Tuesday, February 21, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Placeholder for J! Round

[Archivists]

Placeholder for DJ! Round

[jeff6286]

Asian Borders
In 1893 the British established the Durand Line, now the boundary, much in the news since 2001, between these 2 countries.

Spoiler: show

What are Pakistan and Afghanistan? Justin said India and Pakistan. Pian's writing was not legible. (at least to me)

Justin Hofstetter: $28,400-$1,711=$26,689
Pian Wong: $11,800-$10.112=$1,688
Leslie Decker: $6,400+$6,399=$12,799

[debramc]

For the first time ever, there's actually someone on the show who I used to know in real life, and am not currently in touch with so as to have the opportunity to anticipate it. Leslie took high school German from my ex-husband, and was one of a handful of former students we kept up with for several years (in fact, I still have her old email address in the Netherlands on my contact list - I guess I can delete that one now...). She's one of those people about whom I actually have occasionally wondered "whatever happened to...". I guess now I know. Yay!
Leslie, if you're reading this, (retro) good luck!!

[econgator]

No chance on FJ. I went with India and Pakistan, not realizing that England had anything to do with Afghanistan.

[Austin Powers]

No chance on FJ. I went with India and Pakistan, not realizing that England had anything to do with Afghanistan.

Ah, very much so - just read up on the "Great Game."

The key was the year, since there was no reason another border situation - see the Koreas or India/Pakistan or my favorite, the Aouzou Strip - would become so noteworthy in 2001.

[Roadgeek Adam]

This is the second day in a row I've missed final, but the eventual winner went with what I did. (P. Gauguin with Mary Ann and India and Pakistan today with Justin) , thought of India and Pakistan only because I thought of British colonies in the area. Fail on my part.


If I pick a winner, I will be wrong, so its simpler to not.

[TenPoundHammer]

Yay. They had a clue on THE HAWLEY-SMOOT TARIFF. I agree with Dave Barry — that does have a nice ring to it.

Lach Trash on Elgar for me.

DJ! was just dreadful. Held back on several right answers because I wasn't sure (Emily Dickinson, Electric, non-invasive, petticoat, petunia, Sparta, Spain/Portugal, shoulder) and blanked on No Exit.

Out of curiosity, how should we know that Hell poem at $400 is Dickinson? I'm used to Dickinson being in common meter and using rhymes so bad that I can't even classify them as slant rhyme.

Figured the England TOM might be leading to Hong Kong, so I said that and China.

[cinemaniax7]

That's the second week in a row I've missed an Afghanistan clue in FJ. I suspect the Taliban is involved.

[alietr]

Not that I was going to miss it, but if anyone had read Austin Powers' post from one week ago:

Almost muffed the Final, as I fixated on Bhutan pretty quickly, before recalling the Wakhan Corridor.

and had been curious enough to look up the Wakhan Corridor (as I did), they wouldn't have missed tonight's FJ.

[jeff6286]

I liked Justin attempting to sneak Horatio Alger in place of Edward Elgar. I was less amused that he thought Roberto Clemente won an All Star Game MVP in the 1990s, but I guess as long as he wasn't from western Pennsylvania, that mistake is probably forgivable. After all, Clemente, the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Elgar, and Alger were probably all before his time.

For the pet-related crime, I really wanted someone to answer "petricide", then I found it amusing that the next clue's response was "petrified", as I had very nearly just said it.

That was a very solid performance tonight by Justin, easily amassing the highest pre-FJ total thus far in the tournament. He found all 3 DDs, and wagered aggressively on all of them, so he definitely appears to know how to play the game.

[TenPoundHammer]

They never taught us about the "I just lost $3,000 act" in U.S. History.

[jeff6286]

Here's an odd stat: In the 5 games in this tournament, the leaders have gone 0/5 on FJ clues, while the trailing players are 6/10. 4 of the 5 leaders advanced anyway: 2 had lock games, 1 won on a triple stumper in a crush game, and 1 easily hung on to a wild card. QF #1 leader John would have hung on to a WC if he had bet nothing, but I can't entirely blame him for not wanting to stand pat with $13,400.

[DBear]

Answered "China and India" for FJ.
Was hoping that someone would say "Go to Hell for $X00, Alex"
ran MVPs, Xword clues "S", and Hell, shutout in Composers' First Names. There's a reason we usually refer to composers by last name only.

[xxaaaxx]

Yay. They had a clue on THE HAWLEY-SMOOT TARIFF.

Your name popped into my head when I saw that clue. Good thing you got it right

Figured the England TOM might be leading to Hong Kong, so I said that and China.

Even though the dates were all wrong, I couldn't get that out of my head either. These aren't hard clues, and yet this tournament has been a nightmare for me FJ-wise.

Question for those with actual medical knowledge: why was hematoma accepted for aneurysm? I thought a hematoma was basically a collection of blood, and I could've sworn the clue wanted a 'swollen blood vessel' something similar.

[StevenH]

I got FJ, despite not knowing the British connection. The year and the bordering countries part didn't leave me with any other possibilities. I am glad that I forgot about the recent Afghanistan FJ, because if I had remembered it I might have tried harder to change my answer.

I liked the boards in the first few games of this tournament but I found the quality of tonight's and last night's to be not as good. I went 5/5 in it but I thought that the composers' first names category was really stupid and trivial. Despite the drop in quality, the boards have still not been as dumbed down as I thought they would be, so at least there's that.

Justin had some bad guesses in other categories but I was impressed by his Literature knowledge. I would like to see him get a Lit category on a harder board.

[bpmod]

I was wondering about the wagers. Not glaring errors like we usually see, but what was Leslie thinking? That six out of ten would end with zero, and she needed to beat that for a wild card? And what about Pian? Did she think she would need 21000+, or just that 11800 wouldn't cut it, so the wager was largely irrelevant?

Oh, and any idea why we only saw 14 groups of schoolchildren cheering on their teachers? Or did my station (accidentally) cut one out?

Brian

[vellore]

Hmmm, do I root for the volunteer tutor at the homeless shelter or the perpetrator of the autobahn duck massacre?

[bpmod]

Hmmm, do I root for the volunteer tutor at the homeless shelter or the perpetrator of the autobahn duck massacre?

But first, one question:

Are auto and Otto homophones?

Brian

[lisa0012]

Hmmm, do I root for the volunteer tutor at the homeless shelter or the perpetrator of the autobahn duck massacre?

But first, one question:

Are auto and Otto homophones?

Brian

Yes. But I have a feeling I will be outvoted.