Jeopardy! Season 34 (2017-2018)

[DoubleUTeeEff]

I was literally ironically yelling "WHISPER CAMPAIGN, you dolts" at the TV. But I'm being unfair because the game has really picked up for the semi-finals. Good for Hannah.

I couldn't have missed The Nutcracker if I tried since Tchaikovsky was just discussed in The Americans.

[saber5055]

10 hours ago, dcalley said:

I wondered if he was trying to make them feel good in comparison to the previous game's scores (which to them had just happened), which were pretty darn high for 2/3 contestants.

That's how I took it. It has to frustrate Trebek, who has all the answers on his cards, to have so many TSs. We get freaked out here when there are many, or ones we consider easy TSs. Just imagine if we had all the answers beforehand. We'd be apoplectic ... moreso than usual!

3 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I probably rocked back and forth because I have trouble standing for a long time without switching my weight from foot to foot. 

I'm often in circumstances where I have to stand for long periods of time, in flat shoes on concrete. After a period of time, I will shift my weight to one foot, then another after that foot gets tired. Maybe 15 or 20 minutes per foot. I don't weave back and forth like I'm doing a rain dance or something. Plus my weight shifting isn't noticeable, my body stays in the same place. If they hooked a generator to Thatcher, he could have powered half of LA with his constant weaving.

[proserpina65]

1 hour ago, saber5055 said:

I'm often in circumstances where I have to stand for long periods of time, in flat shoes on concrete. After a period of time, I will shift my weight to one foot, then another after that foot gets tired. Maybe 15 or 20 minutes per foot. I don't weave back and forth like I'm doing a rain dance or something. Plus my weight shifting isn't noticeable, my body stays in the same place. If they hooked a generator to Thatcher, he could have powered half of LA with his constant weaving.

I missed last night's show, so I didn't see Thatcher, but I know my weight shifting can be noticeable, so I don't judge that kind of thing.  Now, miming, weird gestures and general douche-baggery - those I judge harshly.  (I'm looking at you, Austin.)

[Browncoat]

Thatcher displayed some general douche-baggish miming in the intro, too.

[Browncoat]

And speaking of douche-baggish miming, the guys tonight did it, too.  I missed Alli's intro, so I don't know what (if anything) she did.  Either way, I was rooting for her.  Boo hiss.

I thought FJ was kind of oddly worded.  I wasn't exactly sure what they were looking for -- I initially thought some sort of sentence, too, but settled on just translating the three main words.  I really didn't think that was it, though.  Imagine my surprise when I was right! 

TS I got included Honest Trailers, Kaiser, Regina (which hopefully they would have accepted without the province name), waffle, Richmond, and teak.

I am not looking forward to the next two days, but I'm rooting for Hannah.

[DrScottie]

29 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Either way, I was rooting for her. 

I was rooting for Alli also. It was great to see someone from my alma mater make it that far. Same school, same major, same award. I probably should have tried out 18 years ago when I was a sophomore there. I'm rooting for Hannah now too.  

29 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I thought FJ was kind of oddly worded.  I wasn't exactly sure what they were looking for -- I initially thought some sort of sentence, too, but settled on just translating the three main words.  I really didn't think that was it, though.  Imagine my surprise when I was right! 

The clue did say these three words. It's John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." via = way, veritas = truth, vita = life. 

Without knowing the Bible passage, I suspect you could also know veritas from the saying "in vino, veritas" there's truth in wine. 

29 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

TS I got included Honest Trailers, Kaiser, Regina (which hopefully they would have accepted without the province name), waffle, Richmond, and teak.

Got most of those along with Rochester, but couldn't think of teak. I think it would have been fine to answer Regina without including Saskatchewan. It's Canada and we know how much Trebek loves to talk about his homeland so of course he mentioned it, but I don't think it was necessary. 

Edited April 19, 2018 by DrScottie

[Browncoat]

1 minute ago, DrScottie said:

The clue did say these three words. It's John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." via = way, veritas = truth, vita = life. 

Without knowing the Bible passage, I suspect you could also know veritas from the saying "in vino, veritas" there's truth in wine. 

I sort of knew the Bible passage, but I actually just knew the Latin for all three words.  I still don't like the way the clue was worded, though.

[CarpeDiem54]

I wanted all three of these mimimg douchebags to lose and to bring back Rebecca.  I'm firmly #teamhannah

Those two DJ DD's were way too easy - Vandals and Raleigh.

I got teardown, Kaiser, Regina, waffle, Rochester, and teak.

