevailing Wind]

37 minutes ago, Cotypubby said:

Had no ide for FJ. I was thinking “T.S. someone” and my brain would not let it get past T.S. Elliott.

It's like I have a twin! I don't remember where I heard/read it, but Eliot uses his middle initial so his name, spelled backwards, wouldn't be TOILET.

[30 Helens]

Umm... shouldn't that be Triple Stumper Garp?

Instaget for me. But that was one of those rare FJ's where you had to actually know the answer, with no back-door way to figure it out. So I can see why it was very hard for some people. 

[proserpina65]

Well, rats, I have to watch one game on tape delay due to the MLB All-Star game and Isaac loses!  I really liked him and wanted him to get to 10 wins.  Of course, I do like Jay, who earned points for getting Maryland, so at least one champion I like has been replaced by another.

I had no clue for either Tuesday's FJ or last night's. 

On 7/16/2024 at 8:01 PM, Katy M said:

I got the missed clues of trigger, lungfish, Scrabble, Roald Dahl, and beard.

Getting lungfish surprised me, don't know where it came from but lungs seem the opposite of gills, so that's what I said.

I know little about Roald Dahl, but that DD was an instaget given my interest in the history of polar exploration.

On 7/17/2024 at 9:16 AM, MrAtoz said:

FJ was pretty easy for me. 1960s, designed psychological tests? That couldn't be anyone but Timothy Leary.

"Manson" was a really weird guess.

The only two famous California prisoners from the 60s whose names I know are Manson and Sirhan Sirhan but I did know that neither of them have ever escaped from prison.  I had no idea about Timothy Leary being in prison.   In fact, I know almost nothing about Leary.

On 7/16/2024 at 8:13 PM, Browncoat said:

I kind of thought Waugh needed a BMS.  There was more than one who was an author.

Was there?  I only know of Evelyn.

15 hours ago, Quickbeam said:

I got Garp ( great book and movie) but like the contestants, was zero on opera and that Ghibellines clue. 

I ran Opera Heroines.  Only Fidelio was the least bit difficult, but I did get it in time.  Helps that I've seen it.  I got Ghibellines as they came up quite a bit when I was studying the Italian Renaissance at college.

In Le Cinema, I missed both Godard and Jean Dujardin despite having seen Pierrot le Fou (which I hated) in film class and seeing The Artist when it came out.  I remember being really impressed with Dujardin.  I spent the time after both clues going "Oh god, oh god, I know this!  Who is it, damn it??" but that didn't help.

15 hours ago, kathyk2 said:

I ran Folky Where have all the Flowers gone was one my Dad's favorite songs.

I'd have run that category if I could've remembered the actual title for This Land is Your Land.  I said our then my and only got to the right thing too late.

[illdoc]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

Was there?  I only know of Evelyn

I think there's an Alec Waugh

[chessiegal]

11 minutes ago, illdoc said:

I think there's an Alec Waugh

Evelyn's brother, also a novelist.

 

[PaulaO]

I read Garp in 1978 so the clue saying it won a prize in 1980 threw me. Lisle IL isn’t far from me so I feel like I should be aware of Jay, but it’s not my district.  I loved his Graceland story.

[proserpina65]

1 hour ago, chessiegal said:

Evelyn's brother, also a novelist.

 

I did not know that.  I'd say I'd store that away for future reference, but with the way my brain is, I'll probably forget five minutes from now, lol.

 

[MrAtoz]

4 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Only Fidelio was the least bit difficult, but I did get it in time.  Helps that I've seen it.

Interestingly, Fidelio was easy for me because of the name of the opera's heroine, Leonore. The opera was originally titled "Leonore," and the second of four overtures that Beethoven wrote for it (confusingly called "Leonore Overture No. 3") is frequently performed on its own.

As Victor Borge said about Fidelio: Beethoven only wrote one opera, but it seemed like more because it had two titles, three productions, and four overtures.

[Bastet]

Preempted, archive, can't see the pictures, blah blah blah.

Aw, man, The Cutting Edge as a TS, even after someone said The Bleeding Edge (LOL)?  "Toe pick."

The first round was the story of so close for me -- I got all but one in each.  Had I been able to see the picture for the Damascus clue, I might have run capitals; if "highlighted here" means they showed a map indicating they wanted the capital of Syria, yes. 

