Jeopardy! Season 36 (2019-2020)

[irisheyes]

FJ category title - Opera Title Names

Alex, is there a number less than zero that I can bet?

Obviously, I had no clue. 

[annzeepark914]

9 hours ago, Driad said:

Sounds as if a lot of us did, or at least called "Dorothy Parker!" (The quote in the clue is hers.)

I did, to myself. I like to think that my mom & I had breakfast at their "round" table one morning. Loved seeing the resident cat. It's a great, small, beautiful historic hotel in mid-Manhattan...super location!

Tonight? I'm glad Jennifer won, although she had no competition. I did well, but I sure didn't get FJ.  It will be interesting to see how she does tomorrow night 

[Kimmmmmm]

8 hours ago, Gimmick Genius said:

It makes me sad that no one knew Carol Channing. It makes me angry that the one who thought she was Phyllis Diller is now the champion.

Not anymore!!!!!

[Bastet]

That was a refreshing game after the last two.

I can't believe "I'd Do Anything for Love" was a TS with the two wrong guesses ruling out the ways to screw it up (and if not for the "start with a contraction" hint in the clue, I'd indeed have said "I Would").

I'm also surprised no one at least guessed wolf for what rabid animal bit Old Yeller.

But, even with the brain fart of Taiwan instead of Hong Kong, Jennifer was very impressive.  I'm going to have to take a break from football tomorrow night to watch her again.

I came two shy of running the first round; I didn't know the Bengali poet, and I could not bring Survivor as the name of the band who sang "Eye of the Tiger" from my brain to my mouth in time.

DJ was a good round for me, but not as good as the first, and I lived down to my FJ expectations based on the category.  I said Don Juan, so I had the story, but not the name used in the opera. @irisheyes, LOL at seeing the category and wondering if there is a number less than zero you can bet.

[biakbiak]

I got FJ simply because there is an episode of Law and Order where the killer has every copy of Don Giovanni ever recorded and I have seen it around a gazillion times and so at one point I googled the plot of it. 

[peeayebee]

For FJ I said Don Juan. Close but no cigar.

I'm pretty sure Jennifer said The Lady and the Tiger, but the title is The Lady OR the Tiger.

[Bastet]

11 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

I'm pretty sure Jennifer said The Lady and the Tiger, but the title is The Lady OR the Tiger.

I didn't catch which conjunction she used because I was answering (aloud) at the same time, and the archive lists it as "or", but the clue didn't seek the title, just the two things chosen between in the story.  So while "or" is still the better word to use, they'd accept "and" if that's what she said.

[Katy M]

8 hours ago, Bastet said:

I'm also surprised no one at least guessed wolf for what rabid animal bit Old Yeller.

They didn't?  In that case, I did gat a TS.  Sometimes I miss writing them down, I guess.

[PaulaO]

I answered The Barber of Seville for FJ!   Clearly I know nothing about opera.

Edited December 5, 2019 by PaulaO

[Clanstarling]

12 hours ago, Katy M said:

I know zilch about opera, but I got FJ right.  

I didn't get any TS's, but I did get the entire categories of trios and literary ends right, and no category all wrong.  I had a pretty good night.

I got it from the movie Amadeus, which is pretty much the extent of my opera knowledge. 😄

I always forget about Kepler. Sigh... One of these days Jeopardy will hammer it into my brain.

[MrAtoz]

Whether they would have accepted "Don Juan" is an interesting question.  It's the same character, and he is certainly more commonly known in English as Don Juan.  But since the category was "Opera Title Names," and the title of the opera is "Don Giovanni," it's hard to say.

Sometimes opera titles are translated (e.g., The Barber of Seville rather than Il barbiere di Siviglia), other times they're not (e.g., Mozart's opera Cosi fan tutte is almost never translated).

Who knows what the judges would have decided?  It would be a moot point anyway, since Jennifer had a huge runaway victory, but it's interesting to wonder about.

I'm pretty sure there is no opera about Icarus. 😀

[Katy M]

7 minutes ago, MrAtoz said:

I'm pretty sure there is no opera about Icarus.

