Thursday, March 7, 2013 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[TryphonTournesol]

I was trying to come up with the other one and actually eliminated Costa Rica because of Jurassic Park. For some reason I remember the military was in power at the end of the book when they were trying to figure out who was "in charge" on Isla Nebular and nobody wanted to fess up.

Heh, that's funny. It's been a while since I read the book but I think the person Grant talks to at the end of the book is just a police officer. There is the issue of the island getting bombed but I don't know if it's made clear which military was doing that; could have been the US (especially since we would still have had a presence in Panama when the book was written).

[skullturf]

I don't know much about Central American history, but I put "Belize", reasoning that in some sense, it's the most "unique" Central American country (the only English-speaking one).

Costa Rica "sounded right" to me after the reveal, and when reading this thread, the stuff about them not having a military sounded familiar to me, but I wouldn't have been able to come up with it during those 30 seconds.

[TenPoundHammer]

4/5 in Letters and Words. Was stymied on the Scrabble clue after Q/X was negged, since I was positive X was 10.

Also 4/5 in London Transport. Saw no way to figure out the cab driver clue.

Derp moment du jour: "Oh, what show did Robert Guillaume play Benson on?"

Ran Instruments, happily.

"Okay, what's in Central America… Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala… shoot, I can't think of anything else." Of course the two right answers are the two I don't think of in 30 seconds.

[dhkendall]

My first thought when Final came up was "Good question!" *That*, ladies and gentlemen, was a very good example of what a true FJ question should be. Glad it was used in a relatively close game, too.

I wrote down Belize; Costa Rica was my other thought, so good to see I would have been right either way, though Belize seemed like the safer bet considering it's only been independent of Britain for about 30 of those 50 years.

I rationalized it figuring that since they were a British colony until 1981 and still a member of the Commonwealth, the likelihood of military rule was pretty low. In hindsight, Costa Rica is pretty famous for not having an army since the late 40s, so that was probably the more obvious answer, as reflected by the fact that no one on the show actually put down Belize.

These were my rationales as well. Came up with Belize first, partly because of the above, partly because Belize is the "forgotten" Central American country, the one no one remembers, so I figured it was a safe bet. (We have a friend who is originally from Belize, as well, but that wasn't a factor.)

When Alex gave his "one Spanish-speaking one English speaking" speech, I knew I had it right, and started to record my Coryat in my spreadsheet, even though my answer wasn't revealed yet and wouldn't be for a while.

If I'm not mistaken, Costa Rica doesn't have an army.
(10 correct finals in a row!)

<EdMcMahon>You are correct, sir.</EdMcMahon>

Oh, and to those (I remember bpmod was one) who doesn't believe that Cuba is Central American,in most contexts, "Central America" refers to the mainland countries (those situated between Colombia and Mexico), "the Caribbean" is where Cuba and the rest fall in (as other Caribbean countries, like the Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago, and St. Kitts and Nevis I also don't think have ever been run by the military either and woiuld be correct if they were considered "Central American". But, with that being said, I'm willing to make it a True Daily Double that people on the Sony board will think that Caribbean = Central America and complain "IN PROTEST!!1!!1!!")

[econgator]

Derp moment du jour: "Oh, what show did Robert Guillaume play Benson on?"

He did play Benson on Soap, too, so it's not a complete Stupid Answer moment.

[ComingUpMilhouse]

4/5 in Letters and Words. Was stymied on the Scrabble clue after Q/X was negged, since I was positive X was 10.

Also 4/5 in London Transport. Saw no way to figure out the cab driver clue.

I figured that it had to be cab drivers, since most other forms of transport follow set routes and wouldn't require people to know every street. It probably helped that their larger-than-average hippocampi came up in a neuroscience class I took in college (http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... axi-memory).

[bpmod]

Derp moment du jour: "Oh, what show did Robert Guillaume play Benson on?"

He did play Benson on Soap, too, so it's not a complete Stupid Answer moment.

And of course, the former was a spinoff from the latter.

Quick: Name two actors who appeared on both Soap & WKRP In Cincinnati.

Brian

[econgator]

Derp moment du jour: "Oh, what show did Robert Guillaume play Benson on?"

He did play Benson on Soap, too, so it's not a complete Stupid Answer moment.

And of course, the former was a spinoff from the latter.

Quick: Name two actors who appeared on both Soap & WKRP In Cincinnati.

Brian

Gordon Jump is the easy one ... hmmm ... it's none of the women or Tim Reid ... so ... Howard Hesseman?

[bpmod]

BING!

Brian

[seaborgium]

I had a vague idea of Costa Rica being the "safe" place in Central America to be an American tourist, so that's what I went with.

So now Drew has hit for the cycle, winning from first, second, and third place.