I ran history and nude, but overall DJ was not a great round.  I was terrible in World Heritage Sites, only getting coffee.  I missed three each in pop culture and books, and two in hats & cattle.

I had no idea for FJ, and never would have come up with it no matter how much time I gave myself as I had no idea two members of Talking Heads are married (I couldn't name anyone other than David Byrne if my life depended on it).

[Katy M]

i said Fleetwood Mac.  I had no confidence in myself with that category and I was right as far as that was concerned.

i got the missed clues of stalctite (mnemonic device of c from celing, g from ground), lifeguard (what other beach jobs are there), The Stand, Centerfold and The  Cutting Edge (love that movie).

I got the entire categories of bookstore and nude right.  That's a weird combo.

[ams1001]

July 18:

53% / 63% / 57%

Geez…at the first break I only had 3 correct answers. Did better in the second half of the round; missed one in That's "AA"wesome (or A A We Some, as Micah said 😄), They Make That, and Oscar & Razzie Winner, three in Stamps and Geology and totally flunked Asian Capitals.

A little better in DJ…missed one in Hats/Cattle, In the Bookstore, and Nude to the OED, two in Pop Culture, and three in History and World Heritage Sites.

Did not get FJ (I also thought Fleetwood Mac but I knew it was wrong). I know pretty much nothing about the people in Talking Heads.

TSes: (J had 4 + the DD; DJ had 7 + 1 DD) I got stalactite (DD), Brad Pitt, lifeguard hat (which I've never heard of but guessed based on "beach job"), wagyu, centerfold (or centrefold, apparently), and The Cutting Edge.
 

29 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I had no idea for FJ, and never would have come up with it no matter how much time I gave myself as I had no idea two members of Talking Heads are married (I couldn't name anyone other than David Byrne if my life depended on it).

Same.

So the archive works on my work laptop as long as I'm connected to the VPN. When I disconnected and reloaded the page, it didn't work.

18 hours ago, Cotypubby said:

Had no ide for FJ. I was thinking “T.S. someone” and my brain would not let it get past T.S. Elliott.

Also same. But I would not have gotten to Garp in any case.

[opus]

Also said Fleetwood Mac but was also sure none of them were still married 🤷‍♂️

[Browncoat]

I didn't even have a guess for FJ.  I kept trying to think of bands from 1977, but nothing came to me except established bands with all-male members.  And none of those has released new music in a while.  Fleetwood Mac never even crossed my mind.  

But I did get the TS of stalactite, Vichy, lifeguard hat, Wagyu, The Stand, and Casbah.  

 

[Bastet]

While you'd need a flowchart to keep track of the affairs, the only members of Fleetwood Mac ever married to each other were John and Christine McVie.  They'd been married for two years when she joined the band, and they split six years later (amusingly, Rumours is so damn good because those two had broken up, as had Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham [who never married], and everyone wrote great diss tracks, basically).  So no Fleetwood Mac members have been married to each other since 1976.

[SoMuchTV]

The only guess I could come up with was the E Street Band, but research confirms that the dates don’t work out. (And I had already ruled out Fleetwood Mac based on a vague memory that they predated 1977.)

[Prevailing Wind]

7 hours ago, Katy M said:

lifeguard (what other beach jobs are there),

The ice cream/popsicle man. For my brother and me, popsicles were the sole reason to go to the beach.  Our Nana dragged us there at least once a week. Mom hated it.

[bad things are bad]

Love the Talking Heads, but I don't think of them as Show Biz.

[MrAtoz]

13 hours ago, Bastet said:

While you'd need a flowchart to keep track of the affairs, the only members of Fleetwood Mac ever married to each other were John and Christine McVie.  They'd been married for two years when she joined the band, and they split six years later (amusingly, Rumours is so damn good because those two had broken up, as had Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham [who never married], and everyone wrote great diss tracks, basically).  So no Fleetwood Mac members have been married to each other since 1976.

And, of course, Christine McVie is no longer with us, sadly.

[Shrek]

With all this political crap messing with my Jeopardy & having to use the archive I have zero FJ correct, I just can't get into looking at the archive in the morning as my brain hasn't woken up yet. Hate it with a vengeance. 

