Jeopardy! Season 36 (2019-2020)

[suebee12]

Finally got to see the show very late because we get Jeopardy on NBC and between parades and football, it was shown in the middle of the night Thursday and Friday. I cringed when the champion guessed Caroline Kennedy when Ethel was shown and was surprised when no one came up with Peter Lawford! I ran the Kennedy answers but didn't think any of them were particularly hard. I have finally given up on yelling the answers to help out....because it doesn't !😏

No FJ for me...I went for David Copperfield but knew it was wrong.....

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, suebee12 said:

Finally got to see the show very late because we get Jeopardy on NBC and between parades and football, it was shown in the middle of the night Thursday and Friday. I cringed when the champion guessed Caroline Kennedy when Ethel was shown and was surprised when no one came up with Peter Lawford! I ran the Kennedy answers but didn't think any of them were particularly hard. I have finally given up on yelling the answers to help out....because it doesn't !😏

No FJ for me...I went for David Copperfield but knew it was wrong.....

I almost missed Ethel, because I'd forgotten the category. The second I remembered, I had it. As for Lawford, I didn't get him until I shoved David Niven out of my mind. Who knows why he came to mind, not me.

[Prevailing Wind]

I went with Ivanhoe, too.

[saber5055]

47 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

As for Lawford, I didn't get him until I shoved David Niven out of my mind. Who knows why he came to mind, not me.

Well, Mr. Niven was QUITE the heartthrob back in the day. Why, I'm not sure. Pickens were Slim back then I guess.

[illdoc]

My thought for FJ was "Dorian Gray" (don't know why) and spent some time trying to remember whether it was "The Picture" or "The Portrait" of Dorian Gray (since they wanted the title of the novel, I believe, and not the character).

[Bliss]

2 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Well, Mr. Niven was QUITE the heartthrob back in the day. Why, I'm not sure. Pickens were Slim back then I guess.

I see what you're doing there. LOL

There's a photo of my dear (departed) Dad, lounging on a picnic blanket as a young dapper - dressed to the max - and he looks exactly like Niven at a young age... except Dad was quite a bit more handsome. Yes, I'm biased.

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, illdoc said:

(since they wanted the title of the novel, I believe, and not the character)

I was thinking the novel title had to be the character's name, but you are correct, the clue asked for the novel's title: "The title character of this novel ..." I've learned that the answer wanted is always what follows "this" in the clue. It's a cowinkeydence that Dracula was also the title. So Jean Val Jean could have been correct if he were not a French porno star!

Yes, I declare him a hottie.

ETA: Now I'm wondering if the phrase "title character" in the clue does mean the character is the title of the book. Someone help me!

Edited November 30, 2019 by saber5055

[Bliss]

On 11/30/2019 at 4:46 PM, saber5055 said:

I was thinking the novel title had to be the character's name, but you are correct, the clue asked for the novel's title: "The title character of this novel ..." I've learned that the answer wanted is always what follows "this" in the clue. It's a cowinkeydence that Dracula was also the title. So Jean Val Jean could have been correct if he were not a French porno star!

Yes, I declare him a hottie.

Edited December 2, 2019 by Bliss
sorry... not a good idea to post personal photos online!

[illdoc]

1 hour ago, saber5055 said:

if the phrase "title character" in the clue does mean the character is the title of the book. Someone help me!

I assume it means it's in the title of the book (not necessarily the whole title, which is why I went with Dorian).

[suebee12]

4 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Why, I'm not sure. Pickens were Slim back then I guess.

Boy, are you punny!

[secnarf]

On 11/28/2019 at 4:24 PM, Trey said:

I've seen The Graduate but I have no memory at all of "Plastics" being a famous quote.  Mind you, I didn't get Rosebud either but at least I know about it.

This was me exactly.

I even went on YouTube afterwards to watch the Plastics scene and still had no memory of it, and I have seen The Graduate more than once.

[peeayebee]

Finally saw Friday's ep today which my DVR recorded yesterday. So I'm caught up... for a time.

