Jeopardy! Season 34 (2017-2018)

[DrScottie]

This is from Thursday's episode as I have yet to see Friday's. It airs at 2:37 Saturday morning as a show about the New England Patriots plays in the Jeopardy! time slot. 

I was surprised on "insufficient space for twirling an expired feline" that they would have just accepted "not enough room to swing a cat" as opposed to a dead cat. The feline is expired.  Granted, Sean corrected himself anyway, but still Jeopardy! judges normally rule against that. 

[CarpeDiem54]

OMG!  I was rooting for Brandon and he actually won!  Will wonders never cease?  He does need to up his wagering game, though.  Jerking Around Claudia and Bland Yet Creepy Sean were equally annoying.

I only got the Marquise de Sade (missed DD) and Croatia and Serbia.

38 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

FJ was an instaget for me, though I'm not sure why.  I did read Archie comics back in the day, so maybe that contributed.

This.

[saber5055]

I agree about the dead cat thing, DrScottie, I often use swinging-a-dead-cat-over-my-head in regular conversations. (Go ahead, think what you wish.) Tabasco, I got my fur up about Trebek's "can't afford to maintain our national parks" comment too. It was like tossing a match on my kerosene. Illinois state parks are maintained by contractors; when locals tried to mow and take care of the parks that closed because our state keeps going broke, they were kicked out and told they couldn't do jobs awarded to union contractors ... even though the union guys wouldn't do the maintenance since the parks were closed. Maddening.

WTH was that first question about not being able to access the Internet or not being able to plug in their cell phones or whatever it was. So confusing, and every one of those (wrong) answers were right IMO.

I also didn't get why Trebek hesitated in the Tesla category after the woman named the picture "induction coil." And he says okay, and corrects it to "Tesla coil." But the category was Tesla. The heck? And wasn't it just yesterday or the day before when FJ's answer was Tesla and Edison? Or am I confused with the rerun I watch before the new show?

Finally, my childhood spent reading comics and using all my allowance money to buy MORE comics came in handy for FJ. Archie was a no-brainer for me. I always bought Archie -- among others. When I saw the category, I was stoked!

Meanwhile, yeay Brandon. But Brandon, you really need to learn how to wager on FJ and those DDs. I was all "geesh" more than once at his bets. That luck won't last forever.

Trebek's surgery has been a big story on local and national news. But we learned it first here!

[saber5055]

I wonder when this episode was taped, because there was a HUGE hub-bub over the Nazis who marched in August in Charlottesville using the Detroit Red Wings logo on their shields. Which made this TS a no-brainer for me.

[lb60]

Congrats to Brandon.  I like him.  Which means he will probably flame out on Monday.  lol

I got Temple Square, Marquis de Sade, and minimalism.

I said DC for FJ because I know jack diddly about comics.  Obviously!

Get well soon, Trebek!  

[catrice2]

I am not getting attached to anyone since we've had a run of one or two dayers.   Ill advised or not, at least he didn't wager too much when he got the daily double so late in the game or he would not have been in a position to win.....there's that. 

[peeayebee]

Instead of Temple Square, I said Tabernacle Square. I did get the missed DD of the Marquis de Sade as well as FJ.

I like Brandon. He sure is fast.

[YoureSoUrban]

Yay Brandon! 

I don't think I got any TS, but loved that they had an entire category for Tesla and I got the De Sade DD. No clue on FJ even though I LOVED Archie comics.

That Claudia...oy. 

[Fex]

4 hours ago, mojoween said:

I missed most of the NHL category but heard Alex say “fly” and got the TS of Red Wings without hearing the rest of the clue.

That's awesome. I loved that category. Normally I am useless on sports, but I got all of these. I wondered if they would accept Might Ducks. Didn't they change their name to just Ducks?

3 hours ago, mojoween said:

I did not get Archie for FJ, the clue confused me but I did get the TS of Watchmen.  God what an awful movie that was.

Yeah, calling him a hero tripped me up for a second, but I did say Archie in the end.

[biakbiak]

20 hours ago, Tabasco Cat said:

 

It'll be easier to skip the college tournament if it's not aired until June or July.

My point about the College tournament is presumably people had already booked their travel and hotels and it's a lot of people to organize not when it airs. 

[Toothbrush]

Yay Brandon! Now please quit with the boneheaded guesses & learn to wager (you got lucky!) so you can be 2018's first repeat champion. But by all means continue to so nicely coordinate your shirts & ties. Claudia made me nervous just watching her. 

