Jeopardy! Season 36 (2019-2020)

[Katy M]

8 hours ago, Bastet said:

he Valentine clue belonged in the Toddler Tournament.

I did get that, but it was so funny. I was like "I don't know which saints are what" and hten I honed in on the date and hit myself in the head.

[M. Darcy]

10 hours ago, Etta Place said:

The validity of “before your time” aside, if you go on jeopardy and you haven’t studied presidential assassinations and near-assassinations, you haven’t done your job.

At the least, listen to one of the cast recordings of Assassins.  All you ever need to know, you can learn from the show.  And also read Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell - its a great book.  

[WhoisMark]

9 hours ago, Bastet said:

Another archive night for me, so I must reiterate (on the off chance anyone involved with the J! Archive site reads here) how much I appreciate whatever changed this season that it is consistently updated daily, and early in the day.

The Valentine clue belonged in the Toddler Tournament.

Noblesse oblige, desert, Cher, boiling, and radiation were all varying degrees of surprising as TS, but the Hinckley TS was as shocking as last night's Mississippi TS.

I was horrible in the Cast of the TV Show category; I don't watch any of the shows, and the only one I could guess based on the info in the clue was Dr. Who.  I missed a couple of the Civil War clues (war history is not my bag) and could not spit out Gulf of Aden, so I had a worse first round than is typical for me.

In DJ, of course I didn't know any of the religious fiction clues (and I find it offensive at least three of the five were about Judeo-Christian novels) and only correctly guessed one of the Opera Zingers clues (Don Giovanni) -- my two worst subjects!

FJ came to me very quickly, but overall it was not a good game for me.  Boo, hiss.

With "Millionaire" gone I have transferred that time gained to archiving the J! episode each morning. Being in the West makes the timing reasonable. I saw the need after two weeks into the season showed little progress with the archiving. You are very welcome and I appreciate your words. Yes, I read here although my regular hangout is jboard.tv. 

[peeayebee]

9 hours ago, Bastet said:

but the Hinckley TS was as shocking as last night's Mississippi TS.

I just needed a couple more seconds to pull his name from my brain. 

[Trey]

Not a great game for me.  My only ts's were noblesse oblige, desert and Elijah and I missed quite a few questions.

Saving grace, it was pretty much an instaget FJ. I haven't listened to White Silver Sands thousands of times without learning about cowboys in Argentina.  "Watch the gauchos ride their pintos out across the pampas trail."

7 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

but the Hinckley TS was as shocking as last night's Mississippi TS.

I could only recall Sirhan Sirhan but I was pretty sure he shot Bobby Kennedy.

Yet another new champion.  I like her, hope she sticks around for a while.

[proserpina65]

18 hours ago, Katy M said:

I would have needed another couple of minutes to come up with the name.  I nodded my head when Alex said the answer if that counts:)

That counts in my book.  But hopefully if you were going to be a contestant, you might bone up on that period of US history - it tends to come up a lot.

Of course, I'm one to talk, with my "Ack! Politics!  Science!  Math!" reaction to some categories, lol.

And yeah, FDR was definitely not a European leader.  One of those "pay attention to the category" moments.  But hey, I knew George Wallace.  :-)  Not personally, though, thank goodness.

15 hours ago, Katy M said:

I got FJ.  I immediately said  Brazil and then immediately changed my answer to Argentina.

I got the TSs of icicles, desert, boiling, Cher (total guess, butit counts), John Hinkley, Don Giovani (at the last possible second, I kept thinking Casanova), Leah and Rachel, Elizabeth I, and Elijah.  I got the entire category (of 3 questions revealed) of Biblical fiction.

I got FJ immediately because Spanish name, western hemisphere and cowboys screams the gauchos (and their pants) of Argentina.  I probably got that from reading about them somewhere, but I've also seen more than one season of Amazing Race with legs in Argentina.

I didn't get Elijah, not being familiar with too many biblical prophets, but I did get Leah and Rachel, and I had to sell a crap-ton of those stupid Left Behind books when I worked at Borders.

