Tuesday, July 14, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Game Recap for Show #7112, 2015-07-14

CONTESTANTS
Val Narehood, a theater technician from Tyrone, Pennsylvania
Ben Hemmens, a stay-at-home dad from Falls Church, Virginia
Phil Salathé, a teacher and composer from Rocky Point, New York (whose 1-day cash winnings total $22,600)

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Thank you, Johnny Gilbert. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We ended last week with a big win. We started this week, yesterday, with a big win for Phil. What will happen today? Val and Ben will have a great deal to say about that. Welcome aboard. Good luck, players. Here we go into the Jeopardy! Round. One Daily Double in this round. And here are the categories...

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
"ORM"Y WEATHER (5/5)
RAINY SONGS (5/5)
LET IT SNOW (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
HAIL! (4/5)
HURRICANE, TORNADO OR CYCLONE (5/5)
AT LAST, SUN (4/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Ben: 12 R, 0 W
Phil: 12 R (including 1 DD), 1 W
Val: 4 R, 0 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 2
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $2,000



SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
Phil: $3,000
Ben: $2,400
Val: $2,000

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS



Alex: Val Narehood is a theater technician from Pennsylvania who has done a great deal of study on the Lincoln assassination. Now how did you get started on that?

Val: Well, about ten years ago, I was, uh, working as a stagehand in Ford's Theatre. And at the time, I found myself standing where Booth would've landed when he jumped from the box. It was a thrill. So I've been reading about it ever since, and particularly about Ned Spangler, who was the stagehand who was convicted of aiding and abetting Booth. Being a stagehand myself, I had an affinity for him, so...

Alex: You could relate to that. Okay, good for you.




Alex: Ben Hemmens, a stay-at-home dad from Falls Church, Virginia. You've been in a fantasy baseball league for a long time. You're the current reigning champ...

Ben: I am, yes.

Alex: In your group, right?

Ben: Yes, that's right.

Alex: What's the secret to picking the right people, the right guys?

Ben: Honestly, some of it's just luck.

Alex: Really?

Ben: Yeah. But, uh, you have to do your research and know who the--know who all the players are before you commit to anyone.

Alex: Of all of the players you've picked, which one surprised--was the most pleasant surprise? Somebody you said, "Well, he'll do well," and then you said, "Holy smokes, he just blew me away with what a great--great season he's having"?

Ben: Uh, I think way back when, it was Bartolo Colón, uh, who is now, I think, 43 years old, pitching for the Mets.

Alex: All right.




Alex: We, uh, have Phil Salathè, our champion. A teacher and composer who is unique in that you and your sister have perfect pitch.

Phil: That's true.

Alex: And you were studied because of that.

Phil: That's true. Uh, my sister found out about a genetic study where they were asking for people who had perfect pitch to write in. And I believe it goes through my whole family. But in any event, both my sister and I sent--my sister Greta, I should say--and I sent in samples, and as it turns out, it appears that there is, in fact, a gene.

Alex: Well, what exactly is perfect pitch? What does that mean?

Phil: Well, it's a bit, as to music, what, uh, most people--how people--most people perceive colors. In other words, you can look at purple and say, "That's purple", and not have to think about it or need a reference. I'm the same way with pitch. So if I hear a B-flat or a C-sharp, I know immediately what it is.

Alex: [Sings continuous note]

Phil: That's... A-flat-ish.

[Laughter]

Alex: Right. [Chuckles] Okay.

JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Phil found the Daily Double on the 25th clue. Phil had $4,800, Ben had $4,200, and Val was at $2,000. Phil wagered $1,800.

LET IT SNOW $800: In a 3-day period in November 2014, this second-most-populous city in New York got 7 feet of the white stuff

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
HAIL! $1000: Marquette & Boston College are among schools whose traditions include singing "Hail" this Latin phrase

AT LAST, SUN $1000: The movie "A Place in the Sun" was based on this Theodore Dreiser novel
(Phil: What is Sister Carrie?)

