Wednesday, July 6, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Placeholder for J! Round

[Archivists]

Placeholder for DJ! Round

[dhkendall]

A rather odd game in terms of minutiae (that some fans obsess over way more than the show itself) - firstly there was no "end of round signal" for DJ! that was rather odd, unless I missed the last two spelling clues, Alex just gave the response for $1200 and then moved on to the FJ! category reveal.

Also, why was B.D.'s answer typed? I guess no one here could really answer that, but it seems sort of odd, his name and wager were written, but not his response. I'm guessing perhaps he does not have the ability to write an answer within the same time period that others would have, and thus evened the playing field for him (which is consistent with J! helping out those with disabilities. It would also explain why the others were hand written, as there's no time limit for the name or the wager.)

As for Final, this was a bit more Kid's Week, but not as easy as ones from previous years. I must say the writers are doing a better job with them this time around. I was fortunate in that the first state that came to mind for me that started and ended with the same letter was Ohio, figured there weren't that many other states that started with O, and was pretty sure I had it but, to be safe, tried to think of what the other 3 were. "OK, let's go through them alphabetically, there's Alabama - hey, starts and ends with the same letter! Alaska - wait a minute here ... Arizona - ok this is getting a little strange ... "

[Roadgeek Adam]

Almost perfect Jeopardy round. Missed Dan Zane, that was never going to be on my list and the ladbyug one. I'm glad they credited Andrew for 7Up. Double Jeopardy was a bit hard in one category for me, Pop Culture, one of my bad ones due to I like 50s, 60s, 70s culture. I got America's Got Talent though. Final Jeopardy = instaget. For them it was pretty low money game. Did Emma even understand the question?

Dhkendall - Yeah the buzzer was missing. There had to be an edit there like they missed the other two or one and just edited it out.

Andrew looks damn old for 10 - 12. Guess its the french heritage that makes him look 14-16.

Pretty good day.

[austinwolfclaw]

In the first part of the J! round, if you thought about The Game, you lost.

Even though the response was "What is HORSE", i still Lost The Game.

Damn you, Trebek.

[Robert K S]

If any of the kids show up here, they can confirm, but I'm going to guess that they got to one or both of the last clues, had no correct responses, and then Alex just retaped his comments on the $1200 clue so they could head right into Final and trim away those other clues.

[alietr]

I've tried finding the forum in Google with no success. I don't think people who are on the show will find here until the recaps get filled in with their names. Then when they search for their name and Jeopardy together, we should start showing up. Mere conjecture, mind you.

[jeff6286]

I just realized that no one has done FJ or the scores the past two days, so I will post them here.

BD: $11,600+$6,401=$18,001
Emma: $9,000-$8,000=$1,000
Andrew: $4,600-$1,000=$3,600

U.S. State Names
"Of the 4 states that begin & end with the same vowel, the one that doesn't begin & end with the same letter as the other 3 states."

Spoiler: show

What is Ohio? Alabama, Alaska, and Arizona all start and end with the letter "A". BD was correct, Emma said Florida, and Andrew said Alabama.

[jeff6286]

Also, why was B.D.'s answer typed? I guess no one here could really answer that, but it seems sort of odd, his name and wager were written, but not his response. I'm guessing perhaps he does not have the ability to write an answer within the same time period that others would have, and thus evened the playing field for him (which is consistent with J! helping out those with disabilities. It would also explain why the others were hand written, as there's no time limit for the name or the wager.)

Thank you for this hypothesis, because I was confused as heck when his answer was typed but his wager was hand-written. Your theory makes perfect sense.

Double Jeopardy was a bit hard in one category for me, Pop Culture, one of my bad ones due to I like 50s, 60s, 70s culture. I got America's Got Talent though. Final Jeopardy = instaget. For them it was pretty low money game. Did Emma even understand the question?

I too struggled with the pop culture category, missing 3 out of 5. I could possibly have gotten Gnomeo, but it didn't come to me in time, but the other two I missed I had never even heard of.

It seemed clear that Emma didn't entirely understand what they were asking in FJ. She seemed stunned when Alex said that she was incorrect. I thought it was a somewhat confusingly worded question, but I immediately knew what they were going for. Even if someone didn't quite get what they were asking with the "begin & end with the same letter as the other 3 states", I'm not sure why she would decide on a state that doesn't even start with a vowel, let alone start and end with the same one.

In addition to FJ, I also thought the Lunchable question was very poorly worded. I figured it out since it had Oscar Mayer in the clue, but the way the clue was written made it a little more difficult than I think they intended.