[MarkBarrett]

If Steve Chernicoff has a mild-mannered Clark Kent brother then Lloyd would be the guy. It was like watching OSC without the bad assery intimidation.

I had to wait five clues for my precall to be right as I expected Miami Vice in That '80s Show. I guess the writers were correct to make it worth $2000. Would Perfect Strangers be a triple stumper as well? Of course not, "Don't be ridiculous."

Strawberry blonde for the roan horse was the kind of miss that gave me no chance on the next clue being too busy laughing.

I don't get the surprise about Drew's all in for the DD. He bet the cover yesterday for his FJ wager. Tonight's situation called for such a move with a lowball accomplishing little. He had to do it.

With 8 FJs in a row correct I was ready for the streak to end with The Western Hemisphere as a category. I didn't bother with any precalls or mental runs of the maps. The clue was helpful to narrow things to a manageable section of the area. I started at the top with Mexico's bordering countries. Guatemala? I don't know. Belize? English and sounds good to me, so it went on the paper. One more for fun? Panama and Nicaragua? Even I know those two are out of consideration. Costa Rica? I've seen more than one reality show with contestants down there. That's probably the other one. El Salvador? Yeah, not likely. Honduras? That's not going on the paper. At the end I did a Dawson Crossin' to only leave Belize as I felt that was the best shot.

No showing off with both responses in this case although if the clue had asked for both I woud have had it. Asking only for one Drew caught another break as Lloyd should have been able to get one of them. Too bad. I also wanted to see him take it to the whippersnappers to get off his lawn.

Nice get by Drew to get Einstein/Switzerland. Glad that was not the FJ clue.

[Bamaman]

Jump played the police chief that arrested Jessica for killing Peter Campbell. I remember Hesseman being on the show, but can't remember his role.

Minor nitpick...it said he worked his way up from butler on Benson, but he was never a butler on that show. He was hired by the governor as director of household affairs and had that job when the show began.


TPH...if it makes you feel better, you also forgot El Salvador, so you did forget one wrong answer.

I have heard that bit about Costa Rica not having an army, but did not remember it during FJ. I eliminated Panama, Nicaragua and El Salvador right away and thought Guatemala sounded wrong as well. I had never really heard much about Honduras, so went with it. If Costa Rica had come to mind, I'd have been stumped which one to pick and probably would have gone with Belize.

[bpmod]

Jump played the police chief that arrested Jessica for killing Peter Campbell. I remember Hesseman being on the show, but can't remember his role.

Was he the prosecutor at Jessica's trial?

Minor nitpick...it said he worked his way up from butler on Benson, but he was never a butler on that show. He was hired by the governor as director of household affairs and had that job when the show began.

Director of household affairs. Isn't that a fancy term for butler?

Brian

[Linear Gnome]

I was surprised Spanish Succession was a triple stumper. Is that one a matter of my having only one guess, and other people knowing enough to have a problem?

[This Is Kirk!]

Also 4/5 in London Transport. Saw no way to figure out the cab driver clue.

Other than "who would need to know all the streets in a city?" Dude, sorry, but it was not a tough one.

Thought of Belize immediately for FJ due to its history as a British colony.

[thenextofken]

I actually thought of Belize, but couldn't remember whether it was in Central or South America. Therefore, I went with Honduras instead. D'oh!

[TenPoundHammer]

Also 4/5 in London Transport. Saw no way to figure out the cab driver clue.

Other than "who would need to know all the streets in a city?" Dude, sorry, but it was not a tough one.

I thought of a cop working the streets, and almost went with bobby/policeman.

[Bamaman]

Well, he had a desk in the kitchen and did serve at government functions, so I guess you could say he was a glorified butler for the governor. He seemed to manage the business of the mansion. On Soap, he did all the cooking and cleaning. I guess it depends on what your idea of a butler is. I think of a butler as who worked for the Tates rather than the governor.

[dhkendall]

Also 4/5 in London Transport. Saw no way to figure out the cab driver clue.

Other than "who would need to know all the streets in a city?" Dude, sorry, but it was not a tough one.

Dispatchers. But then, I worked as one for quite a while, so maybe that's why I thought of that. (Also figured taxi drivers would be more plausible, but didn't get it out in time.)

Thought of Belize immediately for FJ due to its history as a British colony.

Because we all know former British colonies, like Fiji or Zimbabwe, or Grenada, or Sierra Leone don't have a problem with military rule.

[This Is Kirk!]

Thought of Belize immediately for FJ due to its history as a British colony.

Because we all know former British colonies, like Fiji or Zimbabwe, or Grenada, or Sierra Leone don't have a problem with military rule.

True enough, but my thought was that Belize was fairly stable and maybe even a tad boring compared to the other Central American countries.