Tuesday, July 22, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Volante]

I couldn't figure out the point of including the info on Buffalo Bill and the Prince of Wales in the FJ clue. If anything, it might misdirect you.

That probably was the idea. It might throw you to London (Crystal Palace) or Chicago (where, in a case of the ironic Eye, the Ferris Wheel was developed to have "something big" like the Eiffel Tower.) And, in the last two decades of the 19th century, you could count on Buffalo Bill to be at any major event, as well as the bon vivant Prince of Wales Albert Edward (later Edward VII).

I figured that by including those two, it meant they traveled internationally to the fair, so it wouldn't be in either the UK or US.

[Robert K S]

The romanticized American West and tales of American Indian tribes captivated Europe in the late 19th, fed mainly by French writers like Oliver Gloux (pen name Gustave Aimard), Louis de Bellemarre (pen name Gabriel Ferry), and Paul Duplessis. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show milked France's fascination and toured the continent four times 1887-1892 (and four more times after the turn of the century).

[Rackme32]

Can we get a "I went 0/5 in Katy Perry" for the weekly poll"?

Where's the "LOVE IT!!!!!" button??

[Sherm]

I ended with the lowest coryat score that I have had on any regular show over the last 5 weeks. That was truly depressing stuff.

And I still bet anything that I'm the only person on this forum to have ever registered a Coryat of $0 or lower.

Lowest Coryat I ever got appears to be 5,400 on March 14, 2011. I still got 20,000 last night. I think I'm heading to the Jarchive to see why that 2011 board was so hard. Go back and renew a bad memory.

[TenPoundHammer]

I ended with the lowest coryat score that I have had on any regular show over the last 5 weeks. That was truly depressing stuff.

And I still bet anything that I'm the only person on this forum to have ever registered a Coryat of $0 or lower.

Lowest Coryat I ever got appears to be 5,400 on March 14, 2011. I still got 20,000 last night. I think I'm heading to the Jarchive to see why that 2011 board was so hard. Go back and renew a bad memory.

Here are my three worst Coryats:

$400 ($400 in International Pluralism, for the record)

$0

-$1,200. Yes, MINUS. (Got the first two in Capitals at Statehood, then shot it down with negs at $1,200 in both that category and Bens & Jerrys.)

[countyguy]

I have to have the board record for most Coryats of $0 or lower in a week: four. ($-1400, $-200, $8600, $0, $0). In each of these games I got at least seven or eight right but had serious negs. I have yet to clear $20K in a regular game.

[nightreign]

I'd probably be just as bad as you, but I don't keep Coryats because:
A. I've already been on the show
B. I'm 15, and
C. When playing at home, I guess shamelessly at stuff I'd never ring in on because sometimes I do get it right.

I probably have the most 0/5 FJ weeks, though. It's my weakest categories that are so often used.

[jeff6286]

Could've run Inventions, but I expected a trap at $1200 ("CDs weren't invented in the 60s, were they?!?")

I'd have to see the wording, but I don't see anything that says they were (wiki shows them being invented in the 70's, which was what I thought, too). Laser discs, however, were invented back in the 50's.

How do you invent the laser disc in the 1950s when the laser wasn't invented until 1960? (I guessed cassette tapes, but that made no sense either. I remember laser discs -- the quasi-grandfather of the DVD -- from a Popular Science article in the early 1970s, and always thought the CD was late 70s - early 80s thing in development.)

EDIT: I was curious, so I looked it up. The original late-1950s invention was an optically-read disc (photocells and all), but obviously not using lasers. The term "LaserDisc" was a 1970s thing.

Yeah, this is a weird story. James T. Russell, according to his wikipedia page, invented the overall concept of optical digital recording and playback in 1965. He built prototypes, and the first was operating in 1973. In 1973, 1974, 1975 his prototype was viewed by about 100 companies, including Philips and Sony engineers. The weird thing is that Russell receives no mention on the Wiki pages for Compact Disc or Optical disc. It is hard to tell from reading those pages if other people were working independently of Russell, or if his work was simply brushed aside after Sony and Philips got hold of the technology. One line says "Prototypes were developed by Philips and Sony independently from the mid-to-late 1970s", despite the fact that Russell supposedly built these prototypes in the 60s. Maybe it is just a poor job by the writers of those particular wiki articles, I didn't actually check out any of the citations.