[proserpina65]

18 hours ago, MrAtoz said:

Interestingly, Fidelio was easy for me because of the name of the opera's heroine, Leonore. The opera was originally titled "Leonore," and the second of four overtures that Beethoven wrote for it (confusingly called "Leonore Overture No. 3") is frequently performed on its own.

As Victor Borge said about Fidelio: Beethoven only wrote one opera, but it seemed like more because it had two titles, three productions, and four overtures.

When I saw Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields at Merriweather Post Pavilion years ago, part of the encore was the Leonore Overture No. 3.  It was wonderful, as was the entire performance.

14 hours ago, Katy M said:

i said Fleetwood Mac. 

I knew it wasn't Fleetwood Mac because although Rumours was released in 1977, it wasn't their first album and the band members who were married to each other (John & Christine McVie) divorced before the album was released.

14 hours ago, Bastet said:

While you'd need a flowchart to keep track of the affairs, the only members of Fleetwood Mac ever married to each other were John and Christine McVie.  They'd been married for two years when she joined the band, and they split six years later (amusingly, Rumours is so damn good because those two had broken up, as had Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham [who never married], and everyone wrote great diss tracks, basically).  So no Fleetwood Mac members have been married to each other since 1976.

It is so damned good.  Maybe all bands should marry/date/sleep with each other and then break up?

15 hours ago, Bastet said:

I had no idea for FJ, and never would have come up with it no matter how much time I gave myself as I had no idea two members of Talking Heads are married (I couldn't name anyone other than David Byrne if my life depended on it).

This was my problem exactly.  I know David Byrne and that Tina person, so no help at all.  I did know that Remain in Light was a Talking Heads album but even that didn't help.

[ams1001]

July 19:

73% / 57% / 66%

Much better start than yesterday! At the first break I had 12 (out of 15) correct. I ran Rodents, missed one in Some Kind of Law and 40, and two in British History, The Olympics, and Rated "PG". In DJ I missed one in Book Title Locales, two in Fanny Pack, Classical Music, and Old Hollywood Power Couples, and three in Word Math and Fort-Y.

FJ was an instaget; I answered before Ken was even halfway through reading the clue. I was so confident that I wrote this line before the music stopped.

TSes: (J had 9 + the DD; DJ had 8 + 1 DD) I got gopher, dormouse, cauldron, Henry VIII, Globe Theater (DD), ruby, quarantine, fugue, Fanny Bryce, and Ingmar Bergman (also knew Tony Curtis but I blanked on Janet Leigh).

Did they mean Mary Todd Lincoln (why would she have a lot of statues?) or did they forget the category, and the clue? Nice comeback for Neilesh.

[Katy M]

I got FJ right.

I got the missed clues of quarantine, gopher (after prairie dog), dormouse, cauldron, Henry VIII, ruby, Fort Bliss, and Fanny Bryce.

I got the entire category of rodents right and law wrong.

[Browncoat]

26 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

FJ was an instaget; I answered before Ken was even halfway through reading the clue. I was so confident that I wrote this line before the music stopped.

Same -- I wrote my answer before Ken finished reading the clue.

I also got the TS of gopher, dormouse, cauldron, Globe Theatre, ruby, quarantine, Ingmar Bergman, Charleston, Fanny Brice, and Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.

[proserpina65]

56 minutes ago, Katy M said:

I got FJ right.

I thought it was incredibly easy and was surprised that only Jay got it correct.  Unfortunately it didn't make a difference and now we have a lackluster new champion.  Hopefully he'll be gone after Monday.

 

[Cotypubby]

Man that game was painful. So many easy answers they all didn’t know. How do you not know Janet Leigh was Jamie Lee Curtis’s mother??

Hope we get a new champ on Monday. This guy was as dull as can be.

[MrAtoz]

17 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Nice comeback for Neilesh.

Very nice indeed. He was having so much trouble early on, dipping further and further into negative totals (and looking like he was getting frustrated with himself, which can sometimes cause you even more problems). I was somewhat surprised, though not unpleasantly so, to see him mount a comeback.

[Clanstarling]

I got FJ, but the mental path was a little wiffy - I got this vague idea of a band where two of them were married - then "Burning Down the House" came into my mind, but Talking Heads finally popped in my head in time.