TS I got were mobile phone, Temple Square, Electro, Flaubert, Marquis de Sade (Brandon's missed DD). I said Galaxy Quest for Guardians of the Galaxy..d'oh I got FJ as soon as I saw the word teenager.

Isn't the name of the novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", and not simply Huckleberry Finn? 

4 hours ago, peeayebee said:

Instead of Temple Square, I said Tabernacle Square.

Logical mistake because of the choir. 

[Clanstarling]

13 hours ago, Tabasco Cat said:

I like the new champ, Brandon. I also liked Sean. I'll be doing his opening wave all year. I loved it.

I take issue with Alex's statement that "we can't afford to maintain our national parks" or whatever the exact words were. The current political climate obviously puts very little priority on maintenance and upkeep of our natural resources, but it's simply not true that we "can't afford it". It's just not a high priority in Washington DC lately. The huge budget cuts for 2018 for the National Park Service, for instance (because I don't think the Appalachian Trail is funded by them), is solely the result of lobbying by the oil and gas industry in this country. I don't want to go all political about it, but not being able to "afford it" is an absurd claim.

A more neutral statement would have been that we're having trouble funding the parks. But yeah, it was an odd thing to say.  I think his heart was in the right place though, and trying to highlight the need for more funds.

13 hours ago, DrScottie said:

This is from Thursday's episode as I have yet to see Friday's. It airs at 2:37 Saturday morning as a show about the New England Patriots plays in the Jeopardy! time slot. 

I was surprised on "insufficient space for twirling an expired feline" that they would have just accepted "not enough room to swing a cat" as opposed to a dead cat. The feline is expired.  Granted, Sean corrected himself anyway, but still Jeopardy! judges normally rule against that. 

Me too - because expired/dead is in the clue - even though I've generally said swing a cat, rather than a dead cat. (of course a live cat would make it more...challenging)

13 hours ago, saber5055 said:

WTH was that first question about not being able to access the Internet or not being able to plug in their cell phones or whatever it was. So confusing, and every one of those (wrong) answers were right IMO.

I know, that was a weird clue. I don't "access" my mobile phone, I use it. And when the battery is low, I can't use it.  Though they seem similar words, the Merriam Webster dictionary doesn't have "use" as a synonym for access, so maybe I'm on solid ground there. ;)

11 hours ago, peeayebee said:

Instead of Temple Square, I said Tabernacle Square. I did get the missed DD of the Marquis de Sade as well as FJ.

My husband said Tabernacle Square - which I would have if I'd thought of it. But I went with the generic "temple"  and got it right, by chance.

9 hours ago, Fex said:

Yeah, calling him a hero tripped me up for a second, but I did say Archie in the end.

I was a comic book reader and got stuck in the DC/Marvel universes and couldn't get out. The husband, who never read comic books, got it. How rude.

Edited January 6, 2018 by Clanstarling

[Ailianna]

14 hours ago, secnarf said:

FJ was an instaget and I was happy Brandon won.

Not as happy and surprised as he was!  I liked Brandon immediately because he seemed genuinely charming.

Since they all did so poorly in the "People who are Blue" Category (not the real name, but it could have been) which was largely about comic book characters, I didn't think it was a good category for them.  Brandon was betting for Sean to fail, basically, but also for himself to get it right.  I figured it out, after a small digression between Marvel and DC (neither of which are names) and then realized--duh, Archie.

[PaulaO]

I like Brandon, but he's not a bold wagerer, so my guess is he will be a one and done.  I ran the Tesla category, and FJ! was an instaget.  The only comic books I know are Archies, Richie Rich,  Little Dot, etc.  I know nothing about superhero comics.

Edited January 6, 2018 by PaulaO

[secnarf]

40 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

I know, that was a weird clue. I don't "access" my mobile phone, I use it. And when the battery is low, I can't use it.  Though they seem similar words, the Merriam Webster dictionary doesn't have "use" as a synonym for access, so maybe I'm on solid ground there. ;)

I thought the wording of the clue was "have access to", which makes sense. And the clue was ultimately asking for a word definition (nomophobia), so the other answers provided were not correct.

Nomophobia is the irrational fear of being without your mobile phone or being unable to use your phone for some reason, such as the absence of a signal or running out of minutes or battery power.

[Mystery Author]

Quote

I don't want to go all political about it, but not being able to "afford it" is an absurd claim.

I don't want to get all political, either, but boy do I agree! For example, he-who-shall-not-be-named renewed leases for a copper and nickel mining operation on the border of Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (which reversed an Obama-era decision).