Monday: I got Amelie (wonderful movie), constellations, and Locke. I also got FJ (Levi).

Tuesday: Sea of Japan (a guess), the DD of New Orleans, and the FJ New Deal. I was surprised that was TS, but at least I got an asterisk out of it. 

Wednesday: Just Bridget Jones' Diary.

Thursday: Rhea, Moonlight, The Cider House Rules, and cod.

Friday: Kung Fu and Cuomo. For the Joan Collins' role I could only come up with Alexis. For FJ I said Jane Eyre.

[M. Darcy]

I think the FJ category name was misleading - Stoker was Irish and Ireland is not part of Great Britain so should Dracula really be considered a British novel? 

[chessiegal]

28 minutes ago, M. Darcy said:

I think the FJ category name was misleading - Stoker was Irish and Ireland is not part of Great Britain so should Dracula really be considered a British novel? 

From The Jeopardy Fan:

Quote

Dracula is an 1897 novel, the best-known novel of Bram Stoker. It was published at a time where sensational tales about fantastic creatures (in this case, the vampiric Count Dracula) invading England were very popular with the British reading public. The story essentially popularized innumerable tropes regarding vampires, many of which are still used today.

The difficulty of this clue in-studio may also hinge upon when Alex decides to break out his Dracula impersonation; will it come during the clue, or will it be saved for giving the correct response?

Something to remember as well: even though Bram Stoker was born in Ireland, he spent the majority of his adult life in London, as the business manager of that city’s Lyceum Theatre, and he began writing novels while living and working in London.

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Thanks. It's FL now for me as well. This site is so whack lately. Some days the ads on the right are gone and text extends so far to the right, I have to scroll to read a sentence, and I'm on a 20-inch monitor. The rest of the time, I open a thread to continue reading where I left off, and the page starts auto-scrolling up until I stop it and manually scroll back down again. Just more of life's little inconveniences.

It bounces around for me too. It's marginally better on my phone, but not great. This is, I think, a problem with a responsive site design (meant to arrange itself whatever device the visitor reads it on). I've seen quite a few sites with this issue.

31 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

From The Jeopardy Fan:

Quote

Dracula is an 1897 novel, the best-known novel of Bram Stoker. It was published at a time where sensational tales about fantastic creatures (in this case, the vampiric Count Dracula) invading England were very popular with the British reading public. The story essentially popularized innumerable tropes regarding vampires, many of which are still used today.

The difficulty of this clue in-studio may also hinge upon when Alex decides to break out his Dracula impersonation; will it come during the clue, or will it be saved for giving the correct response?

Something to remember as well: even though Bram Stoker was born in Ireland, he spent the majority of his adult life in London, as the business manager of that city’s Lyceum Theatre, and he began writing novels while living and working in London.

He was 31 when he moved to London, and had been writing and publishing well before that.  So far as I know, he remained an Irish citizen, and he's listed on Irish websites as an Irish author.

Besides, lots of authors were expats. Gertrude Stein moved to Paris when she was 29. Does that make her a French author? I think not. (huffily responding to the website, not you Chessiegal)

I think that explanation is pretty weak. Not that it would have mattered in terms of me getting FJ - until this discussion I didn't know he was Irish anyway. 😄

Edited December 1, 2019 by Clanstarling

[chessiegal]

The category wasn't British authors, but novels..

Quote

Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Classic British Novels) for Friday, November 29, 2019 (Season 36, Episode 60):

The title character of this novel says of his home, “The wind breathes cold through the broken battlements and casements”

I had no idea for FJ either. I was very confident of my response of Oliver Twist.

[Clanstarling]

9 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

The category wasn't British authors, but novels..

I had no idea for FJ either. I was very confident of my response of Oliver Twist.

Fair point. Though I'm not sure one can separate the author's nationality from the book's, as it were. To use  Gertrude Stein as an example again, I doubt her works were considered French.