[dhkendall]

I know that my very first Coryat that I tracked (in January, 2009) is my lowest. I could look up what the number is (I think $3,900), but I don't focus on stuff like that. I'm all too happy to share ecidetly when my Coryat reaches new heights, like how I mentioned that June I set a new record of $26,300+ for average Coryats of first-run non-tournament games. (July, having no first run non-tournament games left, I already did the math, was almost as good at $26,057). Focus on the successes. It took me 5 years to get that little success, and I work on improving my record all the time. I don't see a sense in telling everyone what your lowest Coryat was in a self-defeatist attitude (I'd make it a True Daily Double that TPH has never once mentioned his highest Coryat), it baffles me why others would.

[TenPoundHammer]

For the record, my highest seems to be $46,600 on 7/5/11, which dh also claimed at the time accounted for his highest Coryat. Most of the time I seem to be stuck in a $15,000-$20,000 rut.

Unlike him, I didn't go 30/30 in a round. I have yet to do that even on kids' week — my best is 28/30 on 7/8/10. (I think my two misses were "executive" and "Wolverine".)

[dhkendall]

For the record, my highest seems to be $46,600 on 7/5/11, which dh also claimed at the time accounted for his highest Coryat. Most of the time I seem to be stuck in a $15,000-$20,000 rut.

Unlike him, I didn't go 30/30 in a round. I have yet to do that even on kids' week — my best is 28/30 on 7/8/10. (I think my two misses were "executive" and "Wolverine".)

The $15-$20K average is definitely good news (not quite enough to pass the test and get on the show, but you've stated this isn't a goal of yours, so I'd say it's plenty good enough), this is what you should be mentioning more than the three "bad games" you had.

(BTW, I just checked my stats for that game, while my $45,400 may have been the highest at the time (may still be, I haven't run those numbers yet), I didn't have a 30/30 round, like you I still have to do that, even in Kid's Week. That day I got 25R 1W in J!, and 26R 4W in DJ!. (Watching in in repeats during the Summer Hiatus that year got me similar numbers).

[NYCScribbler]

Also, I watched this episode and figured that the contestants were fed large amounts of caffeine before the taping, or that they were told to keep things moving quickly and took it a wee tiny bit too much to heart.

Yes, they seemed a bit excited.

And, since you've been there too, can you remember if there was any caffeine (other than coffee or tea) in the green room? I know my favorite source is Diet Coke, and I only remember them having the decaf version. But that doesn't mean they didn't have it in other sources there.

There was definitely Diet Coke. I went through a few cans of it.

[Mathew5000]

Yeah, this is a weird story. James T. Russell, according to his wikipedia page, invented the overall concept of optical digital recording and playback in 1965. He built prototypes, and the first was operating in 1973. In 1973, 1974, 1975 his prototype was viewed by about 100 companies, including Philips and Sony engineers. The weird thing is that Russell receives no mention on the Wiki pages for Compact Disc or Optical disc. It is hard to tell from reading those pages if other people were working independently of Russell, or if his work was simply brushed aside after Sony and Philips got hold of the technology. One line says "Prototypes were developed by Philips and Sony independently from the mid-to-late 1970s", despite the fact that Russell supposedly built these prototypes in the 60s. Maybe it is just a poor job by the writers of those particular wiki articles, I didn't actually check out any of the citations.

I edited the Wikipedia articles "Optical disc", "Compact disc", and "Electron beam welding" to mention James T. Russell's contribution. He was already mentioned in the articles "LaserDisc" and "DVD" as well as "Timeline of United States inventions (1946–91)".

[teapot37]

Congratulations, Jeff, on your excellent performance! I think you will earn a Wild Card spot.

Picked up Lach trash - Volvo, "Roots", signet.

Got FJ.

For the record, a "signet" is a ring. A "cygnet" is a baby swan.

[periwinkle]

I couldn't figure out the point of including the info on Buffalo Bill and the Prince of Wales in the FJ clue. If anything, it might misdirect you.

That probably was the idea. It might throw you to London (Crystal Palace) or Chicago (where, in a case of the ironic Eye, the Ferris Wheel was developed to have "something big" like the Eiffel Tower.) And, in the last two decades of the 19th century, you could count on Buffalo Bill to be at any major event, as well as the bon vivant Prince of Wales Albert Edward (later Edward VII).

It threw me off - Buffalo Bill had me thinking 'he came from the West, maybe it's in the Midwest - St. Louis Arch!' (in a game looking for that info, would that have been accepted for 'Gateway Arch', the apparent formal name?)
I knew that was for one of the older World's Fairs -- I was off by 25 years (and 3 million visitors a year - the Arch gets 4M). If I'd thought about "Meet Me In St. Louis," I might've realized that fair was early 20th century rather than late 19th century, and moved on.