Meanwhile, I actually pictured the "Archie" banner, even though I spent my allowance on horror and romance comics when I was a kid (which, truth be told, led to my becoming a writer). Mr. Author was impressed and said, "Hey, you're not just a pretty face!" Mr. Author is a hoot.

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, secnarf said:

I thought the wording of the clue was "have access to", which makes sense. And the clue was ultimately asking for a word definition (nomophobia), so the other answers provided were not correct.

 

 

1 hour ago, secnarf said:

Nomophobia is the irrational fear of being without your mobile phone or being unable to use your phone for some reason, such as the absence of a signal or running out of minutes or battery power.

You are right that it is ultimately asking for the definition of nomophobia, and given that, the other answers were incorrect. The problem I, and I think others, had was parsing the clue because access can work, but isn't particularly clear, at least to me. The definition itself, as you quoted, does not use the word access, but does use "use" and "fear of being without" which would have made mere sense to me, in any case.

[Fex]

14 hours ago, Toothbrush said:

Isn't the name of the novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", and not simply Huckleberry Finn? 

This always bugs me! They do it with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, too. The other day they accepted Birdman, but maybe the rest of it, Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), is more of a subtitle.

[DrScottie]

6 hours ago, Fex said:

This always bugs me! They do it with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, too. The other day they accepted Birdman, but maybe the rest of it, Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), is more of a subtitle.

I knew about Alice, but I didn't even remember that Birdman had a subtitle. 

I'll give you another famous example. Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. They've accepted just Dr. Strangelove.  

As for Claudia, I thought she might have been trying to look like Taylor Swift. In any case, I'm glad Brandon won.

[The Wild Sow]

21 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

Yeah, calling him a hero tripped me up for a second, but I did say Archie in the end.

I think I misinterpreted "teenage hero" as "teenage SUPERhero."  The ones who spring to mind first are Robin (Dick Grayson) , Superboy (Clark Kent), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), and Captain Marvel (Billy Batson.)

So I went with Marvel, even though it's probably not his first name!

[Lois Sandborne]

Brandon charmed me with his goofy game show anecdote, so I want him to stick around, but he also did too much goofy guessing and wagering, so I don't quite see it.  His reaction to winning was very sweet, though.

I know next to nothing about comics and superheroes, but I managed to get all the Blue People answers.  I didn't have a clue for FJ though, except to know it wasn't Marvel or DC.  Made sense when the answer was revealed, of course.

[opus]

5 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

 

So I went with Marvel, even though it's probably not his first name!

Marvel Carson

[proserpina65]

On ‎01‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 8:07 PM, PaulaO said:

Corvette was an instaget although I can't figure out the fleur de lis connection.  Let me know when Sean is off the game.  I couldn't stand him.

I'd should've been able to figure it out, since a corvette was a class of French naval vessels during the Napoleonic Wars (may still be but I'm a Napoleonic War naval buff so that's where I know it from), and so the fleur-de-lis makes sense.  But I had no clue.

On ‎01‎/‎04‎/‎2018 at 9:10 PM, Miss Chevious said:

Bundestag

I started to say Bundestag, then got confused with Reichstag and gave up.

[proserpina65]

On ‎01‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 7:58 PM, mojoween said:

!!!!!!!

My TV is safe!

I did not get Archie for FJ, the clue confused me but I did get the TS of Watchmen.  God what an awful movie that was.

I took a wild guess at Archie because he was the only teenage comic book character I could think of.  I thought I was wrong as hell, so color me surprised when that was the correct answer.

[proserpina65]

On ‎01‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 8:22 PM, DrScottie said:

This is from Thursday's episode as I have yet to see Friday's. It airs at 2:37 Saturday morning as a show about the New England Patriots plays in the Jeopardy! time slot. 

I was surprised on "insufficient space for twirling an expired feline" that they would have just accepted "not enough room to swing a cat" as opposed to a dead cat. The feline is expired.  Granted, Sean corrected himself anyway, but still Jeopardy! judges normally rule against that. 

I've actually heard it with just cat, not dead cat.  Given that I'm familiar with the naval expression derived from the use of the cat-o-nine tails rather than an actual cat, dead cat actually makes less sense to me.  Reading up on the origin of the phrase is interesting, since there's apparently a lot of debate about the naval derivation.  The earliest non-naval instance seems to involve just a cat, not a dead one.

