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Category 13 wrote:

MarkBarrett wrote:The button Mari had on her collar looked like it said, "NOXIN" and I wondered if there is any significance to it? I see it could be Nixon spelled backwards. Just a student's name at Stetson running for something?

I'm thinking it was a NIXON button turned upside down.

trainman wrote:

MarkBarrett wrote:The button Mari had on her collar looked like it said, "NOXIN" and I wondered if there is any significance to it? I see it could be Nixon spelled backwards.

Could also be that the button was upside-down.

I found a relevant post on reddit:

A friend of hers with an antiques booth had that button upside down and labeled as "Ultra-Rare NOXIN pin, $10." After languishing there because no one took the bait, they just gave it to her and it became a lucky charm of sorts. So that's why it's there and why it's upside down.

Source: I am another college contestant and that is literally one of the first things I asked her about when I met her the morning of the first day of filming.

MarkBarrett wrote:Source: I am another college contestant and that is literally one of the first things I asked her about when I met her the morning of the first day of filming.

Hmmmm... that seems questionable.

Brian

IronNeck wrote:Easy rooting favorite here (and throughout the rest of the tournament), considering Caltech is my alma mater.

I rooted for Matt (thanks, ironneck, or is it bill? or matt?) ALEX when I learned he was a physicist, but Clarissa the Chemist had me conflicted. But I yelled at the TV when Matt opened up DJ with Eastern Religion instead of fattening up on Science. All of which were gimmes except maybe Homo Habilus, which I know as the Toolmaker.

I felt sorry for her at FJ, as it was a Pavlov answer that seemed too easy to be true. I thought of the No-nothings, and consider them re-animated as the GOP now, so decided on the Whigs.

twelvefootboy wrote:

IronNeck wrote:Easy rooting favorite here (and throughout the rest of the tournament), considering Caltech is my alma mater.

I rooted for Matt when I learned he was a physicist, but Clarissa the Chemist had me conflicted. But I yelled at the TV when Matt opened up DJ with Eastern Religion instead of fattening up on Science. All of which were gimmes except maybe Homo Habilus, which I know as the Toolmaker.

Matt? His name is Alex.

Also, I will admit to only going 3/5 in Science; would have gotten "Homo Habilus" back in high school but not nowadays, and my brain froze on capillary action. Ugh.

Category 13 wrote:
Romeo & Juliet was the easiest clue in the category, being all the other usual suspects were uncovered before it. How in the world was that a TS?

Maybe they looked at it like I did: I wondered if that thing on the right was a stack of shelves, at first, and the arrow going up to "bliss" didn't help. I thought it was some sort of rebus, and it took a second for the intent to click in.

Instaget FJ here too...once major/later dissolved political party split into factions named with terms referring to slavery (cotton) and abolitionism (conscience) should very quickly lead to the Whigs.

Ran Shakespeare props (big gimme) and Eastern Religion/Philosophy (easy or not, I do like my religion categories), and had A LOT of almost rans (as is true for me with most of these collegiate games, and certainly has been this week).

davey wrote:

Category 13 wrote:
Romeo & Juliet was the easiest clue in the category, being all the other usual suspects were uncovered before it. How in the world was that a TS?

Maybe they looked at it like I did: I wondered if that thing on the right was a stack of shelves, at first, and the arrow going up to "bliss" didn't help. I thought it was some sort of rebus, and it took a second for the intent to click in.

I second that. I didn't realize there was a "yard sale" connection as stage props until I saw Maven's post.

Golf wrote:Obviously not a good wager from Clarissa letting another player ahead of her in the WC standing.

When will quarterfinalists learn not to hold anything back when wagering when not already having enough for a WC spot? I seem to remember a recent tournament where the last WC was decided by some ridiculously small amount.

The last wild card in last season's College Championship was decided by the minuscule amount of zero dollars, going to the second tiebreaker of score at the end of the Jeopardy! round.

The point on Clarissa's wager serves to highlight how well-considered Alex's wager was - seeing "99" immediately led to figure out what "01" he was aiming at, and seeing that it was $16,401 made me respect the level of preparation he brought to the stage.

Category 13 wrote:And the writers thought they were going to challenge the players with a clue about the Whig party, when spotted them the bit about it being extinct? C'mon
I suspect Clarissa didn't get it because she thought 'Whigs' would be just too obvious.

I mean there are the Whigs, the Federalists, the Know-Nothings, the Democratic-Republicans, the Bull Moosers, the Prohibitionists, the Lincoln-era Republicans...

twelvefootboy wrote:

davey wrote:

Category 13 wrote:
Romeo & Juliet was the easiest clue in the category, being all the other usual suspects were uncovered before it. How in the world was that a TS?

Maybe they looked at it like I did: I wondered if that thing on the right was a stack of shelves, at first, and the arrow going up to "bliss" didn't help. I thought it was some sort of rebus, and it took a second for the intent to click in.

I second that. I didn't realize there was a "yard sale" connection as stage props until I saw Maven's post.

I simply recognized the image as a rope ladder, and made the connection to Romeo & Juliet, without needing the the clue text.
Mari seemed really polished on her Shakespeare, so it seemed odd that she would not knock that one off.

MarkBarrett wrote:The button Mari had on her collar looked like it said, "NOXIN" and I wondered if there is any significance to it? I see it could be Nixon spelled backwards. Just a student's name at Stetson running for something?

It's "Nixon" upside-down too so I assumed she was wearing it that way for fun. Makes me wonder what college kids think of the Nixon era.