Jeff, great going! Very much hoping to see you in the semis. Selena, congratulations! Well played. Erin, I loved what you posted and you should be so proud of yourself for persevering and going on the show. Beautifully written.

[periwinkle]

I went to St. Louis for the first time earlier this month and was impressed by how modern the Arch looked for having been built in 1903. Turns out it was built 1963-67. I knew two things about St. Louis and had just combined them in my head.

Oops! Me too. Should've read all the comments before I posted.

Also, I wanted to say that Erin's post reminds me why I don't like personal remarks about contestants, including that they should take a Xanax - and particularly when directed to teens. I know it was meant jokingly, but you never know what people are dealing with and being a little kinder doesn't hurt.

[A drop of golden sun]

I sent Jeff Xie (aka lumosityfan) a private message, then decided to just go ahead and post it below. Apologies for taking so long to get round to watching the game on DVR. While watching tournaments, I like to keep track of everybody's score, so I know what is needed for a wild card the last couple of days, certainly Friday. I assume the tournament players are not allowed to watch the earlier 1st round games? Because being able to watch them would give a big advantage to the players in the last 1st round game, knowing how much is needed for a wild-card spot. Cool that Jeff created a wild-card spot standings thread here on the Jboard. I intended to root for him, knowing that he was a JBoard participant, but it is so much more fun when you have a name, face, and voice to put to a JBoard username! I found all three players very likeable, which is not always the case with the adult players!

Message to Jeff:


Well done! I thought all three contestants in your game were most impressive and I thought your Final Jeopardy wager was a wise one. You are very well-positioned for one of the wild card spots in the semifinals. I assumed that you must have wagered 0 when you didn't seem the least bit bothered by having misspelled "Eiffel Tower" (although it could have been disastrous in a later round). Tournament players that have taken the time to learn historical wild-card cutoffs from previous tournaments (as I suspect you may have done) will be at an advantage when trying to decide whether to go for the win, or the wild card, in the first round. Selena also wagered wisely, probably having predicted that you would wager small or 0 on FJ as you were already in a strong position for a wild card with $19000. Even if she hadn't won, $20000 would be a very strong potential wild card position.



Cheers, Ravi


LT: Sec. of HHS, Mu Alpha Theta, Volvo, Roots, P.T. Barnum, Marconi, Cygnet. 1/5 in Katy Perry (Roar)
On a related note, "We Built This City" by Starship was a hit when I was in 4th grade and I was a big pop music fan then. In the song they mention Marconi, but I had never heard of him, so I thought it was "my pony plays the bongos" instead of "Marconi plays the mambo"

I am going to read Erin's blog entry later. I was disappointed by her very wrong FJ response, but I honestly can't say I have ever been in her shoes...other than that, I thought she played well, as did all the contestants.

[mbclev]

Yay Jeff! Sucks about the Eiffe Tower thing, but that's a strong score and I'd be shocked if you didn't advance. Did your pen malfunction?

I actually have no clue. When I was on stage for the Final, I wrote down "Eiffel" and thought the "l" registered, but when I looked up at the reveal, I was shocked to see it wasn't there. (It must have been something wrong with the board, because you can clearly see the bottom of the l, which shows that I intended to write the l but couldn't.) Anyway, it wouldn't have mattered in the end.

Jeff, be thankful your mistake was not like Diana North's mistake in the fall 2012 Teachers' Tournament, because you didn't wager anything. Based on Diana's FJ wager, her mistake cost her a spot in that tournament's semi-finals, and I reckon that Diana's inner circle of friends and acquaintances will still remind her about it for the rest of her life, like I basically said in 2012. (That mistake was sort of like what our Cleveland sports teams have done in regards to post-season appearances, because they sometimes make these kinds of self-inflicted mistakes, so we Clevelanders perceive any kind of competition as sort of like life or death because of this, and we have long memories about it as well. In fact, there will be an upcoming ESPN "30 for 30" documentary about it in the not-too-distant future.)

[Paucle]

I'm Henry The Eighth, I am! Henry The Eighth I am, I am!

[dhkendall]

I'm Henry The Eighth, I am! Henry The Eighth I am, I am!

The 60s novelty song I would have gone with was "They're Coming To Take Me Away", personally