Edited to note that I realize the clue specified deceased feline, but the fact that there is such an expression without the dead part is probably why they accepted it.

Edited January 8, 2018 by proserpina65

[teebax]

Where is everyone this evening? Are you still snowed in? I thought it was a solid episode, but I found Jamie a little annoying. 

I'm surprised third contestant whiffed on FJ, which was an instaget. I think the Missouri part was thrown in specifically to elicit a Truman response. 

Anyway, my gets were squeaky door, Windows 2.0, heresy, the effigy DD, the elephant DD, and FJ. 

Congrats to Brandon. His story about his mom touched my cold, dark heart. 

[mojoween]

Missouri and Truman meant little to me, I said Nixon immediately.

If Jamie had won I would have been out until she was gone.  She was jabbing the button loud enough that I could hear it when I wasn’t looking and her constant jabber during DJ was working my last nerve.

Also, all I could see when I looked at her was Daisy from “Bones,” who was ALSO very annoying.

[M. Darcy]

I’m a bit confused if he meant the color purple or The Color Purple.

A category on the Spanish Inquisition- I did not expect that.  I honestly gasped that no one knew Hello Dolly. 

FJ was so easy. Truman only works if he skipped Eisenhower’s Inaguration and I’m pretty sure he didn’t. 

[Browncoat]

So, I guess zebras are both natural wonders and sources of ivory?

Jamie was fine in the first round, I guess, but she definitely lost me in DJ, by jumping to the middles of categories.

I still don't know if Brandon meant the color purple or The Color Purple -- or both, perhaps?

FJ was easy.  I got several TS/missed DD including keyhole, fix a squeaky door, heresy, effigy, Waitress, and elephant.

[GreekGeek]

9 hours ago, Browncoat said:

So, I guess zebras are both natural wonders and sources of ivory?

Jamie was fine in the first round, I guess, but she definitely lost me in DJ, by jumping to the middles of categories.

I still don't know if Brandon meant the color purple or The Color Purple -- or both, perhaps?

FJ was easy.  I got several TS/missed DD including keyhole, fix a squeaky door, heresy, effigy, Waitress, and elephant.

I think Brandon meant both--he mentioned seeing the movie 20 times and also wearing purple. I'm glad he won again.  Jamie overdid the comments and the "ooh"s.

I said keys and not keyhole, but I knew the above TS's plus Ken Follett, DH Lawrence, and Hello, Dolly. The latter as TS wasn't that surprising to me, despite the Bette Midler revival. I wouldn't call any of the songs standards other than the title song.  I wondered about Truman for a moment in FJ but then realized only Nixon made sense.

Edited January 9, 2018 by GreekGeek

[Kathira]

Yay for Brandon. I was worried when he got off to a bad start. I knew you guys would hate Jamie, with her button mashing and vocalizations. She seemed very "extra" and not in a good way. I got squeaky door, in effigy, Ken Follett and the relatively easy FJ. I briefly considered Johnson, but he became President on a plane, not the other way around.

[CarpeDiem54]

Yay for Brandon!  I loved his purple story about his Mom and that he wears purple.  I also liked that he made a decent wager for FJ.  I'm so glad hippie, dippy Jamie didn't win.  I had to like Dave because baby racoons - squee! 

I got Windows 2.0, heresy, in effigy (missed DD), Hello Dolly, Waitress, and elephant (missed DD).

FJ was an instaget.

[AuntieL]

I saw "Missouri" and confidently said Truman, then wondered why he wouldn't have been at the inauguration.  I didn't get any further.  Doh.  I did get effigy, Waitress, elephant and squeaky door. 

[mojoween]

Windows XP made me giggle because the clue said 1987.

I’ve never seen Waitress and don’t know any of the songs but the song titles in the clue seemed to fit a play about someone who works in a restaurant.

[Tabasco Cat]

I got Follett and effigy and another TS or two but I was really surprised to see Brandon pull this one out. I would have bet real money that Dave knew FJ. I got that instantly. You just remember weird random shit sometimes. I found this obituary from the NYT (2011) for Col. Ralph Abertazzie and to my surprise the exact quote from Albertazzie's book that I remember reading back in 1979 was at the bottom:
 

Quote

 

"Air Force One was 39,000 feet over a point 13 miles southwest of Jefferson City, Missouri,” he wrote. “The time was 3 minutes and 25 seconds past noon. Albertazzie picked up his microphone and spoke to ground control: ‘Kansas City, this was Air Force One. Will you change our call sign to SAM 27000?'