I totally think there should be, so I looked it up.  There's a semi-recent opera named Airline Icarus, but it's not about Icarus.  There is a symphony about Icarus, though.

[proserpina65]

 Sorry, Alex, but for some of us Opera Title Names is not a difficult FJ category.  I thought it was easy as hell.  If I'd been the new champ, I'd have bet the entire $35,000+ on that FJ.  And been correct.  Don Giovanni, really?

On ‎12‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 9:36 PM, Driad said:

The FJ clue was badly written. Would have been clearer what they wanted if they had asked, say, who wrote the list in question, or how many items were on it.

I had no problem understanding it.  I got Luther's 95 Theses without having to think about it much, although I did waffle a little over the total number of Theses (95 v. 99).  So I guess I have something for which to thank that horrible college class about the Reformation.  Otherwise I'd have written something like "that thing Luther nailed to that church door somewhere in Germany".

On ‎12‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 10:26 PM, Brookside said:

Great Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales.  The United Kingdom is GB plus Northern Ireland.  Ireland is a separate country, part of neither GB nor the UK.

Ireland was part of the UK when Bram Stoker wrote Dracula.  It only became a separate country in 1922.  But it was never part of Great Britain.

On ‎12‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 5:42 PM, PBnJay said:

I bought the PBS show "Carrier" on DVD so the equator TS was easy for me, plus I also knew what polywogs and shellbacks are. Doc Holliday was easy since I just watched "Tombstone." I got several other TSs although I didn't get some of the answered clues so it evens out. I did know FJ, thank you parochial school.

I've been interested in naval history, particularly British Navy history for a long time, so the equator TS was a gimme for me.  Crossing the equator used to have quite the ceremony involved.  Still does on some ships.

On ‎12‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 8:07 PM, annzeepark914 said:

Hoooo-kay. Do ya think Jeopardy would have accepted "the Round Table"? Yeah, I didn't think so. I could not think of the name of that hotel & I stayed there once.

The new champ was the best contestant throughout. But this was another strange evening.

That FJ was an instaget for me because Jeopardy loves the Algonquin Round Table and Dorothy Parker.

On ‎12‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 10:29 PM, Brookside said:

I thought Alex was being particularly elitist and condescending (not to mention ignorant) when he questioned why a train journey should be considered special.

I thought he was just trying to make an uninteresting conversational topic more interesting.  "My most special event was a train trip."  "Um, okay, what kind of trip?  What made it particularly special?  Give me something more to work with here."  But I can see why someone might see it the way you did.

On ‎12‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 9:44 AM, M. Darcy said:

Aw, no one knew Al Hirschfeld.  Who was a question at trivia lately also.   

I knew who they meant but couldn't come up with his last name.

On ‎12‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 10:08 AM, peeayebee said:

I haven't read it either, but the clue was easy to figure out.

It should've been but for some reason my brain got stuck in the American West and never got to Russia.  I've never read Anna Karenina, but know the basics of the plot.

22 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

One of my all time favorites. I liked Omar Sharif even more when I found out that he was a Bridge Master. 

I don't like the movie, but I do love Omar Sharif.

2 hours ago, MrAtoz said:

Whether they would have accepted "Don Juan" is an interesting question.  It's the same character, and he is certainly more commonly known in English as Don Juan.  But since the category was "Opera Title Names," and the title of the opera is "Don Giovanni," it's hard to say.

They shouldn't since Don Juan is not the title of the opera.  It's not one which I've ever seen listed as anything other than Don Giovanni.

Edited December 5, 2019 by proserpina65

[Katy M]

2 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I had no problem understanding it.  I got Luther's 95 Theses without having to think about it much,

Me, too.  

2 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

They shouldn't since Don Juan is not the title of the opera.  It's not one which I've ever seen listed as anything other than Don Giovanni.

I agree.  I actually said Don Juan and then immediately changed my answer because I said to myself, "that doesn't sound quite right."

[Bastet]

4 hours ago, MrAtoz said:

Whether they would have accepted "Don Juan" is an interesting question.