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
Phil: $7,800
Ben: $6,200
Val: $2,000

[Archivists]

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
THE MONGOLS (4/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
TV DADS (3/5)
ANIMAL PARTS (2/5)
ALSO ON A BIKE (4/5)
1920s FICTION BESTSELLERS (3/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
BROWNIAN NOTIONS (4/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Ben: 9 R, 1 W
Phil: 5 R (including 1 DD), 0 W
Val: 6 R, 2 W (including 1 DD)

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 9
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $12,800



FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Val snagged the next Daily Double on the 5th clue. Phil had $9,800, Ben had $8,200, and Val was at $2,800. Val wagered $2,000.

THE MONGOLS $1200: In both 1274 & 1281 thousands of Mongol ships & men were destroyed by typhoons while invading this island country
(Val: What are the Philippines?)

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Phil who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 14th clue. Phil had $11,400, Ben had $9,800, and Val was at $3,200. Phil wagered $2,000.

1920s FICTION BESTSELLERS $1600: Like "Beau Geste", also by P.C. Wren, "Beau Sabreur" is about a man in this fighting unit

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
ALSO ON A BIKE $2000: Term for a range of mountains

1920s FICTION BESTSELLERS $400: The first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for a novel was Edith Wharton, for this 1920 bestseller
(Ben: What is... uh, Ethan Frome?)

1920s FICTION BESTSELLERS $2000: He continued his Old West tales with "The Man of the Forest" in 1920 & "The Mysterious Rider" in 1921
(Val: Who is Louis L'Amour?)

BROWNIAN NOTIONS $2000: She ran Vanity Fair & the Daily Beast but said, "I didn't see myself as an editor. I wanted to be a playwright"

ANIMAL PARTS $800: Unlike some other whales, baleen whales lack this body part, so they can't gesture that they could've had a V8!
(Alex: They don't have a... [pops himself in the [*], as in the V8 ad] [*].)

ANIMAL PARTS $1200: Biologists say snakes do have a distinct one of these, going back from an outlet called the cloaca

TV DADS $400: Played by Jon Cryer, this single father muddles through on "Two and a Half Men"
(Alex: Less than a minute to go now, Ben.)

TV DADS $2000: On "South Park", it turned out that this character, Stan's dad, is in fact the singer Lorde

ANIMAL PARTS $2000: These fish whiskers sound like gym equipment

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
Ben: $16,200
Phil: $13,400
Val: $4,400

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
HISTORIC AMERICANS

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Four-fifths for first place. Shore's Conjecture.
Ben: Wager $10,601 to cover Phil. Or, you could try out a Shoretegic bet of $1,801.
Phil: Try wagering $4,599, which is as much as you can put up against Ben without being usurped by a doubled score on the part of Val.
Val: You just can't cover a rational wager by Phil, nor can you win on a Triple Stumper. Improve your situation by wagering everything but a few bucks--and then getting Final right!

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
The debate team at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire is named for this man who entered the academy in 1796

FINAL SCORES
Val: $4,400 - $4,400 = $0 (Who is John Q Adams?) (3rd place)
Phil: $13,400 + $4,599 = $17,999 (Who was Daniel (Daniel) Webster?) (2nd place)
Ben: $16,200 + $10,601 = $26,801 (Who is Daniel Webster?) (New champion: $26,801)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $14,800

GAME DYNAMICS


CORYAT SCORES
Ben: $16,200, 21 R, 1 W
Phil: $12,000, 17 R (including 2 DDs), 1 W
Val: $6,400, 10 R, 2 W (including 1 DD)
Combined Coryat: $34,600

BATTING AVERAGES
Ben: 22/58 = .379
Phil: 18/60 = .300
Val: 10/59 = .169
Team: 50/63 = .794

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
HAIL! $400: The Gounod piece heard here has this Latin title meaning "Hail Mary"

LET IT SNOW $400: In February 2015, Boston set a record for a month's snowfall with 58.5 inches by the 15th; this landmark helps tell the tale