My usually incredibly reliable Opera category was not so reliable last night.  The $400, $800 & $1200 clues were all gimmes, but I'm not familiar with The Beggar's Opera and said The Rake's Progress instead.  And I was yelling "Valkyries" at the tv instead of rhinemaidens despite liking the Ring cycle and having watched it on tv more than once.  Oy.

10 hours ago, opus said:

Everyone should watch Eight Men Out, about the scandal. Good movie.

Fantastic movie.

John Hinckley should not have been a triple stumper.

I'll forgive them not knowing noblesse oblige, given that nowdays the noblesse definitely does not think they have any oblige towards the poor.

[zoey1996]

12 hours ago, Etta Place said:

The validity of “before your time” aside, if you go on jeopardy and you haven’t studied presidential assassinations and near-assassinations, you haven’t done your job. Everyone standing there in silence on Hinckley was inexcusable. 

(small voice: I couldn't think of Hinkley, and I live in the area that his mother does.  He's in the newspaper sometimes when the legal system is figuring out how much time he can spend out of the hospital.  I believe he's currently living with his mother and brother.  I knew what the answer was, but couldn't pull the name out.)

[Katy M]

7 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

'll forgive them not knowing noblesse oblige, given that nowdays the noblesse definitely does not think they have any oblige towards the poor.

That was another one I hit my head when he gave the answer.  I'm not sure if all this head hitting is negatively affecting my game.

[Driad]

If you'd like to catch up on Wagner's Ring Cycle, Anna Russell did it in 28 minutes instead of 20 hours.

[saber5055]

4 hours ago, OneWouldHope said:

Seriously, no one could guess steakhouse after chophouse was guessed? With the word ‘beef’ in the clue?! No one could guess Mississippi as the river under the St. Louis Arch - after the terrible answer of Missouri? 

Well, both gave me the opportunity to be Smarter Than A Jeopardy Contestant, so there's that. And minor nit pick, it was the river under the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge, not the St. Louis arch. The arch sits beside the Mississippi. It's a hoot to take the ratchety ride to the top of the arch, although people with vertigo, beware looking out the windows at the top.

Thank you @WhoisMark for your good work on behalf of the Jeopardy community. I award you 10 Good For Yous and a Hearty Handshake.

Edited February 14, 2020 by saber5055

[Browncoat]

2 hours ago, WhoisMark said:

With "Millionaire" gone I have transferred that time gained to archiving the J! episode each morning. Being in the West makes the timing reasonable. I saw the need after two weeks into the season showed little progress with the archiving. You are very welcome and I appreciate your words. Yes, I read here although my regular hangout is jboard.tv. 

Thank you very much, @WhoisMark!  You've saved me regarding our contest here many times!

[Prevailing Wind]

34 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

although people with vertigo, beware looking out the windows at the top.

I didn't know I had that problem until I went up to the observatory on the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. I spent my time up there with my back pressed up against the wall of the elevator shaft, talking with the guide who works up there. (See attached photo) The observatory's on the top of the tower on the left. See the windows?

I missed most of last night's show due to the plumber coming late & installing my new kitchen faucet. I think all the leaks I've had are FINALLY fixed!! Life is almost back to normal. I've just got to get a painter in here for the woodwork and two rooms' walls. This debacle has been going on for over two months now....and NOW my TV has decided to act wonky. I've got vertical & horizontal lines on my screen!  Every scene looks like it has utility wires going across it - makes for weird viewing of J!, I tell ya.  New TV arrives today. Fortunately, I don't want a "smart" TV nor a very big one - I got a 24" for $80, free shipping. Good for me!

As for water under the bridge, there might be another road beneath the bridge, not necessarily water, but then it's usually called an overpass...but sometimes referred to as a bridge.

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by Prevailing Wind

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I didn't know I had that problem until I went up to the observatory on the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. I spent my time up there with my back pressed up against the wall of the elevator shaft

I would have been right there next to you. Even looking at your photo made me feel creepy. I had to be literally carried off Colorado's Royal Gorge Bridge. I walked to the middle, looked over the side, and pretty much collapsed, hyperventilating. That was the end of it for me. Yet I'm fine crewing hot air balloons and hang gliding. Go figure.

 

[Prevailing Wind]

Taking vertigo to small talk...