As one who said Don Juan (since that's what springs to mind upon reference to a womanizing character), there's no way I should have gotten credit for it; that's the guy in the legend off which numerous works have been based, but that's not the guy in this particular work, the opera.  They asked for the character whose name is in the title of the opera where he flirts with a bride on her wedding day and a list of his amorous conquests is sung before he's consumed in flames, and that's Don Giovanni, not Don Juan.

[graybrown bird]

It's the "consumed in flames" part that made FJ an instaget for me.  Don Giovanni was the only opera I was taken to as a child, and the ending made a vivid impression on me!

[ABay]

I also thought "Don Juan" and knew it wasn't quite right, but I couldn't get to "Don Giovanni."

Watching the games earlier this week and simultaneously cringing in second-hand embarrassment and having flashback to Football, I wondered: Are the questions harder or are they just more badly written? There have been some where I wouldn't have know the answer if it stood on its hind legs and waved at me, but there have been others I would've known if it hadn't taken me so long to parse the clue.

[rubaco]

I clicked into this thread expecting to see 3 pages of rants about the Jeff Goldblum category. Are you guys too traumatized to react? For the record, I like him, but yeah, that was painfully slow.

[opus]

44 minutes ago, rubaco said:

I clicked into this thread expecting to see 3 pages of rants about the Jeff Goldblum category. Are you guys too traumatized to react? For the record, I like him, but yeah, that was painfully slow.

I think the fact that the board got cleared anyways will keep things relatively quiet.

[Prevailing Wind]

I thought it was painfully slow, but that's quirky Goldblum for you.  I like him, quirks & all.  And now I have no idea why the hell a quote box has just appeared, like magic!

Quote

[Brookside]

Please let there be no more whistlers.

And let me see if I can come up with a five letter cheese.  Like Edam, or Muenster.

[Grundoon59]

I know I am late to post but it's been a weird couple of days.  The Algonquin is a lovely hotel (and the Oak Room was a wonderful cabaret venue).  Mother Grundoon and I stayed there several times usually around this time of the year  - we got a snow globe showing the cat and the Round Table 

It hurts my heart that Carol Channing and Hirschfeld were TSs.  The Grundoon parents acquired two Hirschfeld prints for each other as presents.  One is of Carol Channing and Mary Martin from a play they did together and the other is assorted comedians, including Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley.

Regarding tonight's game, I was enjoying it until both challengers lost me by not knowing where the Red Sox played but since I am not a Patriots fan, I didn't mind the category not being fully answered.

[Bastet]

Among cheeses, I'm surprised it took three tries to get to gouda (and that two of them completely forgot the 5-letter part of the clue), and the cotija TS also surprised me.  But, I eat more cheese than anyone should.  And now I really want some smoked gouda, but I don't have any among the various cheeses in my fridge; boo, hiss. 

LOL at Alex wondering why they were in Chicago instead of Boston for the Fenway Park clue, which was a mildly surprising TS.  Snowplow as a TS was even more surprising; Robert Kraft you have to be a football fan - or a sex crimes aficionado - to know, and Fenway, too, but snowplow was pretty clear from the clue, especially once snow blower was ruled out.  On the other hand, I loathe the Patriots, so any and all clues about them being TS amuse me on general principle, as did the contestants' preference for sticking with Jeff Goldblum's molasses-style delivery rather than returning to the category.

Go, Jennifer!  I'm glad I took a football break to watch her.

[peeayebee]

I was excited to see that Jeff Goldblum was participating, but then I worried how long it would take for him to recite the clues. Oh well. I don't like him any less. However, I'm pissed that his new show is on a channel that I don't have. 

For FJ I said Frosty the Snowman, and then I immediately thought it was probably Rudolph.

[Brookside]

The mountain range is The Himalayas.  Himalayans are the people who live there.  This should not have been accepted.

Time for me to take a break again because the irritation just isn't worth it. 

[annzeepark914]

6 minutes ago, Brookside said:

The mountain range is The Himalayas.  Himalayans are the people who live there.  This should not have been accepted.