1920s FICTION BESTSELLERS $800: It was dark-haired Anita Loos who caused a sensation with "Gentlemen Prefer" these

ANIMAL PARTS $400: (Kelly of the Clue Crew shows an anatomical diagram on the monitor.) Cows don't really have 4 of these organs; it's just 1 divided into 4 sections--the reticulum, omasum, abamasum & rumen; 3 of the 4 are usually sold as food we call tripe

ANIMAL PARTS $1600: The gorget is the colorful feathers of this part of the hummingbird
(Alex: [*]? We'll accept that.)

CORRECT RESPONSES
Buffalo
alma mater
An American Tragedy
Japan
the French Foreign Legion
chain
Age of Innocence
Zane Grey
Tina Brown
forehead
a tail
Alan Harper
Randy
barbels
Daniel Webster
"Ave Maria"
Fenway Park
blondes
stomach
the breast

[jeff6286]

Historic Americans
The debate team at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire is named for this man who entered the Academy in 1796.

Spoiler

Who is Daniel Webster? Val said John Q Adams, though Alex missed the "Q".

Ben Hemmens: $16,200+$10,601=$26,801...now a 1-day champion with $26,801
Phil Salathe: $13,400+$4,599=$17,999
Val Narehood: $4,400-$4,400=$0

[legendneverdies]

One of the few times I can remember where no one has commented on a J! episode on this board by 7:53PM EST. 47/61, three short of Dupee

[9021amyers]

This was a fun game. The board was good, the pace was fast, and no one made any terrible strategic blunders.

I don't care that the judges would have certainly ruled it incorrect: when that Sun City clue popped up, I would not have passed up the chance to respond, "what is Bophuthatswana?"

I assume my response of "the Legionnaires" for that literary Daily Double would have triggered a BMS.

FJ was an instaget.

[Bamaman]

That long winded clue about the cow's stomach almost kept them from finishing the board.

It is the perfect country and western song, not just country.

No rebound on Zane Grey?


After a few seconds trying to make Franklin Pierce work. I thought of statesmen from New England and got Webster. Alex said Val had John Adams when she had a Q in there.

[mxc_takeshi]

44 right.

"ORM" (4), Rainy (5), Snow (5), Hail (3), Hurri (3), Sun (3)
Mongol (3), TV (5), Animal (3), Bike (3), 1920s (3), Brown (4)

Lach Trash: "Japan"- DD, "Zane Grey", "tail", "Alan Harper", "Randy Marsh", "barbels"

Instaget FJ.

[bpmod]

I thought that that one clue was very fitting in light of the later one.

First, they had something about "In November 2014, Jeopardy! and Wheel Of Fortune were preempted in this city due to some snow falling."

Then for Final Jeopardy!, they had this:

1041_20150714232900.jpg (24.63 KiB) Viewed 5393 times

Brian

[triviawayne]

That long winded clue about the cow's stomach almost kept them from finishing the board.

It is the perfect country and western song, not just country.

No rebound on Zane Grey?


After a few seconds trying to make Franklin Pierce work. I thought of statesmen from New England and got Webster. Alex said Val had John Adams when she had a Q in there.

You could see she was ready to correct him before realizing her response was wrong anyway.

[TenPoundHammer]

Lach Trash: Alan Harper, Randy (Marsh), forehead, tail, barbels.

Anyone else have perfect pitch? I could also tell that Alex was somewhere in the neighborhood of A-flat.

NHO University of Miami Hurricanes. I was 0/5 in the category.

Didn't know that Evergreen = WA.

Mongol I had down as a 0/5 as soon as it came up.

I know that Edith Wharton = Age of Innocence has come up a ton of times, but it has repeatedly failed to stick with me.

Ran Animal Parts, although I only barely pulled out "tail" in time because "cloaca" had me poised for a PG-13 joke response.