I was confused about FJ, too, but got way, truth and life so I guess I wasn't that confused.

[DrScottie]

4 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I sort of knew the Bible passage, but I actually just knew the Latin for all three words.  I still don't like the way the clue was worded, though.

I see your point as the clue asked for three words but four distinct words are included in the phrase: "via et veritas et vita" Et is still a word.  

[teebax]

"I love watching contestants stare at higher valued clues because they refuse to start at the tops," said no Jeopardy fan ever. God, I hate this tournament this year. I guesd I'm rooting fpr UCF, but I can't even remember her name. 

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

And speaking of douche-baggish miming, the guys tonight did it, too.  I missed Alli's intro, so I don't know what (if anything) she did.

Oh don't worry, she was part of the douche-baggery so don't be giving her some free pass on doucheness. Those three mimicked the "adult" ToC three. Remember when Buzzy et. al. did the see/hear/speak no evil intros? These three were doing the I-just-woke-up routine laughed at by no one anywhere. (Thanks Teebax.)

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

Boo hiss.

Drink. (Thanks, I needed it.)

For some reason I'm a Dhruv fan. Maybe it's how he spells his name. So I'm good with his winning. Or not.

As for any TSs ... who cares. This show is making me apathetic.

[secnarf]

I was also confused about the wording of FJ. I got truth and life easily, but kept wanting to translate 'via' to 'road' or 'path', before the first part of the quote clicked and I got it. Then I wanted to say "what is the way, the truth and the life", and that's when the three-word part confused me. Did they want a translation of the sentence in the clue or just the words not including 'and' (since it then became clear they weren't looking for the whole quote and I shouldn't include 'the' before each word). So then I decided I would write "What are way and truth and life" - not very grammatically elegant but a bit of a compromise.

I did a lot of thinking during those 30 seconds! And still had about 8 seconds to spare.

[SHD]

I don't listen to the interviews, so was there a reason Alex made a point of saying the games were picked before anyone knew which contestants would be playing? Was there a category today that related directly to one of the contestants or what they're studying?

Nice high-scoring game but weird betting for FJ, I thought. Maybe there was a reasoning behind it that I just didn't get.

[jaybird2]

1 hour ago, teebax said:

"I love watching contestants stare at higher valued clues because they refuse to start at the tops," said no Jeopardy fan ever. God, I hate this tournament this year. I guesd I'm rooting fpr UCF, but I can't even remember her name. 

hannah

[opus]

7 minutes ago, jaybird2 said:

hannah

Double letters in the middle:)

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, DrScottie said:

Without knowing the Bible passage, I suspect you could also know veritas from the saying "in vino, veritas" there's truth in wine. 

I only know few if any passages from any bible, and my knowledge of Latin is rudimentary (mostly consisting of phrases used in the law), but FJ was still easy for me because veritas (indeed, thanks to that phrase if nothing else) and vita were immediate translations and, while a couple of things sprang to mind for via, "way" made the most sense in the context of a statement by Jesus so that didn't take me much longer.   

FJ was all I saw, but I was clear on what three words in the quote they were looking for - the ones other than "and."

[dcalley]

47 minutes ago, SHD said:

I don't listen to the interviews, so was there a reason Alex made a point of saying the games were picked before anyone knew which contestants would be playing? Was there a category today that related directly to one of the contestants or what they're studying?

I didn't hear the interviews either and had the same thought, but here you go, from Dhruv himself:

So Alex was making assumptions about the viewing audience (and their assumptions) and possibly about the players too. Did he even know for a fact the religions of the three players? I just think it was unnecessary for him to say anything at all.

[peeayebee]

I didn't think FJ was worded confusingly. However, I didn't get it right. I recognized veritas as truth. I thought life was in there, but I took a guess on the third word, so I said life, truth, love. I didn't realize 'via' was Latin. Anyway, I wish I'd remembered the English verse from the Bible, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Oh well.

I got Kaiser, Regina, Rochester, Richmond, and teak.

The only clue I got in the math category was bar graph.

Can't stand the pantomiming so many contestants are doing these days.

[GreekGeek]

2 hours ago, DrScottie said:

I was rooting for Alli also. It was great to see someone from my alma mater make it that far. Same school, same major, same award. I probably should have tried out 18 years ago when I was a sophomore there. I'm rooting for Hannah now too.  

The clue did say these three words. It's John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." via = way, veritas = truth, vita = life. 

Without knowing the Bible passage, I suspect you could also know veritas from the saying "in vino, veritas" there's truth in wine. 