 

[Katy M]

1 hour ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I didn't know I had that problem until I went up to the observatory on the Penobscot Narrows Bridge

I found out when my parents invited me on a trip to the Grand Canyon. I didn't want to get anywhere near the edge. I didn't want my parents anywhere near the edge.  I didn't want perfect strangers anywhere near the edge.  There was this man standing at the edge where there were no stones or railing and he was holding his hand out to his wife or girlfriend and I'm just like "why????"  

[MrAtoz]

7 hours ago, OneWouldHope said:

It’s occurred to me, after watching the last few weeks, there’s an appalling (to me) lack of knowledge about the 20th century on the part of these “younger” people. And by younger I mean people in their 20s and 30s... Witness the Hinckley TS. George Wallace. Love Story... Not even knowledge of popular culture. It’s making for some really awful games.

I remember, when I was in high school (lo, those many years ago), it always seemed to be the case that our American history classes never quite reached the present day.  This would have been in the early 1980s.  We would start with colonial times at the beginning of the year, and by the end of the year we had gotten to about the beginnings of the Vietnam War.  So most of what happened during the late 60s and 70s, I never really learned about in school.  I had to pick it up on my own later if I was interested in it.  I've spoken to several people around my age, and they all tell the same story.

I wonder if that's still the case, that history classes just run out of time to get to more recent stuff.  If so, then that's probably the reason that young adults seem to have such trouble with clues about the late 20th century.  It's too long ago for them to have lived through it personally, but too recent for them to have learned about it in school.

However, I don't fault anybody for not knowing Love Story.  Trust me, if I could purge that insipid thing from my brain, I would do so in a heartbeat! 😀

[saber5055]

Happy Birthday today to friend of the show Frederick Douglass, and Happy Valentine's Day to the rest of you.

3 hours ago, MrAtoz said:

I don't fault anybody for not knowing Love Story.  Trust me, if I could purge that insipid thing from my brain, I would do so in a heartbeat!

Hating Love Story means never having to say you're sorry.

[Browncoat]

Man, Terry.  Good for him, I guess, but he needs to speed things up a bit and stop with the wild-ass guesses, not to mention the, "I'll take the entire category name for four hundred dollars please Alex" thing.

FJ was an instaget.  I feel kind of bad for the end woman who just couldn't quite finish writing in time.  Not that it mattered, but still.  

Too many TS tonight, too!  I wrote down V.C. Andrews, Untouchables, skunk, sponge, Normandy, hawk, hyrax, trebuchet, silver, blitz, and Westminster.  

 

[SoMuchTV]

Thank goodness Terry won; I was so annoyed at the promos they’ve been running all week showing him giving one incorrect response after another. I kept thinking how mean that seemed, until I figured out they wouldn’t have done it unless he had a good outcome. 
 

And FJ was an instaget, after I finished counting on my fingers. 

[Katy M]

I love a good come-back.

I did not get FJ.  I spent most of the time trying to think of a book where it rained a lot.  And, then even though I knew that wasn't part of it, I kept trying to stick it after, It was the best of times.  Or Call me Ishmael.  I don't remember it raining at the beginning of Moby Dick, but there is water in the book.

I got the TSs of untouchables, skunk, silling, hawk, Supernatural, garde (or guard), silver, and blitz (although I said blitzkrieg, not sure if that makes it wrong).

I got the entire category of body human correct.

And gosh darn it, Iknew VC Andrews, but just could NOT think of her name.  Decided to dispense with the head hitting, though, in an effort to improve my performance.

[annzeepark914]

Hmmm...for that first TS, I said dalit or sweepers.  Forgot about untouchables, but I think they're all the same.  Wonder if I'd have been given credit for dalit.  I cannot believe they didn't hear me screaming "sponge" over and over ad nauseum.  This was a very strange game.

[saber5055]

Brooke wears red for Valentine's Day. That's worthy of a Good For You.

Having lived in Columbus, Ohio five years for college, I was yelling "Westerville" for the Ville clue, even though I knew Westerville is no historic city. *cough Steubenville cough*

TSs skunk and shilling. I had a dog named Five Shillings, his mother was Crown Jewel.