Oliver entered my mind too...but the wind breathed cold through my mind. 😉

Edited December 1, 2019 by Clanstarling

[chessiegal]

To muddy the waters even more, according to Wikipedia Bram Stoker was born in Ireland but was a British citizen.

[saber5055]

So if I move to Portugal and live there for a while, and write/publish a novel while there, is it a Portuguese novel?

[chessiegal]

Since Bram Stoker was a British citizen, one can argue that the Classic British Novels category is correct.

[secnarf]

49 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

So if I move to Portugal and live there for a while, and write/publish a novel while there, is it a Portuguese novel?

When I was in high school, the semester project involved something with a poet - we all had to pick a poet and critique and dramatize their poems. All of the first semester classes had to pick North American poets and the second semester classes did non-North American poets, to try to limit people in second semester from copying from their friends who had taken the course in the first semester.

I did Sylvia Plath as part of the first semester group, and a friend of mine did Sylvia Plath as part of the second semester group. I considered her American because she was born in the USA, but she apparently also counted as British since her works were all published while she was living in Britain. Plath herself is American but her work is British.

[chessiegal]

From Wikipedia:

Quote

Born Abraham Stoker
8 November 1847
Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland

Died 20 April 1912 (aged 64)
London, England

Occupation Novelist

Nationality Irish

Citizenship British

[Driad]

Suppose a native of country A becomes a citizen of country B, lives in country C, and writes a novel set in countries D and E that is especially popular in country F.  What nationality would Jeopardy call this novel?

[saber5055]

I'm getting an existentialist headache!

Interesting discussion though.

So if I become a Portuguese citizen, then move to Italy to live, and write a novel about my Italian life that I publish in Scotland, what country will claim me when I become a best-selling author/millionaire?

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, secnarf said:

I did Sylvia Plath as part of the first semester group, and a friend of mine did Sylvia Plath as part of the second semester group. I considered her American because she was born in the USA, but she apparently also counted as British since her works were all published while she was living in Britain. Plath herself is American but her work is British.

Inquiring minds want to know if your friend copied your paper. LOL!

[Driad]

17 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

So if I become a Portuguese citizen, then move to Italy to live, and write a novel about my Italian life that I publish in Scotland, what country will claim me when I become a best-selling author/millionaire?

All of them!  They will want your taxes.

[secnarf]

12 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

Inquiring minds want to know if your friend copied your paper. LOL!

Nah, we had the same teacher who certainly would have clued in 😉 

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, Driad said:

Suppose a native of country A becomes a citizen of country B, lives in country C, and writes a novel set in countries D and E that is especially popular in country F.  What nationality would Jeopardy call this novel?

I was gone last week, so perhaps I'm missing something by just reading about it, but it seems to me the answer to this question as part of the overall discussion of the FJ clue is that they wouldn't put such a novel under any [Nationality Novels] category.  While a novel such as Dracula, written and set in England, would be classified a British novel, despite its author's place of birth and residency history.

This clue under the heading British Novelists (or Authors), I'd join in calling bullshit.  But Classic British Novels?  I don't take issue.  (I couldn't come up with it, either, mind you, but I did a V8 head smack when I clicked on the answer.)

[MrAtoz]

On 11/30/2019 at 5:50 PM, illdoc said:

I assume it means it's in the title of the book (not necessarily the whole title, which is why I went with Dorian).

Yes, a "title character" is a character whose name is in the title (or sometimes, as in the case of Dracula, is the entire title).  Count Dracula is the title character of Dracula, Dr. Van Helsing is not.  Many novels, like Wuthering Heights, have no title characters.

On the question of author nationality, it might be interesting to consider Samuel Beckett.  He was Irish, but emigrated to France.  He wrote in both English and French (his most famous work, Waiting for Godot, was originally written in French).  Is he a French author?  Are his writings French literature?  Maybe.  He's included on this list of French Nobel Laureates.

I don't have much trouble considering Dracula to be a British novel.  It was published in Britain, by a British publisher, written by an author who lived in Britain and held British citizenship.