We were at a concert tonight so I missed Jeopardy. What's this about accepting Himalayans for a mountain range? And contestants didn't know where the Red Sox played?

[Sharpie66]

Just got caught up on the past two eps. I only got wolf and missed FJ with Don Juan for yesterday, but I did get KellyAnne Conway, snowplow, Fenway Park, and also Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer. 

FYI, I just recently watched an excellent Biographics video about Kepler on YouTube—learned he was instrumental in lots of scientific discoveries, not just the laws of motion. 

[kathyk2]

1 hour ago, Grundoon59 said:

I know I am late to post but it's been a weird couple of days.  The Algonquin is a lovely hotel (and the Oak Room was a wonderful cabaret venue).  Mother Grundoon and I stayed there several times usually around this time of the year  - we got a snow globe showing the cat and the Round Table 

It hurts my heart that Carol Channing and Hirschfeld were TSs.  The Grundoon parents acquired two Hirschfeld prints for each other as presents.  One is of Carol Channing and Mary Martin from a play they did together and the other is assorted comedians, including Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley.

Regarding tonight's game, I was enjoying it until both challengers lost me by not knowing where the Red Sox played but since I am not a Patriots fan, I didn't mind the category not being fully answered.

I'm a Patriots fan so I ran the category. I couldn't believe they missed Fenway Park.

[Clanstarling]

13 hours ago, rubaco said:

I clicked into this thread expecting to see 3 pages of rants about the Jeff Goldblum category. Are you guys too traumatized to react? For the record, I like him, but yeah, that was painfully slow.

I saw it and though "Oh no, that's going to take forever." But, as was pointed out, they did clear the board. I wondered if they avoided the category so long because they knew it was going to slow down the action. I love Goldblum, but please, just a clue or two - not a whole category.

11 hours ago, Brookside said:

Please let there be no more whistlers.

And let me see if I can come up with a five letter cheese.  Like Edam, or Muenster.

That being said, she was, as advertised, a virtuoso. I don't care for whistling, but I can't argue that she's good at it.

Edam came to mind first, but I counted on my fingers (the original manipulatives). I was exhausted (it's been a day) and my mind was slow, and too slow to come with gouda - which is my favorite cheese. Oh well, I got FJ despite a dull brain.

[solarfire]

9 hours ago, kathyk2 said:

I'm a Patriots fan so I ran the category. I couldn't believe they missed Fenway Park.

I ran the category too although it pains me to see them as a category.  I'm surprised they haven't done it sooner for that team.  I'm a devout Baseball fan and I like the Red Sox  too.  Even though I didn't know the football team played at Fenway, it was an obvious answer. But Wrigley and Comiskey parks?  Laughable. Clearly not Sports fans at all.  lol.

OTOH, I had no clue about FJ!

[MrAtoz]

I had some sort of brain freeze, because the only five-letter cheese I could think of was Swiss.  Something tells me Swiss cheese is probably not Dutch. 😀

Jennifer is 6 for 6 on Daily Doubles so far.  That's pretty impressive.

I enjoyed the whistling.  I always think it's fun to see contestant interviews that are a little outside the typical This Is My Hobby or One Time I Went To This Place.

[M. Darcy]

On 12/5/2019 at 8:53 AM, Clanstarling said:

I got it from the movie Amadeus, which is pretty much the extent of my opera knowledge. 😄

That's how I knew it also!  Though, who knows if I could have gotten the spelling even close. 

[proserpina65]

17 hours ago, graybrown bird said:

It's the "consumed in flames" part that made FJ an instaget for me.  Don Giovanni was the only opera I was taken to as a child, and the ending made a vivid impression on me!

In the production I saw, he was dragged into hell.  We didn't see the flames, but I assumed they were there.

16 hours ago, ABay said:

I also thought "Don Juan" and knew it wasn't quite right, but I couldn't get to "Don Giovanni."

Watching the games earlier this week and simultaneously cringing in second-hand embarrassment and having flashback to Football, I wondered: Are the questions harder or are they just more badly written? There have been some where I wouldn't have know the answer if it stood on its hind legs and waved at me, but there have been others I would've known if it hadn't taken me so long to parse the clue.

