Jeopardy! Season 36 (2019-2020)

[Grundoon59]

I wasn't really shocked that Agent 99 was a TS but as a Get Smart fan, I was slightly heartbroken that it was since Buck Henry (the co-creator with Mel Brooks) passed away this week.  

I got caught by the fogy/fogey spelling issue but I was pleased with the ruling on penalty minutes since penalties and penalty minutes are two different things.

[saber5055]

I said Nepal for FJ.

I have a good friend in Alpena, and I got a laugh today thinking how I would demonstrate where in Michigan it is located using my hand/finger.

[kathyk2]

I was surprised that flux and William Jennings Bryan were triple stumpers. William Jennings Brayan has been featured on many Jeopardy questions.

[peeayebee]

I got flux, fogy, 99, and The Martian.

FJ seemed pretty easy to me, what with the year.

[GreekGeek]

1 hour ago, kathyk2 said:

I was surprised that flux and William Jennings Bryan were triple stumpers. William Jennings Brayan has been featured on many Jeopardy questions.

I suspect it was the "Secretary of State" part of the clue that stumped them. People tend to know Bryan as someone who ran for president a lot and lost, and was also on the "wrong" side of the Scopes Trial.

I had forgotten there was no GOAT game tonight. The 3 contestants tonight weren't bad, but I kept thinking that Ken, James, and Brad would have gotten all those TS's.

[theartandsound]

Something went down with regards to the Church of Nativity clue. Katie was docked ($4800->$4600) for giving the actual correct answer (Palestine) over the answer Alex accepted from Jack (Israel). I was just perusing the J! Archive page for the game and apparently Katie's score went back up to $4800 at the start of DJ, with no note from Alex about it.

At the very least, the West Bank is disputed territory.. the writers should've just not used that clue to begin with.

Edited January 11, 2020 by theartandsound

[saber5055]

11 hours ago, theartandsound said:

the writers should've just not used that clue to begin with.

There is at least one bad clue every game lately, sometimes more. What's with these writers.

I posted in the GOAT thread, but if anyone hasn't seen the tournament yet and is avoiding that thread, ABC is rerunning all three hours tonight, Saturday, 7-10 p.m. central time.

[Mindthinkr]

Well since there was no GOAT game I had wine with dinner (Cheers @peeayebee)

I got flux, did the same as @saber5055 and said ball and cup, Austria, paycheck, Agent 99 (remember the shoe phone?), and The Martian. Didn’t get FJ. I’m not blaming the wine tonight as it was a decent game for me. 

I’m going to the library for The Alienist. Didn’t know about it, so thanks. 

[illdoc]

16 hours ago, Katy M said:

I said Afghanistan, I don't know why.

I said it too, and I think it's because 1979 is also associated with Afghanistan (that's when it was invaded by the Russians). I thought maybe the Russians forced them to have a new constitution.

[saber5055]

I found Wednesday's episode online, the one with the infamous Shaun. I guess because I'm a supporter of the odd man out and underdogs, I liked him. I thought his interview was funny and self deprecating (He always wanted to be smart, but the fact he is on the show means there was a clerical error). Then for some odd reason, he bet $400 on a DD, saying "What is 400," which again I thought was funny.

What wasn't funny was that low DD bet. If he had bet $4,000, which he had, he would have won the game, given that he was the only one who knew the correct FJ answer.

Meanwhile, I got the TSs of bison, endorse, do not go gentle and DeLovely was Cole Porter. I cap DeLovely since that is the name of one of my dogs. The litter of four girls all had De names in honor of their sire, with DeLovely and DeLightful based on Cole Porter. All four became AKC champions. (Not-so-humble brag.)

The video locked up with five minutes to go, so that's all the game I saw. Count me as the only Shaun fan, although I do wonder what his job title, "serial entrepreneur," means.

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, saber5055 said:

The video locked up with five minutes to go, so that's all the game I saw. Count me as the only Shaun fan, although I do wonder what his job title, "serial entrepreneur," means.