Back came the reply: ‘Roger, SAM 27000. Good luck to the President.’

“ ‘Roger, 27000.’ ”

 

Nixon. Insta-get.

[Miss Chevious]

Glad Brandon won again, Jamie was just too much. I got TS of keyhole, squeaky door, Hungary, DD’s of in effigy and elephant (duh-who associates zebras with ivory?!) Got Nixon for FJ immediately. Unfortunately I’m old enough to remember when that actually happened. 

[Ailianna]

When heresy was a TS, I decided they didn't deserve a Spanish Inquisition category.  Then not only did they not finish it (I would have gone there first, if I were on that set), no one made any jokes about what is or is not expected. The whole set up just so invited a Monty Python reference.

I was torn between Brandon (who I like) and Dave (who is from my home state--rarely do Idahoans make national TV and even more rarely for something positive).  So it worked out for me, in that Dave did very well, but Brandon won (though he worried me during SJ).  

[YoureSoUrban]

Jamie was extra but overall I thought they were a nice trio. They really enjoyed playing, and each other.

FJ was an instaget. I thought it was so easy Nixon might be wrong and momentarily ventured into Missouri=Truman territory but ultimately stuck with Nixon. I felt badly for Dave for missing it. He had played so impressively throughout!

Edited to add my keyhole and heresy TS and the in effigy and elephant DDs.

Edited January 9, 2018 by YoureSoUrban

[DrScottie]

2 hours ago, Kathira said:

Yay for Brandon. I was worried when he got off to a bad start. I knew you guys would hate Jamie, with her button mashing and vocalizations. She seemed very "extra" and not in a good way. I got squeaky door, in effigy, Ken Follett and the relatively easy FJ. I briefly considered Johnson, but he became President on a plane, not the other way around.

Glad Brandon got another win. I liked Dave too. 

I thought of LBJ first also then re-read the clue that said ex-President and reailzed it was Nixon. 

Jamie, you can't burn someone at the stake if they aren't there. Doesn't work too well. She probably couldn't think of in effigy.   

Also got Microsoft Windows 2.0 and heresy. 6 letters, inquisition, come on people! 

Edited January 9, 2018 by DrScottie
because words aren't letters

[peeayebee]

2 hours ago, M. Darcy said:

I’m a bit confused if he meant the color purple or The Color Purple.

I thought it was clear he meant the movie because he said he watched it 20 times. I suppose he wears purple in honor or the movie (and his mother).

 

Quote

FJ was so easy. Truman only works if he skipped Eisenhower’s Inaguration and I’m pretty sure he didn’t. 

I said Truman because of Missouri. The clue said "He became an ex-President while flying..." and I just thought that meant when the election results were final. I didn't think about the inauguration. 

TSs I got were heresy, Waitress, Ken Follett, and DH Lawrence (though for a second I was confusing The Rainbow with Gravity's Rainbow and couldn't remember that author). I also got the DD of "in effigy."

Loved Dave's raccoon story.

[AuntiePam]

20 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

I said Truman because of Missouri. The clue said "He became an ex-President while flying..." and I just thought that meant when the election results were final. I didn't think about the inauguration.

That question was deliberately deceptive.  "Became ex-president while flying" was enough -- or maybe too easy.

Brandon didn't form one of his responses as a question -- they don't take $$ away for that?  It was in the Lighting category, I think.   His second attempt was simply the answer, one word.  Sometimes all I hear is an "s" sound of the word "is" -- don't hear "what" or "who" at all. 

[biakbiak]

I cannot believe they not only had a picture but said Thelonius Funk in that clue. I mean WTF?

[biakbiak]

I am ashamed to say that for a nanosecond I thought of JFK as an answer to FJ but thought that would be a little crass and also wrong. Boyfriend said Truman but I pointed out that he would be at the inaguartion and still neither of us got it. Shameful given there arent even that many Presidents that would have been on a plane. 

Edited January 9, 2018 by biakbiak

[Toothbrush]

Jamie was indeed way too extra. Liked Dave, especially his raccoon story, but was shocked that he didn't get FJ. He was the only one whose time it was not before.  Glad that Brandon pulled out the win, but again with the ringing in when you do not know the answer and hoping it will come to you. That works for Ken Jennings, but not many others. Brandon looked nice in his coordinating shades of purple, and it was a nice tribute to his mother. 

TS I got were in effigy (missed DD), heresy, Hello Dolly, Follett, Hungary, elephant (missed DD). FJ was an instaget; the Truman/MO connection didn't even occur to me. 