Category 13 wrote:

twelvefootboy wrote:

davey wrote:

Category 13 wrote:
Romeo & Juliet was the easiest clue in the category, being all the other usual suspects were uncovered before it. How in the world was that a TS?

Maybe they looked at it like I did: I wondered if that thing on the right was a stack of shelves, at first, and the arrow going up to "bliss" didn't help. I thought it was some sort of rebus, and it took a second for the intent to click in.

I second that. I didn't realize there was a "yard sale" connection as stage props until I saw Maven's post.

I simply recognized the image as a rope ladder, and made the connection to Romeo & Juliet, without needing the the clue text.
Mari seemed really polished on her Shakespeare, so it seemed odd that she would not knock that one off.

The first 4 clues could all be easily answered by someone who had never read the plays in question. In fact, I have yet to read Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream and got them as easily as the two plays which I had.

The final clue actually required having read the play AND remembering specific lines from it.

It took me a bit, but I got R&J as I couldn't quite figure out what that was supposed to be. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable climbing that, it looked a little flimsy.

So far I am 0/3 on FJs. I should have gotten this one. Couldn't remember the word.

That FIFA DD has got to be one of the easiest in recent history.

IronNeck wrote:

Category 13 wrote:

twelvefootboy wrote:

davey wrote:

Category 13 wrote:
Romeo & Juliet was the easiest clue in the category, being all the other usual suspects were uncovered before it. How in the world was that a TS?

Maybe they looked at it like I did: I wondered if that thing on the right was a stack of shelves, at first, and the arrow going up to "bliss" didn't help. I thought it was some sort of rebus, and it took a second for the intent to click in.

I second that. I didn't realize there was a "yard sale" connection as stage props until I saw Maven's post.

I simply recognized the image as a rope ladder, and made the connection to Romeo & Juliet, without needing the the clue text.
Mari seemed really polished on her Shakespeare, so it seemed odd that she would not knock that one off.

The first 4 clues could all be easily answered by someone who had never read the plays in question. In fact, I have yet to read Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream and got them as easily as the two plays which I had.

The final clue actually required having read the play AND remembering specific lines from it.

Funny thing, the word "bliss" is not used in the play to refer to the consummation of the relationship, which seems to be what the clue was implying. The text never even calls for Romeo to ascend the "cords made like a tackled stair," which he asks the nurse to bring. She does, but the deaths of Tybalt and Mercutio intervene, and the next time we see R&J together it's on the balcony (or "at the window") after their night together.
R&J's rope ladder is not so iconic a prop as the others in the category, but I guess you can't sell a balcony at a yard sale,..

IT'S UP, UP, AND AWAY FOR BLISS WITH A PROP SEEN HERE FROM THIS TRAGEDY.

I wouldn't have rung in on the clue. On a DD I'd have guessed R&J and just hoped I was reading the writers' minds correctly. It does help that they specified "tragedy," since that cuts down the number of possibilities.

I found that this episode was insulting in its difficulty. I don't keep track of my daily scores, but this definitely would have been one of the highest I've gotten. I don't see why they should make the college championships any easier than normal episodes. If anything, I'd think taking 15 top college students would do better, on average, than the broader population they normally draw from. We've seen this in past years when the college champion does very well in the TOC. I laughed when they had a science category, with a physics and chem major competing. I wasn't too concerned about seeing triple stumpers in that category. Even if somebody wasn't a science major, a college student has taken high school chemistry or physics a lot more recently than most adults, so why not up the difficulty a tad?

soxfan99 wrote:I found that this episode was insulting in its difficulty. I don't keep track of my daily scores, but this definitely would have been one of the highest I've gotten.

Interesting... I found Monday's episode to be the easy one this week. Well, until that Bible FJ!, anyway... I took the Exodus negbait. I have a built-in excuse, being an atheist and all...

But then, I'm a guy who tends to nail a high percentage of the triple stumpers and S&S's while failing to get all that many of the ones that were answered correctly on the show.

opusthepenguin wrote:I wouldn't have rung in on the clue. On a DD I'd have guessed R&J and just hoped I was reading the writers' minds correctly. It does help that they specified "tragedy," since that cuts down the number of possibilities.

The "bliss" threw me a million miles off course.

soxfan99 wrote:I found that this episode was insulting in its difficulty. I don't keep track of my daily scores, but this definitely would have been one of the highest I've gotten. I don't see why they should make the college championships any easier than normal episodes. If anything, I'd think taking 15 top college students would do better, on average, than the broader population they normally draw from.

Yes and no. Many players in their early to mid 20s have also done exceptionally well on the regular, adult show, and most of the college players are 20-22, only slightly younger. I do think some of the stronger College Jeopardy players would do well on the regular show, too.

However, even with the contestants in this cycle, who appear to be a much stronger group than the ones in 2016, there are those eliminated in the quarters who would never have qualified for the regular show.

I can even say that a friend who was on College Jeopardy when I was an undergrad and was eliminated in the quarters was not adult show material at the time. Now he would be easily good enough and probably win at least one game. But at the time he certainly wasn't.

If I had to assign numbers to it, maybe 3 players in a College Jeopardy tournament would be championship-caliber on the adult show. Another 5 might be solid contestant caliber. But 7 are not up to that level yet.

We can quibble with the exact numbers, of course, but the quarters especially would be very embarrassing for some players from the standpoint of score disparity without the slightly easier clues.