Edited to add:  The more interesting thing, to me, was that Alex managed to resist doing his Dracula voice while reading the clue.  That would have given it away entirely, so good for him for not doing so!

Edited December 2, 2019 by MrAtoz

[Clanstarling]

Well, having read this thoroughly interesting discussion, I've come to the conclusion that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to defining a novel's nationality. Everyone's made decent points.

To me, setting does not define a book's nationality, the author does. But that's my take, for what it's worth.

It seems that when it comes to authors who have dual citizenship (just checked and you can currently be both an Irish and British citizen), it's up for grabs.

And then, of course, there are the literature professors who assign their own rules to classifying novels.

I declare us all correct! (Because, of course, that would make me correct too) 😄

Edited December 2, 2019 by Clanstarling

[peeayebee]

1 hour ago, MrAtoz said:

I don't have much trouble considering Dracula to be a British novel.  It was published in Britain, by a British publisher, written by an author who lived in Britain and held British citizenship.

Plus, it's British novels, not English novels. Ireland is part of Great Britain.

[Clanstarling]

20 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

Plus, it's British novels, not English novels. Ireland is part of Great Britain.

The whole of Ireland might have been at one point, but if I understand what I just read (no guarantees) in modern usage the country Ireland (as opposed to Northern Ireland) where Stoker was born and educated (Dublin), is not. Though, granted, during Stoker's life that designation might have been accurate.

[M. Darcy]

3 hours ago, peeayebee said:

Plus, it's British novels, not English novels. Ireland is part of Great Britain.

Its not - Ireland is part of the United Kingdom but not Great Britain.  Great Britain is England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but not Ireland. 

Heh, if I had been a contestant that day I really would have protested. 

Edited December 2, 2019 by M. Darcy

[proserpina65]

On ‎11‎/‎30‎/‎2019 at 9:09 AM, ABay said:

I thought of Wuthering Heights, and then realized it couldn't be because the category didn't specify Women Authors...

I thought of Wuthering Heights, but the clue said "title character" so I knew that wasn't it.

[proserpina65]

17 hours ago, Driad said:

Suppose a native of country A becomes a citizen of country B, lives in country C, and writes a novel set in countries D and E that is especially popular in country F.  What nationality would Jeopardy call this novel?

Multinational?

10 minutes ago, M. Darcy said:

Its not - Ireland is part of the United Kingdom but not Great Britain.  Great Britain is England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but not Ireland. 

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom; all of Ireland was when Stoker was alive.  None of it is part of Great Britain, although "British" is used as a general description of anyone from the UK if one does not specifically know that person's exact part of the UK.

All of this is academic, however, as Stoker's citizenship was British.

[peeayebee]

23 minutes ago, M. Darcy said:

Its not - Ireland is part of the United Kingdom but not Great Britain.  Great Britain is England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but not Ireland. 

I stand corrected.

10 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom; all of Ireland was when Stoker was alive.  None of it is part of Great Britain, although "British" is used as a general description of anyone from the UK if one does not specifically know that person's exact part of the UK.

I sit back down.

I look at watch and wonder if it's too early to drink.

[proserpina65]

23 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

I stand corrected.

I sit back down.

I look at watch and wonder if it's too early to drink.

It's 5 o'clock somewhere, lol.

[M. Darcy]

And, all they had to do is name the category Novels.   I just think they did that question so that Alex could do his Dracula accent (which I think he did but it looks like no one else heard it that way). 

[Trey]

11 minutes ago, M. Darcy said:

(which I think he did but it looks like no one else heard it that way).

Did you hear his Dracula accent?  I did not.  He must have toned it down considerably.

[surreysmum]

I have at times been curious about what constitutes "Canadian" when the various big Canadian literary awards come around. My impression, growing up as a student of literature in the midst of a very real cultural inferiority complex (the country's, therefore mine), was that they often "reached" in order to claim an author as our own. So I wouldn't be surprised to find that national awards in other countries with a more established literary tradition might be a bit less generous (or a bit less grabby, depending on your point of view).