No guess on FJ! For some reason, knowing the title "The Devil and Daniel Webster" always fools my mind into thinking that Daniel Webster was not a real person.

[BADuBois]

Since FJ took place in my home town, it would have been a mortal sin to have missed it.

And I didn't.

[bpmod]

Oh, yes, I meant to comment on this, even though I didn't think of it during the show:

It is the perfect country and western song, not just country.

It is a common mistake (much like perfect pitch being a genetic thing) that country music is the same as country & western. But the Steve Goodman classic does mention "country and western", even if David Allan Coe took some liberties with the words.

Brian

[econgator]

No guess on FJ! For some reason, knowing the title "The Devil and Daniel Webster" always fools my mind into thinking that Daniel Webster was not a real person.

In the same way that "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" makes you think Georgia isn't a real place?

[Category 13]

Anyone else have perfect pitch? I could also tell that Alex was somewhere in the neighborhood of A-flat.

It sounded more like a drunk mosquito to me.

[bpmod]

No guess on FJ! For some reason, knowing the title "The Devil and Daniel Webster" always fools my mind into thinking that Daniel Webster was not a real person.

In the same way that "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" makes you think Georgia isn't a real place?

Well, ya gotta admit that the Georgia portrayed in the song isn't like the real one at all.

Brian

[TenPoundHammer]

It is the perfect country and western song, not just country.

It is a common mistake (much like perfect pitch being a genetic thing) that country music is the same as country & western. But the Steve Goodman classic does mention "country and western", even if David Allan Coe took some liberties with the words.

Brian

You have no idea how badly it bugs me when people refer to 21st century country music as "country & western" and throw all sorts of hillbilly moonshine banjo tropes at me for it.

I mean, the genre has evolved so much: Now it's 20-something frat boys* drinking way too much booze in the tailgate of a jacked-up truck out in the mud, with a girl who's wearing cutoffs and a bikini top.

*Or in Luke Bryan's case, a 40-year-old grown-ass married man who still THINKS he's a 20-something frat boy.

[skullturf]

I don't really know the difference between Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey, but if one of them is negged, I'm guessing the other one.

FJ was almost a bit like that for me. My thought process was "Who are famous Americans who are known as orators or debaters? And which of them was from New Hampshire? Henry Clay is Kentucky, so it's 'the other guy' -- Daniel Webster, I think. Hmm, I'm like 70-80% sure Daniel Webster was from New Hampshire, but isn't there yet another famous orator?"

Then slightly later, I remembered that there's also Patrick Henry from Virginia. So even though I couldn't quite conjure up all three of those names during the 30 seconds, I still got it. It was a bit like (mild spoiler for FJ from Thursday July 9th)

Spoiler

I could only remember 4 of the 6 noble gases during the think music, but that was still enough for me to get FJ

[sarisson]

The first round seemed incredibly easy. I had 24 right and $13,200 by then, both very near my personal records. Finished with $27,600 and 40 right, including Final. Famous person from New Hampshire = one of two people, but 1796 sounded too early for a certain president.
Surprised no one got The Age of Innocence. For the baleen clue, I said "teeth." (smacks forehead)
"TPH Went down to Georgia" would make a great country (and western) song.

[bpmod]

Going from memory,

Ever since the dog got drunk and died
And Mama went to prison
Well, nothin' 'round this farm has been the same
And you know, when Mom broke out last Christmas
She drove a damned ol' getaway laundry truck
Right into a train.

I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick'er up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a damned ol' train

Granted, the article is only discussing the DAC recording of the song; not the song itself.

Brian

[Budphrey]

For the baleen clue, I said "teeth." (smacks forehead)

I see what you did there.

I don't have absolute reflexive perfect pitch, but pretty darn good relative pitch with several memorized pitches for reference. I can reliably tune a guitar so that the top string is within about an eighth-tone of true E, and within two or three bars I can tell you what key a song is in.

With respect to the few catfish I've caught in my life, I have always managed to avoid getting tagged by the barbels.

And I never minded standing in the rain.