Not surprised sponge was a TS since most people have man-made sponges and don't think of them as once being a living critter.

AT was amazed that Brooke would go on a hike through the Grand Canyon to celebrate something, either because she's Canadian or he thinks a four-day hike is stupid. Alex, the Grand Canyon is one of if not THE most fabulous place on earth. You should try it.

I shouted out the TS of Supernatural after reading the first word, "Crowley." Love that show.

TS: Agents of Shield and silver.

The ear bone stirrup has been a weekly clue/answer it seems. Time for writers to switch it up to anvil. Or hammer.

For that DD I was yelling out "OLIVE!" and thank goodness I was heard.

[SoMuchTV]

6 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

I shouted out the TS of Supernatural after reading the first word, "Crowley." Love that show.

I said, Good Omens, but he’s mispronouncing Crowley!  Didn’t really pay attention to the rest of the clue  😞

 

[Driad]

In honor(?) of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the perpetrator of “It was a dark and stormy night,” there is a contest  "to write an atrocious opening sentence to a hypothetical bad novel." The entries are entertaining reading.

[secnarf]

I thought Alex mispronounced trebuchet, which was especially odd as it's unlike him to pass up an opportunity to use his French accent.

Having had to build a trebuchet in high school physics, I am intimately familiar with them 😛

Several surprising TS though - I can't remember them all, but Blitz was one.

[saber5055]

1 hour ago, Driad said:

In honor(?) of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the perpetrator of “It was a dark and stormy night,” there is a contest  "to write an atrocious opening sentence to a hypothetical bad novel." The entries are entertaining reading.

I believe Snoopy is a regular winner of this contest.

[dcalley]

I was just about to link to a bunch of Snoopy's best work! https://www.gocomics.com/search/full_results?category=comic&short_name=peanuts&terms=stormy

[Bastet]

I only saw a few clues, and had to read the archive for the rest (thanks again, @WhoisMark), but I did get to see Alex's face when shilling was a TS and greatly enjoyed it.  I wonder what his face looked like by the end of the game -- there were about 15 TS!

In addition to shilling, I was surprised to some degree by the V.C. Andrews, untouchables, sponge, hawk, skunk, guard, trebuchets, and Blitz TS.  

The only film in the Quotable Movies category I've seen is The 40-Year-Old Virgin, but I didn't remember that quote.  I knew the ones from The Hunger Games and Black Swan via cultural osmosis, though.  And I didn't know any of the TV villains.  I'm very hit and miss on pop culture clues, and I was just a big ball of miss tonight!  At least I knew most of the other clues, and FJ was an instaget.

[Brookside]

A hawk is not an animal.

[peeayebee]

Well, I guess it's not a vegetable or a mineral. Or was that Twenty Questions?

I didn't pay complete attention to this game. I got hawk and Agents of Shield. Instead of blitz, I said blitzkrieg. Credit?

 

[Brookside]

Foible?

Bureaus?

Howitzer?

And yet he won.

[dgpolo]

16 minutes ago, Brookside said:

A hawk is not an animal.

 

12 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

Well, I guess it's not a vegetable or a mineral. Or was that Twenty Questions?

I was going to say it's not a plant 😁

V.C. Andrews couldn't make it from my brain to my mouth even though as a library page I had to shelve them often and as a cataloger I had to catalog them even though V. C. Andrews had died.

7 minutes ago, Brookside said:

And yet he won.

Has anyone else been so far in the hole that getting the DD couldn't get them out?

 

9 minutes ago, Brookside said:

Bureaus?

That really bothered me.

[theatremouse]

2 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I said, Good Omens, but he’s mispronouncing Crowley!  Didn’t really pay attention to the rest of the clue  😞

 Alex pronounced it the way it is pronounced on Supernatural.

I kept wondering why they didn't cut at some point and tell him he was mispronouncing boroughs....hell...the word was in some of the clues. He repeatedly heard Alex saying it. At one point he switched to saying "London" for the category and I thought he was saving face, but then he said it again once more after that.

That was a weird weird game.

[Katy M]

8 hours ago, Brookside said:

A hawk is not an animal.

What?