5 hours ago, M. Darcy said:

A category on the Spanish Inquisition- I did not expect that.

I see what you did there 

[Mystery Author]

Quote

 I had to like Dave because baby racoons - squee! 

You wouldn't squee over baby raccoons if they lived in the crawl space under your house!

Plus, they grow up to be adult raccoons, who hiss at humans and attack your pets. I speak from experience. We had a mama and her babies under our house for a long, long time. For one thing, they SMELL. We had to wait until Mama began teaching her kits how to forage for food. Then Mr. Author sat on our back deck for a couple of nights, armed with moth balls and a slingshot. And he'd built a Rube Goldberg contraption that kept them from getting back under the house.

I love the movie WAITRESS, and knew their was a Broadway musical (hello, Tony Awards), so I ran the whole category.

IVORY Coast = zebras?

[PaulaO]

 Ivory Coast=elephants seemed waaaay too easy for a DD.  But zebras?  She did get Victoria Falls though after Dave answered zebras for another clue in the same category.  Too many stripey beasts!

[M. Darcy]

Quote

Hello, Dolly. The latter as TS wasn't that surprising to me, despite the Bette Midler revival. 

Don't forget about WALL-E!  It Only Takes a Moment was his favorite song so even if they don't know their Broadway musicals, they could have known it from the movie.  Heh, though, I still can't believe I actually gasped out loud when it was a TS. 

Man, Broadway musicals and British writers.  That's two of my Cliff Clavin categories. 

[Clanstarling]

13 hours ago, Kathira said:

Yay for Brandon. I was worried when he got off to a bad start. I knew you guys would hate Jamie, with her button mashing and vocalizations. She seemed very "extra" and not in a good way. I got squeaky door, in effigy, Ken Follett and the relatively easy FJ. I briefly considered Johnson, but he became President on a plane, not the other way around.

Part of the fun, since I started coming to the forum, is anticipating who'll take offense at what. I allow myself to take offense at the most trivial things (an exclamation point after their name! Underlining! A heart dotting an "i"! all of those have turned me off at one time or another)

11 hours ago, Ailianna said:

When heresy was a TS, I decided they didn't deserve a Spanish Inquisition category.  Then not only did they not finish it (I would have gone there first, if I were on that set), no one made any jokes about what is or is not expected. The whole set up just so invited a Monty Python reference.

We made the jokes on our couch. I did not expect heresy to be a TS in the inquisition category. 

9 hours ago, biakbiak said:

I cannot believe they not only had a picture but said Thelonius Funk in that clue. I mean WTF?

My husband said (for the whole category) "well, this is just a giveaway, isn't it?"

6 hours ago, Mystery Author said:

You wouldn't squee over baby raccoons if they lived in the crawl space under your house!

Plus, they grow up to be adult raccoons, who hiss at humans and attack your pets. I speak from experience. We had a mama and her babies under our house for a long, long time. For one thing, they SMELL. We had to wait until Mama began teaching her kits how to forage for food. Then Mr. Author sat on our back deck for a couple of nights, armed with moth balls and a slingshot. And he'd built a Rube Goldberg contraption that kept them from getting back under the house.

I'm right with you there, Mystery Author. They are also noisy. When they were in our crawl space, they'd come out at night, and I caught them in the early morning sitting in my children's toy toddler car. (okay, that would look a little cute in memes - but not so much on your patio). I'm not sure how we got them out.

Edited January 9, 2018 by Clanstarling

[ABay]

13 hours ago, M. Darcy said:

A category on the Spanish Inquisition- I did not expect that.

Well, Jeopardy's chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency....

[saber5055]

I swear one of those flag clues said it was black-and-white, which led to the first zebra answer. But I just looked at pics of all African flags and there aren't any so colored. So, zebra = *shrug* Although I answered zebra to the black-and-white clue too. I congratulated myself for coming up with Truman (Missouri!) for FJ. Congrats, show, for keeping me humble. As for raccoons, they are horrible creatures. Adults can and will tear a dog apart, and their urine/feces carry leptospirosis, a disease that can kill a dog if it is not vaccinated against it. And if raccoons pee in your horse-hay bunk, the contaminated hay (which you cannot detect) can kill a horse. This in addition to them being able to chew through any wood, including the eves of your home. All good Jeopardy clues!

Mystery Author: Live trap. Bait it with marshmallows and a chunk of sausage. Works like a charm, but will also catch skunks, so good luck with that.