I don't think the clues were badly written.  I think the contestants were the problem.

14 hours ago, opus said:

I think the fact that the board got cleared anyways will keep things relatively quiet.

Yeah, if clues had been left on the board, I'd have been ranting about how long Jeff Goldblum took, but since there weren't left, I'm okay with his slowness.  This time.

12 hours ago, Bastet said:

Among cheeses, I'm surprised it took three tries to get to gouda (and that two of them completely forgot the 5-letter part of the clue), and the cotija TS also surprised me.  But, I eat more cheese than anyone should.

I was surprised by gouda taking so long but couldn't quite get cotija.  I kept trying to say cojita instead.  D'oh.  (Also, hmmmmmm, smoked gouda!)

12 hours ago, peeayebee said:

For FJ I said Frosty the Snowman, and then I immediately thought it was probably Rudolph.

I'd read the story about Montgomery Ward (or, Monkey Ward, as we called it when I was a kid) creating the book to sell Christmas merchandise years ago, so this was an instaget for me.  And yes, my brother and I used to go through the Monkey Ward's Christmas catalog with a fine-toothed comb when we were little.

12 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

We were at a concert tonight so I missed Jeopardy. What's this about accepting Himalayans for a mountain range? And contestants didn't know where the Red Sox played?

The Fenway Park question was actually about the Patriots playing there, but still, Boston stadium equals Fenway Park.  Maybe they didn't know that it's the NEW ENGLAND Patriots?

12 hours ago, Brookside said:

The mountain range is The Himalayas.  Himalayans are the people who live there.

Or a breed of cats.

[Clanstarling]

24 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I was surprised by gouda taking so long but couldn't quite get cotija.  I kept trying to say cojita instead.  D'oh.  (Also, hmmmmmm, smoked gouda!)

I'd read the story about Montgomery Ward (or, Monkey Ward, as we called it when I was a kid) creating the book to sell Christmas merchandise years ago, so this was an instaget for me.  And yes, my brother and I used to go through the Monkey Ward's Christmas catalog with a fine-toothed comb when we were little.

Smoked gouda....I can't buy it, because then I eat too much at once, and there are consequences...

Monkey Ward! I haven't heard that in years. We were Sears catalog people (overseas most of the time), but I do remember Monkey Ward.

[proserpina65]

8 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

Smoked gouda....I can't buy it, because then I eat too much at once, and there are consequences...

Monkey Ward! I haven't heard that in years. We were Sears catalog people (overseas most of the time), but I do remember Monkey Ward.

I understand - there are consequences for me when I eat too much cheese as well.  Otherwise I'd probably live on it.

We occasionally got the Sears catalog too.

[Prevailing Wind]

Call me disappointed about the Rudolf clue. I've been tickled all my life to know that Rudolf & I are the same age, but now it seems Rudolf's older. I'm only as old as the Gene Autry recording of the song. Bummer.

Anyone else notice how AT's voice seems to be getting hoarser as the week wears on? Perhaps they should be making the breaks between shows a wee bit longer so he can recover more fully.

[HC87]

Longtime Patriots fan here...I am actually a little surprised that "snowblower" wasn't accepted as a correct response. It's been called the "snowplow game" forevah but Mark Henderson's vehicle that cleared the spot for the winning FG (and only points scored that day) was more of a tractor with that sort of rolling brush thingamajig that cleared the turf....not technically a plow.

OK...overthinking this but that should have been considered correct imo....carry on.

[Misslindsey]

I thought Jennifer looked familiar, but it took FB to point out that she pours wine at one of my favorite southern Michigan wineries. 

[bad things are bad]

Quote

I thought Jennifer looked familiar, but it took FB to point out that she pours wine at one of my favorite southern Michigan wineries. 

No kidding, which one? 

We actually vacationed near Dowagiac (Jennifer's hometown) some years back, it's not really a tourist destination but we rented some cottages on a tiny lake and it was great fun. 

