Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

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TenPoundHammer

Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by TenPoundHammer »

jeff6286 wrote:
Paucle wrote:
bpmod wrote:Nobody missed Monday's.
Oh yeah, that imbroglio. (Uh oh- if TPTB read this board, I've just planted the "Sounds Like an Australian Female Singer" category in their brain.)
Who is O Trivia Newton John?
Let me be there in your morning, let me be there in your night…

(For some reason, all the version of that song on YouTube are slowed down about 10%. Wonder what went wrong there?)
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Turd Ferguson »

jeff6286 wrote:As it turns out, I definitely had the "correct" wrong answer for this clue, as Alanis did sell 17 million copies of that album in the U.S., just behind Shania's 20 million. She was also from Ontario, and according to Wiki, recorded her first demo at age 13, although I'm guessing she started singing at least a few years earlier.
Another possibility would be Avril Lavigne. "Let Go"'s 16 million worldwide figure is pretty respectable (though I don't think anyone would think it outsold Shania's big albums), and Avril is certainly more known for being "precocious" than Shania (or Robin Sparkles, or Alanis, who also isn't from somewhere that I really consider to be Ontario). My recording cut out during the Think Music... I was surprised coming here to see that it was a Triple Stumper.

The "started singing at age <x>" part of the clue was weird. (A google search suggests that Shania first sang "professionally" at age 8) You think that fact would point to someone who became a star at a young age, and away from someone who didn't break out until her 30s. Also, the Bodyguard soundtrack outsold "Come On Over" worldwide (Shania's album sold more in the US), and I doubt many people bought the album for the non-Whitney songs. (I'm not suggesting this makes the question incorrect, since the soundtrack wasn't actually Whitney's album, but nowhere in the clue does it state that they're talking about most albums sold in the US, and one could suggest that even the category only hints that they're talking about US sales only)
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by mennoknight »

Wavered between Alanis (how old was she on You Can't Do That on Television?) and Shania (when did she start at Deerhurst?). Sorry about both those broads by the way.
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by jeff6286 »

Turd Ferguson wrote: Also, the Bodyguard soundtrack outsold "Come On Over" worldwide (Shania's album sold more in the US), and I doubt many people bought the album for the non-Whitney songs. (I'm not suggesting this makes the question incorrect, since the soundtrack wasn't actually Whitney's album, but nowhere in the clue does it state that they're talking about most albums sold in the US, and one could suggest that even the category only hints that they're talking about US sales only)
To me, the category title "U.S. Top Selling Albums" makes it pretty clear that they're talking about albums sold in the U.S. I guess you could make an argument that you thought they were only meaning albums produced in the U.S., but that seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

One more thing I just realized is that I had quoted several figures in this thread as Billboard figures, which was somewhat inaccurate. The numbers used in the all-time album sales records page on Wiki, which has the 20 million figure for Shania Twain's Come On Over are actually based on RIAA certifications, not the Nielsen Soundscan figures that provide the data for Billboard's charts. The RIAA certified Twain's album as 20 times Platinum, which means that it had 20 million copies shipped, not necessarily sold. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best-selli ... king_began Come On Over has sold 15,513,000 copies through 2011. I also found a claim that the SoundScan figures do not count sales from entities like BMG Music Club, which has reportedly sold nearly another 2 million.

That Wiki page I linked above is pretty cool, as for every year since 1999, it has a top 10 list of all-time best sellers in the SoundScan era, which began in 1991. Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill was the all-time leader in 1999 and 2000, before being passed by Come On Over, which was #1 from 2001-2008, before it was passed by Metallica's self-titled 1991 album, which currently sits at #1 with 15,735,000, followed by Come On Over at #2 with 15,513,000, and Jagged Little Pill at #3 with 14,714,000. Metallica sold an impressive 4 million copies from 1999-2011, and it was already 8 years old at the start of that period.