The other possibility is that he's a "cereal entrepreneur." 😉

[Bliss]

5 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

The other possibility is that he's a "cereal entrepreneur." 😉

And here I was thinking by serial he meant that he's tried several network marketing ventures... and btw, I, too, thought he was interesting.

[saber5055]

9 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

The other possibility is that he's a "cereal entrepreneur." 😉

That went through my mind, and I'd vote yes for it if he were from the palm of Michigan.

[Trey]

On 1/11/2020 at 1:19 AM, theartandsound said:

Something went down with regards to the Church of Nativity clue. Katie was docked ($4800->$4600) for giving the actual correct answer (Palestine) over the answer Alex accepted from Jack (Israel). I was just perusing the J! Archive page for the game and apparently Katie's score went back up to $4800 at the start of DJ, with no note from Alex about it.

At the very least, the West Bank is disputed territory.. the writers should've just not used that clue to begin with.

And now it's an international incident:

Washington Post

[MrAtoz]

On 1/11/2020 at 1:19 AM, theartandsound said:

Something went down with regards to the Church of Nativity clue. Katie was docked ($4800->$4600) for giving the actual correct answer (Palestine) over the answer Alex accepted from Jack (Israel). I was just perusing the J! Archive page for the game and apparently Katie's score went back up to $4800 at the start of DJ, with no note from Alex about it.

At the very least, the West Bank is disputed territory.. the writers should've just not used that clue to begin with.

It's interesting that they didn't address it on-air, but they do seem to have attempted to nullify that clue by giving Katie her lost money back.  There are sometimes behind-the-scenes things going on that don't get mentioned on the air.

Without getting too political, I'll just note that the question has stirred up some controversy. Here  is just one article about it, from NBC news.

Edit:  I was just a bit slower than Trey!

Edited January 13, 2020 by MrAtoz

[dcalley]

2 hours ago, Trey said:

And now it's an international incident:

Washington Post

I'm confused by the part I've bolded:

Quote

One audience member at the taping of Friday’s episode seems to have an answer: The Church of the Nativity question was never supposed to air at all.

When the episode went to break inside the studio, the show’s producers began huddling around each other offstage....

Once the show started filming again, she recounted, it was as if Trebek and the producers had turned back the clock: Scores for Needle and McGuire had both gone back to what they had been immediately before the host read out the Church of the Nativity clue. Then, Trebek and the three contestants taped an entirely new question, with an entirely different $200 clue.

???

On reddit, contestant Alek confirmed that a new $200 clue was taped (that Jack got right). No one knows why the show didn't air it, though.

 

[proserpina65]

On ‎01‎/‎08‎/‎2020 at 7:29 PM, opus said:

Oh well. I do believe a Shaun win would have made it fun around here....

I don't even remember Shaun.  What was he like/did he look like?

[proserpina65]

On ‎01‎/‎09‎/‎2020 at 7:57 PM, Katy M said:

got FJ right after dismissing several different answers. 

I was sure it was fingerprint technology, thanks to reading The Alienist, but started to second guess myself based on the year.  Stuck with it, though.

On ‎01‎/‎10‎/‎2020 at 7:32 PM, opus said:

I always thought it was fogey, not fogy (i.e. 5 letters, not 4)

I did too, but it was the only thing I could think of, so that was my answer.

On ‎01‎/‎10‎/‎2020 at 8:02 PM, Browncoat said:

 I completely forgot about the Shah, and said Pakistan.  

The year, 1979, was a dead giveaway for me.  That was when the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran happened.

On ‎01‎/‎10‎/‎2020 at 8:33 PM, Sharpie66 said:

I got Flux, Austria, penalty minutes, Agent 99, Knights of Labor, The Martian, but guessed Cambodia for FJ. 

I didn't get Knights of Labor but did get the rest.