Edited July 20 by Clanstarling

[Bastet]

Finally, I got to watch a game again.  I was with friends so didn't keep track, but I know I did well.  I was terrible in classical music, but good to great in everything else.  And, like several others here, I said Sacagawea about halfway through the clue, so FJ was an instaget. 

None of the three of us had noticed Neilesh's comeback in DJ, so when he won, we all said some version of "Wait, what?"

[Ancaster]

On 7/17/2024 at 10:32 PM, Prevailing Wind said:

It's like I have a twin! I don't remember where I heard/read it, but Eliot uses his middle initial so his name, spelled backwards, wouldn't be TOILET.

It's still an anagram of "toilets" though, which was quite helpful when I studied The Waste Land in High School.

On 7/18/2024 at 8:40 AM, proserpina65 said:

I ran Opera Heroines.  Only Fidelio was the least bit difficult, but I did get it in time.  Helps that I've seen it.  I got Ghibellines as they came up quite a bit when I was studying the Italian Renaissance at college.

I never understand why the contestants don't brush up on opera - they obviously don't read this forum.  :-)

On 7/19/2024 at 7:17 AM, proserpina65 said:

When I saw Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields at Merriweather Post Pavilion years ago, part of the encore was the Leonore Overture No. 3.  It was wonderful, as was the entire performance.

I used to work very close to St Martin the Fields and used to walk over for their free lunchtime concerts, which were great in part because people wandered in and out during the performances and that was perfectly acceptable.  I don't know if it's still the same.

[possibilities]

Rhinos are gentle vegetarians. Their horns are for digging, not fighting. Just wanted to make a statement on behalf of our big lug friends.

I felt Neilesh's nerves, and was happy that he recovered from his early stumbles. 

I'm finding all the contestans affable. Their stories lately have seemed more interesting or fun to me than they used to.

I was surprised that Exodus was a triple stumper. 

I have never said the word "Pentateuch" but I did think it's generally considered a word for the first 5 books of the OT, which is the Torah. This article makes a distinction, though: https://religionsfacts.com/the-torah-vs-the-pentateuch-a-comparison-of-two-ancient-texts/#google_vignette

[Browncoat]

26 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I was surprised that Exodus was a triple stumper. 

I thought someone (Neilesh, maybe?) got Exodus.

[Bastet]

8 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I thought someone (Neilesh, maybe?) got Exodus.

Checking the archive, he did.

As did I, and I also guessed the Torah after the contestant's (and one of my friends') guess of the Pentateuch was ruled incorrect.  It's not often that I get two biblical clues in one game correct.

[kathyk2]

10 hours ago, Cotypubby said:

Man that game was painful. So many easy answers they all didn’t know. How do you not know Janet Leigh was Jamie Lee Curtis’s mother??

Hope we get a new champ on Monday. This guy was as dull as can be.

Pop culture is generational I doubt any of the contestants are old enough to remember Janet Leigh. I struggled with the rap category that the contestants answered easily.

[Driad]

What are the most difficult categories for most contestants?  Opera and sports must be up there, along with some of the puzzle categories.

[Clanstarling]

13 hours ago, Driad said:

What are the most difficult categories for most contestants?  Opera and sports must be up there, along with some of the puzzle categories.

I am terrible at the puzzle categories, for the most part. My brain slows down to parse it, and rarely do I get them unless it jumps out.

[MrAtoz]

18 hours ago, possibilities said:

I have never said the word "Pentateuch" but I did think it's generally considered a word for the first 5 books of the OT, which is the Torah.

The clue specified the Hebrew for "The Law," which is Torah. "Pentateuch" is Greek for "Five Scrolls," so it didn't fulfill the terms of the clue.

[SomeTameGazelle]

15 hours ago, kathyk2 said:

Pop culture is generational I doubt any of the contestants are old enough to remember Janet Leigh.

That was what I was wondering (although has Psycho really fallen so far off the radar? maybe I am old) but then again both Jay and Dave seemed to have a certain amount of grey in their hair.

I wasn't completely sure whether Sacagawea was 19th century but I didn't have a better guess for FJ.

[Bastet]

12 minutes ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

That was what I was wondering (although has Psycho really fallen so far off the radar? maybe I am old)

Psycho's popularity as a classic, that Jamie's middle name of Lee comes from Janet Leigh's last (stage) name, and who JLC's parents are being part of the never-ending "nepo baby" conversation are why I was a bit surprised no one got that. 