Got most of those along with Rochester, but couldn't think of teak. I think it would have been fine to answer Regina without including Saskatchewan. It's Canada and we know how much Trebek loves to talk about his homeland so of course he mentioned it, but I don't think it was necessary. 

Ditto on the TS's, although I thought of Roanoke and not Raleigh. I also would not have added Saskatchewan, since they were only asking for the place that begins with "R." I'm curious about the pronunciation of "Regina." Is rhyming it with "vagina" the Canadian way? I've always pronounced it "Re-GEE-nah."

When I saw the three doing those silly pantomimes, I said, "The PTV-ers will have a field day with these clowns!" I was hoping they would all agree to make faces, only to have two back down and leave the third one looking ridiculous.

I wondered why the disclaimer about the categories. Thank you for the explanation. Ironic that the only one to get FJ right was non-Christian. 

[Bastet]

28 minutes ago, dcalley said:

I didn't hear the interviews either and had the same thought, but here you go, from Dhruv himself:

The hell?  Did Alli go to a Christian college, or otherwise indicate herself to be Christian? 

6 minutes ago, GreekGeek said:

I'm curious about the pronunciation of "Regina." Is rhyming it with "vagina" the Canadian way? I've always pronounced it "Re-GEE-nah."

I don't know how across the board that pronunciation is in Canada (e.g. how a person's name Regina would be pronounced [in the U.S. I've heard both, but the "gee" pronunciation more frequently]), but I know that's how the city is pronounced.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Bastet

[saber5055]

23 minutes ago, dcalley said:

I didn't hear the interviews either and had the same thought, but here you go, from Dhruv himself:

I read the clip from Dhruv and said, "Oh, crap" out loud after reading it, to no one because I'm here alone. But I found it that stunning, that Trebek would ASSume two players were not Christian AND that those two players wouldn't understand Latin because ... well, because Trebek is an asshat.

I recognized the words as Latin but didn't have a clue it was a phrase from the Bible. And I went to Sunday School/church from a little kid up, was baptized, took communion, was in a church guild, celebrated Stations of the Cross, got the ashes on my forehead on Ash Wednesday, yada yada yada. Yet some non-Christian college kid answered a so-called Bible FJ while I couldn't.

WTH.

And I don't mean WTH me, I mean WTH Trebek.

[Kathira]

Hooray for Rochester, home of the sadly struggling Eastman Kodak. George Eastman's home is a really interesting museum now and is a world leader in film and photo preservation. Boo hiss that it was a TS.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eastman_Museum

I was rooting for Dhruv, too. He did really well in his original game and I like him for some reason. FJ was an instaget for me, but it was right up my alley. I would have bet it all based on the category (and then probably have been caught flat-footed, LOL). In this case, I don't think not being Christian was necessarily that huge of a disadvantage. It's kind of a famous saying of Jesus, and even if you didn't know it, it's reasonable to expect a Jeopardy contestant to know the Latin words and reason it out from there.

As a note, there are lots of Indian Christians. A quick Google check says around 28 million, with the largest concentration in the south. Christianity was supposedly brough to India by Thomas the Apostle. Interestingly, the Indian Christians I know tend to have English names, but I think this isn't necessarily the case for all Indian Christians.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Kathira
Info on Christianity in India

[DrScottie]

38 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Did Alli go to a Christian college, or otherwise indicate herself to be Christian?

WPI is not a Christian college. 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

The hell?  Did Alli go to a Christian college, or otherwise indicate herself to be Christian?

 

24 minutes ago, DrScottie said:

WPI is not a Christian college. 

So he was just assuming she was Christian based on the color of her skin and her name?  There was nothing in her interviews that revealed her to be a Christian?  Because without any indication of her religion, there are two assumptions going on here - that the two brown guys with "ethnic" names were not Christian and that the white gal with a Western European name was (thus putting her at such an advantage Alex felt the need to remind us categories and clues are chosen before contestants are assigned to the game), placing Christianity as the default.  Which, of course, sets aside that the Latin words (how this atheist easily came up with the answer) and/or potential for non-Christians having heard of the passage mean there are, as is typical, ways of getting to the answer without being a reader of the Christian bible.

Gross, all around, if that's the case.

Edited April 19, 2018 by Bastet

[Brookside]

On 4/17/2018 at 5:35 PM, CarpeDiem54 said:

  Thank goodness that douchey Thatcher didn't win. 

I will never be able to root for anyone named after a milk snatcher.

[EllenB]

This particular question was as much about knowing Latin as knowing the Bible, so it wasn't as problematic as it could have been.  Overall, though, Jeopardy does have Bible questions pretty frequently, and seldom has specific questions about other religions' texts.  