 

7 hours ago, dgpolo said:

Has anyone else been so far in the hole that getting the DD couldn't get them out?

If it's one of the last clues and the one in the lead already has a runaway, then yes. I've seen that.  I think I also once saw someone in the red like $3K, I don't know if they got the DD, but it would haven't helped much there either.

 

8 hours ago, peeayebee said:

Instead of blitz, I said blitzkrieg. Credit?

Me, too, and I gave myself credit, so I bestow credit upon you also.

[Browncoat]

11 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Having lived in Columbus, Ohio five years for college, I was yelling "Westerville" for the Ville clue, even though I knew Westerville is no historic city. *cough Steubenville cough*

I have relatives who used to live in Westerville, so I yelled that as well!

 

9 hours ago, Brookside said:

A hawk is not an animal.

Can you enlighten us what you think it is if you think it isn't an animal?

[Prevailing Wind]

I don't understand people who confuse mammal with animal.

I don't understand people who pronounce Borough as Bureau.

I don't understand why the games have been so crappy lately.

RE: Being taught modern history... Having graduated high school in 1967, I can tell you that the Dade County Public School System (Miami, FL) had the teachers spend SO MUCH TIME on Pizarro conquering the Incas in, yes, AMERICAN history (because, after all, Peru is in South America) that by the time the school year ended, we were barely up to Reconstruction. And because Miami was such a magnet for newcomers from other states/school systems, each year did NOT follow up on the previous year, but started all over again with Columbus, et al. That I know anything at all about the early 20th Century is due to my parents, reading, and PBS.

[Trey]

So many, many ts's. I got V.C. Andrews, skunk, shilling, sponge, hawk, Supernatural, silver, blitz - yes, I said blitzkreig but I am giving it to me, and the DD of Westminster.

Instaget FJ.

 

[SoMuchTV]

13 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I said, Good Omens, but he’s mispronouncing Crowley!  Didn’t really pay attention to the rest of the clue  😞

 

 

11 hours ago, theatremouse said:

 Alex pronounced it the way it is pronounced on Supernatural.

I haven't seen Supernatural, but on the Good Omens series (very minor spoiler if you're still planning to watch),

Spoiler

the demon Crowley changed the pronunciation of his name partway through the series, and neither of them was what I would have considered the "normal" one (the way Alex pronounced it, and the only way I've ever heard it).

That was what prompted my comment 🙂

 

[Gimmick Genius]

My wife (from Kent, OH) and I couldn't believe a guy from Akron didn't know Steubenville from all the hints in the clue. Maybe should've added Dean Martin? 

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, Gimmick Genius said:

My wife (from Kent, OH) and I couldn't believe a guy from Akron didn't know Steubenville from all the hints in the clue. Maybe should've added Dean Martin? 

I had a similar reaction a few days ago when the woman from West Virginia didn't know what time zone Charleston WV is in.  I have to wonder if sometimes those are buzzer issues.

[saber5055]

14 hours ago, Brookside said:

A hawk is not an animal.

Nor is it a vegetable or mineral.

ETA. Crumb, I posted this before reading @peeayebee (and others) beat me to it. I'm always a day late ...

Edited February 15, 2020 by saber5055

[saber5055]

2 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I haven't seen Supernatural, but on the Good Omens series (very minor spoiler if you're still planning to watch),

I knew what you meant, if it's any consolation, and that you related the Good Omens Crowley to the clue after hearing Alex "mispronounce" the first word of the clue. If you can understand THAT sentence! I've never seen Good Omens so I was lucky to get the correct answer for that clue. Too much knowledge sometimes not a good thing!

Of course, AT never mispronounces anything, amiright?

[secnarf]

18 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I didn't pay complete attention to this game. I got hawk and Agents of Shield. Instead of blitz, I said blitzkrieg. Credit?

Blitzkrieg is the name of a military tactic, and the Blitz is an actual offensive raid against London that occurred in 1940-1941, which is what the clue referred to. They aren't the same thing. I can't say what the judges would have ruled, but I don't think it should have been ruled correct.

[saber5055]

6 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I had a similar reaction a few days ago when the woman from West Virginia didn't know what time zone Charleston WV is in.  I have to wonder if sometimes those are buzzer issues.