At first I was shocked that the kids didn't know right away that Al Gore was Bill Clinton's VP, but after thinking about it a little, it occurred to me that I was born in 1978 and Reagan and Bush were in office from 1981 to 1989. I think my 10 to 12 year old self would have known that Jimmy Carter was the President before Reagan, but I am less confident that I would have known that Walter Mondale was his VP.

[dhkendall]

In addition to FJ, I also thought the Lunchable question was very poorly worded. I figured it out since it had Oscar Mayer in the clue, but the way the clue was written made it a little more difficult than I think they intended.

I got Lunchables primarily because a) I watched an episode of Family Guy yesterday where Stewie complained one of his classmates in his acting school had breath that smelled of "rotten Lunchables", and b) just a couple hours before the show I was asking my wife if she bought some Lunchables for the kids' lunches (they're going to a city run drop in program during school hours)

[econgator]

It seemed clear that Emma didn't entirely understand what they were asking in FJ.

*nod* I'm guessing that she parsed it as "3 states begin and end in 'a'. What is another state that ends in 'a', but doesn't start with it."

[Roadgeek Adam]

In addition to FJ, I also thought the Lunchable question was very poorly worded. I figured it out since it had Oscar Mayer in the clue, but the way the clue was written made it a little more difficult than I think they intended.

I got Lunchables primarily because a) I watched an episode of Family Guy yesterday where Stewie complained one of his classmates in his acting school had breath that smelled of "rotten Lunchables", and b) just a couple hours before the show I was asking my wife if she bought some Lunchables for the kids' lunches (they're going to a city run drop in program during school hours)

I got Lunchables only because "it was the only answer I could possibly think of".

[heelsrule1988]

Andrew looks damn old for 10 - 12. Guess its the french heritage that makes him look 14-16.

Didn't think I'd be the only one to see this... he looks like he should be in the Teen Tournament!

[MarkBarrett]

I get paid to open Lunchables so I couldn't miss that one. It was the 13 other clues (41/54) I could not get that I had problems with during the game. Dan Zanes is someone I've heard of once a few years back, but I took a blind guess on the initials and guessed... go ahead guess

Spoiler: show

Dweezil Zappa

For Emma perhaps she did something like Arizona, Alabama and Alaska all end in "A" and start with "A", but Florida is the one (of course not the only one) that ends in "A", but does not start with "A?" She did seem surprised she did not have it right.

On my first reading of the clue I was doing Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma...nope different vowels. Ohio! That works. What are the other three? It was "Aha" as soon as I started with AL.

[codehappy]

In addition to FJ, I also thought the Lunchable question was very poorly worded. I figured it out since it had Oscar Mayer in the clue, but the way the clue was written made it a little more difficult than I think they intended.

The question about "our galaxy's asteroid belt", also -- though it was clear what was meant was "our solar system's asteroid belt", it seemed a bit sloppy.

[chuck5982]

I just realized that no one has done FJ or the scores the past two days, so I will post them here.

BD: $11,600+$6,401=$18,001
Emma: $9,000-$8,000=$1,000
Andrew: $4,600-$1,000=$3,600

We should find howierules86 so he can come on here and resume his daily job.

[Bamaman]

I had the same guess as Mark for DZ.

I precalled the FJ would be wordplay. I usually hate those, but this was pretty simple. Not as easy as today's rerun episode from last year's Kids Week,,,Two of the four states that border Mexico.

FJ was a bit confusing in the wording, I think both who got it wrong had trouble grasping the clue. I quickly eliminated A, skipped over E, then I and landed in Ohio.

[sherder]

Dan Zanes has a great live show. It was our daughter's first concert. His music is the kind of kids music I don't mind having on my iPod. Highly recommended if you have younger kids.

[--Pete]

Hi,

The question about "our galaxy's asteroid belt", also -- though it was clear what was meant was "our solar system's asteroid belt", it seemed a bit sloppy.

Indeed that was sloppy. There seemed to be a lot of slop in the clues recently. Perhaps no one felt that it was worth the effort to double check them for accuracy because it was "only" kids week.

--Pete

[Rafferty Barnes]

Also, why was B.D.'s answer typed? I guess no one here could really answer that, but it seems sort of odd, his name and wager were written, but not his response. I'm guessing perhaps he does not have the ability to write an answer within the same time period that others would have, and thus evened the playing field for him (which is consistent with J! helping out those with disabilities. It would also explain why the others were hand written, as there's no time limit for the name or the wager.)

This was a post on the Jeopardy! facebook page by Jenifer Swarz:

Hi All, I am the mom of B.D. Schwarz, who was last night's winner. His answer was typed because he has a neurological disorder called dystonia that makes his hand muscles contract. He has handwriting so bad that it took three tries for him to write his name legibly for the podium and his name is only two letters long! Jeopardy! is amazing with disabilty accomodations, and allowed him a keyboard for Final Jeopardy.