[Bliss]

11 hours ago, GreekGeek said:

 I'm curious about the pronunciation of "Regina." Is rhyming it with "vagina" the Canadian way? I've always pronounced it "Re-GEE-nah."

Yes, it rhymes with vagina. I lived there (in Regina, not vagina) for 13 years and I can attest to it being a truly wonderful city... even in January when the streets have ice ruts, cars need block heaters and it's colder than a blank's blank (I'd be banned from this site if I filled in those blanks). Regina is one of the sunniest places in Canada, year round.

The whole time I lived there, one of my nieces refused to say the city's name. She'd say I lived in "that city south of Saskatoon". LOL. I always wondered what she'd say if I'd lived in Climax (another settlement in Saskatchewan).

I have no comments for the tournament/championship as I'm busy with taxes and waiting until the weekend to binge watch my taped episodes! Also, that means I only have one day to be irritated by the contestants who don't start at the top of a category or who board-hop.

p.s. I used to tell my niece I was so glad I didn't live in a place called Cleanness ;-)

[bad things are bad]

13 hours ago, Kathira said:

As a note, there are lots of Indian Christians.

In my little Detroit burb, there's an Indian Catholic church. But I've never known an Indian Catholic myself

I kind of made the same assumption as Alex...when the FJ category was revealed, I said "nice...when two of the players are probably  not Christian". But it could have just been presented as a Latin clue, as others have noted. 

[PaulaO]

Didn't have a game Wednesday in Chi-town which is fine because I don't really care.  I wanted to smack the crap out of Thatcher for the beboppin and scattin all over the place. 

[saber5055]

30 minutes ago, bad things are bad said:

But I've never known an Indian Catholic myself

I don't know how you would know this, unless you just don't know any persons of Indian heritage. Maybe it's just me, but I can't tell anyone's religion, or non-religion, just by looking at them. Sometimes I can guess political party however!

Plus, one doesn't have to be Catholic to know Bible verses or what Jesus "said." There are lots of religions that use the Bible as their "book." Heck, one doesn't even have to have a religion to know Bible verses, just like one doesn't have to be an opera singer to know opera composers.

Edited April 19, 2018 by saber5055

[Browncoat]

There was an article in my local paper yesterday about a woman who donated a kidney to her twin.  I wondered why she couldn't donate one of her hearts.  :)

[GalvDuck]

4 hours ago, Bliss said:

Yes, it rhymes with vagina. I lived there (in Regina, not vagina) for 13 years and I can attest to it being a truly wonderful city... even in January when the streets have ice ruts, cars need block heaters and it's colder than a blank's blank (I'd be banned from this site if I filled in those blanks). Regina is one of the sunniest places in Canada, year round.

The whole time I lived there, one of my nieces refused to say the city's name. She'd say I lived in "that city south of Saskatoon". LOL. I always wondered what she'd say if I'd lived in Climax (another settlement in Saskatchewan).

I have no comments for the tournament/championship as I'm busy with taxes and waiting until the weekend to binge watch my taped episodes! Also, that means I only have one day to be irritated by the contestants who don't start at the top of a category or who board-hop.

p.s. I used to tell my niece I was so glad I didn't live in a place called Cleanness ;-)

Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where George can't remember the girlfriend's name, but knows that it rhymes with a part of the female anatomy.  

[illdoc]

20 minutes ago, GalvDuck said:

 

 

20 minutes ago, GalvDuck said:

Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where George can't remember the girlfriend's name, but knows that it rhymes with a part of the female anatomy. 

It was Jerry, not George ("Mulva?")

[Mondrianyone]

And if I recall correctly, her name turned out to be Dolores.  Work backwards.

[GalvDuck]

1 hour ago, illdoc said:

 

It was Jerry, not George ("Mulva?")

Ah, that's right...I stand corrected.  :)

[Mondrianyone]

No, no, I didn't mean that as a correction!  Mulva was one of his ridiculous guesses, but Dolores was her actual name.  And even that relies on mispronouncing the body part he thought it rhymed with.

[Clanstarling]

4 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Plus, one doesn't have to be Catholic to know Bible verses or what Jesus "said." There are lots of religions that use the Bible as their "book." Heck, one doesn't even have to have a religion to know Bible verses, just like one doesn't have to be an opera singer to know opera composers.

That would be me. I'm constantly amazed at how well I do at the bible stuff (except for prophets, they're all the same to me except for John the Baptist), when I wasn't raised in any religion and haven't been religious. Of course you do pick up a lot as a lit major.