I think those are brain-lapse issues rather than buzzer issues. Not that I ever have brain failure when confronted with some of those clues. *ahem cough*

I liked the Time Zone category, it made me feel smart. The Opera category ... not so much.

[kathyk2]

11 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I don't understand people who confuse mammal with animal.

I don't understand people who pronounce Borough as Bureau.

I don't understand why the games have been so crappy lately.

RE: Being taught modern history... Having graduated high school in 1967, I can tell you that the Dade County Public School System (Miami, FL) had the teachers spend SO MUCH TIME on Pizarro conquering the Incas in, yes, AMERICAN history (because, after all, Peru is in South America) that by the time the school year ended, we were barely up to Reconstruction. And because Miami was such a magnet for newcomers from other states/school systems, each year did NOT follow up on the previous year, but started all over again with Columbus, et al. That I know anything at all about the early 20th Century is due to my parents, reading, and PBS.

My history classes concentrated on the War for Independence and Civil Wars. There was a thread on Twitter regarding prominent figures being removed from history textbooks. I also think that if something won't be a standardized test it won't be covered in class.

[Clanstarling]

On 2/14/2020 at 11:39 AM, Katy M said:

I found out when my parents invited me on a trip to the Grand Canyon. I didn't want to get anywhere near the edge. I didn't want my parents anywhere near the edge.  I didn't want perfect strangers anywhere near the edge.  There was this man standing at the edge where there were no stones or railing and he was holding his hand out to his wife or girlfriend and I'm just like "why????"  

I never took my kids - because one of mine was a bull in a china shop type who would rush everywhere without paying attention. Just the thought of her at the Grand Canyon gave me vapors!
 

On 2/14/2020 at 6:03 PM, Driad said:

In honor(?) of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the perpetrator of “It was a dark and stormy night,” there is a contest  "to write an atrocious opening sentence to a hypothetical bad novel." The entries are entertaining reading.

I was ashamed that I couldn't come up with it (was focusing on good literature), as SJSU is my alma mater, and Professor Rice was one of my professors - in my major.  To be fair, it didn't start until a few years after I graduated, but still...

Stueben popped right out of my mouth - sometimes it helps not to know too much, so Stuebenville was the only town I thought of with a "ville" at the end. My husband, the Ohioan, did not. Then again, he got the Bulwar-Lytton answer, so I guess we're even.

[DrSpaceman73]

1 hour ago, Clanstarling said:

never took my kids - because one of mine was a bull in a china shop type who would rush everywhere without paying attention. Just the thought of her at the Grand Canyon gave me vapors

Probably a good idea.  People literally die every year there by either falls or just doing stupid things like hiking to the bottom unprepared.  I was surprised when I went there and saw there is literally nothing to keep you from easily falling and killing yourself. 

What a weird champion.  He seemed to just buzz in on everything ahead of the other two and guess whether he knew it for sure or not.  Then took a gutsy call on the DD in the second round.  VERY risky, paid off for him.  I could see him ending up next game with like -$4000 and not making FJ. 

[Prevailing Wind]

11 hours ago, Gimmick Genius said:

My wife (from Kent, OH) and I couldn't believe a guy from Akron didn't know Steubenville from all the hints in the clue. Maybe should've added Dean Martin? 

I saw this on the Kroger in Steubenville...

[SHD]

I was really perplexed by the champ’s FJ answer. I get surrendering because you don’t have a decent guess, but why, of all things, would he put down ALEVE?

[Bastet]

25 minutes ago, SHD said:

I was really perplexed by the champ’s FJ answer. I get surrendering because you don’t have a decent guess, but why, of all things, would he put down ALEVE?

Because of the commercial that ran for years (or at least what seemed like years).  I don't know if Aleve is still a sponsor of the show, as I haven't taken particular notice in a while, and I tend to think not, but its "What is Aleve?" commercial made to look like a FJ segment aired during the commercial break between DJ and FJ for quite some time.  Alex Jacob made the same joke for his I have no idea FJ response several years ago, so this was repetitive (and not as timely).

Edited February 16, 2020 by Bastet