[Gimmick Genius]

1 hour ago, Misslindsey said:

I thought Jennifer looked familiar,

I think she resembles deadpan Janeane Garofalo. Jennifer seemed off her game after the first night. I'm glad she pulled out another win.

Edited December 6, 2019 by Gimmick Genius
Spelling

[MrAtoz]

2 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Anyone else notice how AT's voice seems to be getting hoarser as the week wears on? Perhaps they should be making the breaks between shows a wee bit longer so he can recover more fully.

I've certainly noticed that, and it makes me sad.

I heard a rumor--I don't remember if it's been posted anywhere on this site or not--that supposedly they've had to change the schedule of recording 5 games in a day, reducing it to only 2 or 3, because Alex can't do 5 in a row anymore.  That's upsetting if it's true.

[GoGamecox]

On 11/22/2019 at 9:17 AM, MrAtoz said:

People sometimes suggest former contestants as replacements for Alex--usually Ken Jennings--but I don't really see that happening.  Being a good game show contestant doesn't mean that you would make a good game show host.  They're two different skill sets.

When Alex does leave, I'm sure his replacement will be an experienced broadcasting professional.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if they already have a short list of candidates lined up.

What about Stephen Colbert? I nominate him. 

[Misslindsey]

4 hours ago, bad things are bad said:

No kidding, which one? 

We actually vacationed near Dowagiac (Jennifer's hometown) some years back, it's not really a tourist destination but we rented some cottages on a tiny lake and it was great fun.

Domaine Berrien Cellars. It is basically across the street from Lemon Creek Winery.

[ABay]

Royalty and a movie star, sure. But barbarians?

[chessiegal]

We and Jennifer have something in common - the Queen Mary 2! We've taken it across the pond 3 times and absolutely love it. We were supposed to go again in September but had to cancel for health reasons.

The barbarians part of FJ threw me off. I said Sweden thinking of Ingrid Bergman. I don't associate Monaco with barbarians,

[saber5055]

7 hours ago, HC87 said:

I am actually a little surprised that "snowblower" wasn't accepted as a correct response. It's been called the "snowplow game" forevah but Mark Henderson's vehicle that cleared the spot for the winning FG (and only points scored that day) was more of a tractor with that sort of rolling brush thingamajig that cleared the turf....not technically a plow.

Ah, those are sweepers, also called rotary brooms. They are sold as attachments for a wide variety of tractors and L+G tractors. Here's one on a little Case tractor.

[dcalley]

I was stuck on Grace Kelly/Monaco but didn't think it was right. My husband guessed Austria (Arnold S.), and I was convinced he was right.

VisitMonaco.mc used to say (but doesn't now) "Monaco has a colorful and fascinating history filled with barbarians, kings and even a movie star."

"Women!" A whole category just for us! Gee, thanks. 😐

Edited December 7, 2019 by dcalley

[saber5055]

22 hours ago, Brookside said:

Himalayans are the people who live there. 

While there are several countries that are crossed by the Himalayas and, therefore, several different nationalities, I've never heard of any people called Himalayans. (Mountaineering is one of my interests.)

However, I see your point and problem with the accepted answer.

Edited December 7, 2019 by saber5055

[annzeepark914]

Re: FJ?  I immediately thought of Monaco but then realized - hey, that's too easy!  But I couldn't come up with any others (that I trusted would be correct) so I said, Monaco (to an empty room).  No idea who the barbarians were.  There's a statue of a monk outside the palace but I can't remember his story. Maybe he was part of the barbarians?  I listened carefully to Alex tonight and didn't notice any hoarseness. 

Edited to add:  I heard the mini "lecture" from Alex re the need to start at the top so one knows how the clues work (the rocket science category). A lesson to be learned, contestants.  I only got one in the rocket science category--the rickets science (cause I had finally figured it out 🙄).

Edited December 7, 2019 by annzeepark914

[Prevailing Wind]

I heard a clear voice, too. He must've gotten a good rest before today's show taping. I noticed the hoarseness on Wednesday & Thursday, but not today. Good for him!