[proserpina65]

On ‎01‎/‎11‎/‎2020 at 1:19 AM, theartandsound said:

Something went down with regards to the Church of Nativity clue. Katie was docked ($4800->$4600) for giving the actual correct answer (Palestine) over the answer Alex accepted from Jack (Israel). I was just perusing the J! Archive page for the game and apparently Katie's score went back up to $4800 at the start of DJ, with no note from Alex about it.

At the very least, the West Bank is disputed territory.. the writers should've just not used that clue to begin with.

I didn't realize that Bethlehem was on the West Bank.  I learn something here all the time.

J-Archive does say that there was a replacement clue which was edited from the telecast.  Methinks maybe they should used that clue and edited this one instead.

On ‎01‎/‎11‎/‎2020 at 12:28 PM, saber5055 said:

There is at least one bad clue every game lately, sometimes more. What's with these writers.

This is one of the very few which I would agree was a bad clue.  Most of the time I think the clue is fine as written.  For example, the old fogy/fogey one - just because the word can be spelled two different ways doesn't mean the clue was badly written, imo.

 

[Katy M]

I got FJ right.  And I got Avon. Not sure how she missed that one.    I got the entire category of recognize the country wrong.  I was not surprised by that.  But, I came out in the black, so it's all good.  But only because I got FJ.  

[Driad]

If Alex *had* to make the stupid marionberry joke (did he choose that story so he could?) he could at least have let her explain what a marionberry is.  It's similar to a blackberry.

[Browncoat]

I am off to a much better start this week than last.  I actually got FJ right!  I think it was the "journeys" part of the clue that led me there.  

I also got toothsome, and Avon.  If you ignore the year, Mary Kay wasn't a bad guess.  

[kathyk2]

I knew Benchly. Born on the Bayou is not a 2000 clue. I don't blame Katie for missing the Avon clue there haven't been door to salespeople in a long time.

[lb60]

It's a Monday miracle. I actually got a FJ question about the Bible correct. Go, me!

I also knew Benchley.

[Clanstarling]

43 minutes ago, kathyk2 said:

I knew Benchly. Born on the Bayou is not a 2000 clue. I don't blame Katie for missing the Avon clue there haven't been door to salespeople in a long time.

And the workplace catalogs left in break rooms have pretty much gone away too. I used to buy some Avon products, but I can't remember what.

Got FJ. But the tricky clues were too tricky for me.

[saber5055]

5 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

For example, the old fogy/fogey one - just because the word can be spelled two different ways doesn't mean the clue was badly written, imo.

I agree, the clue wasn't badly written. But it was a poor word choice since the answer could be a four- OR five-letter word. At least three other people agree with me since it was a TS. According to https://word.tips there are 267 four-letter F words that could have been clues/answers. Yet they chose the one with two answers. Big fail in my book.

LOL at Crystal Palace being a TS, and AT calling it "the world-famous Crystal Palace." Eh, Mr. Trebek ... it's not as "world famous" as you think.

AT got to say his two favorite non-French words to Daniel: "Jeopardy James." Good For Him.

I got the TSs of toothsome and Avon. And @Clanstarling, Avon Skin So Soft was/is THE BEST. It works to keep mosquitoes off too.

[peeayebee]

19 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

LOL at Crystal Palace being a TS, and AT calling it "the world-famous Crystal Palace." Eh, Mr. Trebek ... it's not as "world famous" as you think.

I think I would have gotten that one if I hadn't been trying to think of the architect, which I thought was what the clue was asking for.

I did get Avon and Peter Benchley. Also TS. I was misunderstanding that for a while, thinking they wanted WHAT was burning. I was ready to say "the burning bush," then I realized they just wanted the Book of the Bible.

I'm liking Veronica.

[biakbiak]

Okay if a FJ about the Bible is an IG for me than it is too easy even for teen jeopardy!

[biakbiak]

duh!

Edited January 14, 2020 by biakbiak

[Bastet]

43 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

Okay if a FJ about the Bible is an IG for me than it is too easy even for teen jeopardy!

Even I got this one - although not an IG, and just a guess that "journey" = "exodus".