I was the only one among my friends who got the Irving Thalberg & Norma Shearer TS, but that didn't surprise me, as I'm the only one who watches TCM.  One who is familiar with some of her films recognized Shearer from the picture but couldn't think of her name before I spoke, and had no idea who she was married to, or how HUGE Thalberg was in the development of cinema so wouldn't have come up with him even with more time.  The other didn't know who either of them were even after I said the names.

[SomeTameGazelle]

1 minute ago, Bastet said:

I was the only one among my friends who got the Irving Thalberg & Norma Shearer TS, but that didn't surprise me, as I'm the only one who watches TCM. 

I learned from TCM that Shearer discovered and mentored Janet Leigh. (And I probably would not have remembered Thalberg except Facebook just recently fed me an item about Shearer and Thalberg which also mentioned Leigh.) 

[kathyk2]

18 hours ago, Driad said:

What are the most difficult categories for most contestants?  Opera and sports must be up there, along with some of the puzzle categories.

I love sports I suck at geography especially with maps.

[Bastet]

19 hours ago, Driad said:

What are the most difficult categories for most contestants?  Opera and sports must be up there, along with some of the puzzle categories.

This analysis is almost 15 years old, so things may well have changed, but at the time:

Quote

The hardest category for contestants is "Classical Music," at least among categories that have appeared a minimum of 50 times. Just 72 percent of its clues are solved. "Art and Artists" at 76 percent, and "Word Origins," at 79 percent are the next-hardest.

 

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

This analysis is almost 15 years old, so things may well have changed, but at the time:

Quote

The hardest category for contestants is "Classical Music," at least among categories that have appeared a minimum of 50 times. Just 72 percent of its clues are solved. "Art and Artists" at 76 percent, and "Word Origins," at 79 percent are the next-hardest.

For just the past 3 years of watching, I have a sense that there has almost always been at least one player who nearly runs those categories. 
Maybe the online Jeopardy! try-out started including those categories more regularly?

FJ was an instaget for me, perhaps because Sacagawea has seemingly been a correct response 4 times in 2024?
BTW, Friday my TSs were gopher, cauldron, and Fanny Brice.

[MrAtoz]

18 hours ago, Bastet said:

Psycho's popularity as a classic, that Jamie's middle name of Lee comes from Janet Leigh's last (stage) name, and who JLC's parents are being part of the never-ending "nepo baby" conversation are why I was a bit surprised no one got that.

Psycho is still popular, to be sure. On the other hand, I have never been all that interested in the personal lives of actors and musicians, and so I am often shockingly ignorant of who is married to who, or who is the parent of who. I did happen to know who Jamie Lee Curtis's parents are, but that's mostly dumb luck.

On the other hand, a couple of years ago I was shocked and amazed to discover who her husband is (Christopher Guest). Even though they've been married since 1984, that fact had never crossed my radar.

[SomeTameGazelle]

On 7/18/2024 at 7:32 PM, Katy M said:

missed clues of stalctite (mnemonic device of c from celing, g from ground)

I was brought up on "the mites go up and the tights [tites] go down."

[proserpina65]

On 7/20/2024 at 3:27 PM, Bastet said:

None of the three of us had noticed Neilesh's comeback in DJ, so when he won, we all said some version of "Wait, what?"

He probably bored you into a stupor.  I knew he did that to me.

On 7/20/2024 at 5:50 PM, Ancaster said:

I used to work very close to St Martin the Fields and used to walk over for their free lunchtime concerts, which were great in part because people wandered in and out during the performances and that was perfectly acceptable.

That is so cool.  I am envious.

On 7/20/2024 at 6:02 PM, possibilities said:

but I did think it's generally considered a word for the first 5 books of the OT, which is the Torah.

The clue wanted the Hebrew term, though.

23 hours ago, Bastet said:

I was the only one among my friends who got the Irving Thalberg & Norma Shearer TS, but that didn't surprise me, as I'm the only one who watches TCM. 

I knew Norma Shearer right away & it only took a few seconds more to come up with Irving Thalberg.  Thank you, Intro to Film and History of Film in college.