[Browncoat]

I finally figured out who William reminds me of -- Ray from Speechless. 

I don't want any of them to win, after that stupid miming at the beginning.  And Drhuv needs to learn to use his inside voice. 

Because this is a two-game final, I didn't pay much attention tonight, but I said Gettysburg for FJ.  And I've been to Arlington Cemetery.  Boo, hiss.

[Kimmmmmm]

I'm happy with any of them winning....somehow, I think they were encouraged to do that miming crap.

i said Arlington!!! Surprised none of them did...they did so well, otherwise.

[Conotocarious]

I got FJ at the last second. I’ve been to Gettysburg several times and done battlefield tours but nothing in the clue rang any bell except the year. It was the folded flag which made me say Arlington National Cemetery.

[Kathira]

I was with Dhruv with the Tomb of the Unknowns. After all the super easy FJs we've had, that one was kind of tricky. I thought maybe they would have given it to him for that answer - isn't the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington? But I guess it doesn't have its own seal and motto. I'm glad he kept some of his money anyway - he's my favorite to win it all.

[saber5055]

I laughed out loud at the "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean." My first job out of high school when I was 17 was at a sandwich shop, and the owner/manager told us that every day. It got burned into my memory and it's still there, even *10* years later.

I also got a kick out of the category "Alliteration," based on the multiple comments here about the clue writers suddenly finding that word.

I was so certain FJ was Gettysburg. I've been to Gettysburg AND Arlington, but obviously having been to those two places didn't make me any smarter.

I'm rooting for Dhruv. Again, probably because of his name and he's different. I'm all about people who are different. (I don't mean Austin different though. There is a difference in different.)

[CarpeDiem54]

27 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I don't want any of them to win, after that stupid miming at the beginning.  And Drhuv needs to learn to use his inside voice. 

This!  I wish all of them could lose because of that stupid miming.  Drhuv is causing me pain with his shouting.  I'm not impressed by you at all, William.  And Hannah lost me by participating in that intro nonsense.

The only TS I got was finder's fee.

FJ was an instaget.  Hannah, generally memorials aren't built until after someone dies.

19 minutes ago, Kathira said:

isn't the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington?

Yes, it is, but it was established after World War I.

[Moose135]

7 hours ago, bad things are bad said:

In my little Detroit burb, there's an Indian Catholic church. But I've never known an Indian Catholic myself.

The Catholic church I grew up was purchased by a Syro-Malankara (Indian) Catholic Church group several years ago.  The old parish still holds Sunday Mass using a priest from a neighboring parish.  My parents were parishioners there since they moved in 1959 - our backyard literally adjoined the church parking lot, and I went to the parish school through 8th grade.  A week before my father passed away and we had his funeral in the church, they changed the sign out front to include the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church name.

 

4 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

I was so certain FJ was Gettysburg. I've been to Gettysburg AND Arlington, but obviously having been to those two places didn't make me any smarter.

Same here.  After the first incorrect response was shown, it hit me!

[saber5055]

Dan Zak is a reporter for The Washington Post. He tweeted this a bit ago:

 

[Mindthinkr]

I just can’t believe that William bet it all knowing that the 2 day scores would determine who’d win! 

I thought FJ was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 

[saber5055]

Just now, Mindthinkr said:

I just can’t believe that William bet it all knowing that the 2 day scores would determine who’d win! 

Yeah, that was sad. But maybe he thought the category was a snap, because I did. And I tanked along with him. I guess nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[catrice2]

I have been annoyed for some reason during this tournament.  I find it hard to really want any of them to win, and William seems like a character from a play.  I can't understand why the one on the end is being so loud, and the girl seems dazed or amused half the time.  Ugh!  I cannot wait for this tournament to be over!

[peeayebee]

2 hours ago, Conotocarious said:

I got FJ at the last second. I’ve been to Gettysburg several times and done battlefield tours but nothing in the clue rang any bell except the year. It was the folded flag which made me say Arlington National Cemetery.

Ah. I wish I'd focuses on that. First, I was trying to figure out what US State the clue was asking for, then I realized the category was US Historical Sites, so I had to quickly rethink. By the year I went with Civil War stuff and settled on Gettysburg.

And, yes, those youngsters made me feel old by not knowing 'Rushmore.'

[Pallida]

For some reason, I got tomorrow’s Jeopardy instead of today’s. The winner is....kidding, I’m holding off on watching. I had to quadruple check that I didn’t lose a day somehow.