I was watching the national championship game, so it was another archive game for me.

Which meant I had none of the visual aids in the Recognizing the Country clues -- were they highlighted country on a map type clues, or something more challenging?

I got the Crystal Palace TS even without being able to see the picture, so good for me.

Toothsome was a TS I'd have thought someone would get, but there were no real surprises.

I liked the Tricky Clues category.

[dcalley]

40 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I had none of the visual aids in the Recognizing the Country clues -- were they highlighted country on a map type clues, or something more challenging?

More challenging! The shape of the country in question was shown on top of the USA, to scale.

[Mystery Author]

I did not get FJ.

Even knowing the answer, I don't think I'd get it :-)

I like Veronica.

Confession: I've met Peter Benchley. . . .well, I met him before he died. . . and I saw Jaws inside a leaky theater in Princeton, where Peter lived, but I couldn't answer the clue on J!

Favorite Peter Benchley quote: "If man doesn't learn to treat the oceans and the rain forest with respect, man will become extinct."

[Clanstarling]

4 hours ago, Mystery Author said:

Confession: I've met Peter Benchley. . . .well, I met him before he died. . . and I saw Jaws inside a leaky theater in Princeton, where Peter lived, but I couldn't answer the clue on J!

I got Benchley only because of "sharks" in the clue. I thought he died way earlier, so I took a guess without thinking it was right.

Kind of the way I got Crystal Palace. I had no idea about the architect, but I've read novels that mentioned it or had scenes in it - and the building had a lot of glass. It was so not like I visualized the place when I read about it. I was actually a little disappointed at what it looked like.

[Prevailing Wind]

I've read every book by Peter Benchley's dad, Nathaniel. Where Peter went for spooky, Nathaniel went for the funny. "The Russians are Coming! the Russians are Coming!" movie is based on his book, "The Off-Islanders." You can't NOT laugh reading Dad's books. Not to mention Grandad Robert, the famous humorist.

I was only half-watching the show - the guys laying my flooring were STILL here, working on baseboards.

[peeayebee]

7 hours ago, dcalley said:

More challenging! The shape of the country in question was shown on top of the USA, to scale.

I hope they do this one again. It was interesting and fun.

10 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

Kind of the way I got Crystal Palace. I had no idea about the architect, but I've read novels that mentioned it or had scenes in it - and the building had a lot of glass.

I hope someone can help me remember which book I read about this in. Non-fiction. Was the Crystal Palace mentioned in 'Devil in the White City'?

[zoey1996]

1 hour ago, peeayebee said:

I hope someone can help me remember which book I read about this in. Non-fiction. Was the Crystal Palace mentioned in 'Devil in the White City'?

No, it wasn't.  There were some plants mentioned, and one of them was a variety called Crystal Palace.  

Quote

and a rich palette of geraniums, among them Black Prince, Christopher Columbus, Mrs. Turner, Crystal Palace, Happy Thought, and Jeanne d’Arc.

Larson, Erik (2004-02-10). The Devil in the White City (p. 132). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

I learned about the Crystal Palace on the "Victoria" series shown on PBS, in the episodes that covered the creation and opening of the Great Exhibition in 1851.

[Katy M]

11 hours ago, saber5055 said:

At least three other people agree with me since it was a TS.

That's a false assumption.  They just may not have known the answer no matter how many letters fogy is spelled with.

1 hour ago, peeayebee said:

I hope they do this one again. It was interesting and fun.

I hope they don't:)

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

That's a false assumption.  They just may not have known the answer no matter how many letters fogy is spelled with.

My saying the players were confused by a five-letter word in a four-letter category is no more a false assumption than you saying it is. Let's change it then, to: "It's my opinion" that the players were confused by a poor choice of clue/answer. There are two people in my life I tease as being old fogeys ... with an e. Based on posts here, more besides the three players and me were stymied by the bad choice of clue and answer. I still say the writers could have picked from more than 250 other four-letter F words. That they picked one that can be a five-letter word too was ... well, stupid. A category for words that can be spelled two ways but pronounced the same could be a fun category. Fogy/fogey could be a clue/answer in that category.