Here is the relevant clause from the current qualifications for the Governor General's Literary Awards:

Books must be written or translated by Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada as defined by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. They do not need to be living in Canada. For the Illustrated Books category and for graphic novels, both the author and the illustrator must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. For the Translation category, the original work must also be a Canadian-authored title. All books must have an ISBN, be distributed in Canada and be available in Canadian bookstores.

[Neither citizenship nor actual residence is required but official acknowledgment of a legal connection to Canada, as per Citizenship Canada is; setting and subject matter is irrelevant. Books can be submitted by either Canadian or foreign publishers]

The eligibility requirements for the other high-profile English novel award, the Giller Prize, are pretty much identical (author must be Canadian citizen or have permanent resident status; publisher may be domestic or foreign), although there are some year-of-publication requirements that may be different for consideration.

These are both major prizes for Canadian literature.  The controversy, it seems to me, arises when a prize is given to an author with dual citizenship, especially if that author is largely associated with, and has as their principal subject matter, a different national literature.  Both Canada (Governor General's award) and New Zealand claim Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries, for instance (Canada because she was born here; New Zealand because she lives there - but also because the novel is set in historical New Zealand).  

I don't know whether this will happen less and less as Canada's national literature grows more abundant and more self-confident, or more and more as our literary world becomes increasingly diverse and more authors acquire multiple passports and multiple national identities.

Anyway, I'm not holding my breath for the day Jeopardy has a "Canadian Literature" category, given how poorly the contestants generally perform on Canadian topics in general. Who needs another "football"-style embarrassment? 🙂

[Trey]

36 minutes ago, surreysmum said:

Anyway, I'm not holding my breath for the day Jeopardy has a "Canadian Literature" category, given how poorly the contestants generally perform on Canadian topics in general. Who needs another "football"-style embarrassment? 🙂

As a Canadian, I am always watching for Canada related questions and how well the contestants do on them.  I have noticed that, in the last few years, most American contestants can answer Canadian questions as well as Canadians - sure they whiff badly once in a while but overall their knowledge of things Canadian has increased greatly.

[illdoc]

FOUL! FOUL! FOUL!  Foul on acceptance of both "Birds of Prey" and "Predators" (since neither satisfied the entire clue) and foul on acceptance of "Luther's theses"! And was Mohammed really going to write "Luther's list of complaints"?!! 

[ClareWalks]

Worst. Episode. EVER.

Dumb answers, uncleared boards, annoying contestants (I was losing my mind with Mohammad answering before being called upon about a dozen times), tons of TS, lots of judging issues. Just awful.

[PaulaO]

Bunch of dim  bulbs.  Teen Tournament had smarter contestants.  And yes, wrong to say “birds of prey” and “light opera” were correct.  How is birds of prey from Latin?

Edited December 3, 2019 by PaulaO

[SeanC]

You can't spell "winning small" without "winning".

[dcalley]

WHAT A DISASTER! was a category today. Fitting.

[Mindthinkr]

There were 19 TS’s. I got too many right to list them here. 

I heard Alex answer “Christine Applegate”. I believe her name is Christina Applegate. I also wondered how they would judge me for saying operatic vs light opera or operetta. 

[Grundoon59]

Of all the TSs, the one that hurt my heart was Car Talk.  Oh the hours of amusement that Click and Clack have brought me even with my limited automotive knowledge (which is kind of a sin here in the Motor City).

I got the FJ clue at the very last second but not sure I would have gotten it written correctly in time.

[annzeepark914]

Light opera? I don't think so. The proper word/term is operetta. I can't believe how many TS's there were--ok, I didn't know the answer (except for operetta) but I wasn't a contestant. And what's with so many allowances? I don't ever remember so many. What's going on with Jeopardy? 

[ClareWalks]

I tweeted about what a mess this episode was and the champ "liked" it, so at least there's some self awareness happening 😉