I loved the map category and would like to see that again. Or better, more often!

Edited January 14, 2020 by saber5055

[saber5055]

4 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

It was so not like I visualized the place when I read about it. I was actually a little disappointed at what it looked like.

All I could think of was where did all that glass come from, and how did it all get put in the huge building without breaking. And talk about a full-time job for window washers!

[proserpina65]

2 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

learned about the Crystal Palace on the "Victoria" series shown on PBS, in the episodes that covered the creation and opening of the Great Exhibition in 1851.

I learned about it years ago, probably from reading a trashy historical romance set in the time period.  But I also know that it is the reason that Crystal Palace FC in the English Premier League is called Crystal Palace - the club was founded specifically to play in the stadium built on the grounds in South London to which the Crystal Palace had been relocated after the Great Exhibition had closed.

I'm not keen on Veronica, but I don't hate her either.  We'll see how long that feeling lasts.

[Mindthinkr]

I got a chuckle when Alex said “Not like the Mayor” re: Marion Berry. I had never heard of the fruit marionberry. I got Avon, Peter Benchley and FJ was an instaget. With wine Peeayabee! 

[Driad]

Marionberries

[zoey1996]

Cracker Barrel serves a Marion Blackberry jam that's really good.  I didn't realize they were also called Marionberries, though.

[dcalley]

I went to the J6 game yesterday to see if I could crib an image to show @Bastet, and the country clue did not match the others. I guess the J6 clues are never visual, for the people playing with Alexa or whichever device it is. Boo!

RECOGNIZING THE COUNTRY: You can recognize this European country by its distinctive boot shape

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

I got a chuckle when Alex said “Not like the Mayor” re: Marion Berry. I had never heard of the fruit marionberry. I got Avon, Peter Benchley and FJ was an instaget. With wine Peeayabee! 

Living in Oregon, I've heard of it, but never tried it. Now that I know it's an even better blackberry, I'll give it a whirl.

[Bastet]

14 hours ago, dcalley said:

More challenging! The shape of the country in question was shown on top of the USA, to scale.

Oh, that sounds cool - I bet I would have really liked that category.

44 minutes ago, dcalley said:

I went to the J6 game yesterday to see if I could crib an image to show @Bastet, and the country clue did not match the others. I guess the J6 clues are never visual, for the people playing with Alexa or whichever device it is. Boo!

Aw, thanks for trying.  Hopefully they'll do it again.

5 hours ago, Katy M said:

They just may not have known the answer no matter how many letters fogy is spelled with.

I suspect at least part of the problem was that they're used to hearing "old fogy" rather than "fogy", so the word alone didn't spring to mind fast enough.

[Bliss]

Great game tonight - with an exciting finish.

Being Canadian, FJ was easy peasy... and come to think of it, most of the game was the same. For a change, I was watching alone and noticed that my shoutouts were often and correct most of the time. Interesting.

I needed to feel schmart so that I had a bit of loft going into the GOAT show.

[Katy M]

I did great in the first round.  I got the entire categories of cities, mythology and Let's get Married right.  And, in DJ, I got the TS of bobby socks.  I only missed the 2000 clue in the 11th century.  I didn't get FJ.  I thought of pretty much every country that was originally settled by the British, but went with New Zealand because I was thinking of sheep.  We all know geography is not my subject.

[annzeepark914]

I, too, got the TS bobby soxer. Didn't do very well tonight, though. But I did get the easy clues!

[saber5055]

At first glance, Marlan looked a bit like Roman on Blindspot.

Speaking of, that dude was TALL. Marlan, not Roman. His riser needed to be a sinker, there was such a disparity in contestant height this episode.

Shout out to DRYAD/@Driad!

I'm glad Marlan got credit for something borrowed, something blue.

There were no TSs in the J round! Four TSs in DJ. I got Red Dwarf, thank you PBS.