The album with the highest RIAA certification since 1991 is Garth Brooks' Double Live from 1998, which has been certified as 21 times platinum, meaning it shipped at least 21 million copies, yet SoundScan only has it credited for a little over 6 million copies sold over the counter. So either a LOT of people ordered that album from BMG, or there are 15 million copies of it still sitting on store shelves. (Or maybe rampant shoplifting and black market sales?) *EDIT* I just answered my own question, as I realized that Double Live was a double album, meaning the RIAA counts it as two copies shipped, so it actually only shipped 10.5 million units, so a sales figure of 6 or 7 million sounds just about right.
Last edited by jeff6286 on Fri Jun 15, 2012 1:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by davey »

From my own sparse database of Canadian women pop stars, it was either Celine Dion or Anne Murray, and even I'm not dumb enough to really think it was the latter. Shania Twain could be from Hannibal, MO for all I knew...

It's WEERton, WV, Alex. not WERton. I suppose we have to accept it...
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by MarkBarrett »

Kathy: Was it as painful as it seemed to give the Amazon.com response?

**************
I wonder if Steveo got the Abraham TS?

***********
Not knowing two in West Virginia made me happy because I would have been kicking myself if it had only been the Trojan War that kept me from a J! round perfecto. Those clues were buzzer battle beauties and it continued through a lot of the DJ round as well to get the players to an impressive 45,200 combined Coryat.

David vs. Kathy for the lead entering FJ was in doubt with the last DD in play. Kathy was in no rush to get there with clues taken politely in order even with the biggie lurking. John of Gaunt? Hey, where is Eugene these days? Kathy not betting for the lead on the DD, but getting there with a 30th clue solve had me thinking it was her night.

The FJ clue had me working on Ontario first just to make sure I had to head to the neighbors to the north and not south. Okay, a Canadian woman. Celine Dion went on the paper and the spelling looked right to me. For the album I figured it could only be Titanic. Dion from Ontario seemed like a French problem and I kept thinking.

I can only call it luck since I could not name the album, the year or even a track (Feel Like A Woman is as close as I could get). But, from somewhere (yeah, could be Millionaire) I knew Twain had a big album. Could I have named a province for her? No way, although I was sure she was Canadian. I made the switch and felt like I had it.

Between the end of the music and the first reveal I had Alanis Morissette/Jagged Little Pill pop in my head. When Kathy's response was shown as wrong I was certain David had won as there was no expectation to see a 1600 wager.

The pattern this week of J! at 7, at 10, at 7, at 10, at 7 is locked in to repeat next week thanks to King James not being whistled for a foul near the end. No way, the NBA wanted OKC up 2-zip. That's zed-i-p.
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Or not...

Post by gloriaclemente »

BGCTIA01.jpg
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Congratulations, David, on a great game! Keep on winning!
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by seaborgium »

That LA Weekly article I read in college keeps on giving. Just as The Eagles were an instaget FJ in a David Skaar game in 2008 (I mentioned the article in that game's thread as well!), Shania Twain was in instaget for me thanks to that article. Even if the clue had said Canada instead of Ontario, I still would have gotten it right.

Did anyone else find the Hollywood Middle Initials category almost insultingly easy? I can't tell you much about David O. Selznick (cue Sage whooshing in), but I can certainly tell you his name. All you had to do in that category was to have heard of the people.
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The Battle for Middle Initial is about to begin...

Post by Sage on the Hudson »

seaborgium wrote:I can't tell you much about David O. Selznick (cue Sage whooshing in), but I can certainly tell you his name. All you had to do in that category was to have heard of the people.
A couple of the clues were actually trick questions, though the show's writers may not even have known it.

Firstly, Michael J. Fox's real middle initial is actually "A." When he became an actor, he didn't want people making the lame joke "Michael, a fox," so he substituted "J" because it rhymes with "A."

David Selznick actually had no middle name and, therefore, no middle initial. Following the footsteps of his father, Lewis J. into the movie business, David Selznick decided that he'd sound more important with his given and surname balanced on the fulcrum of a middle initial, so he went through the alphabet and settled on O. as the most euphonious...but the O really means what it does in moist other applications: nothing, zero.
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Johnblue »

Fox also selected J in honor of an actor he liked named Michael J. Pollard.
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Re: The Battle for Middle Initial is about to begin... The parallel between the

Post by seaborgium »

Sage on the Hudson wrote: A couple of the clues were actually trick questions, though the show's writers may not even have known it.

Firstly, Michael J. Fox's real middle initial is actually "A." When he became an actor, he didn't want people making the lame joke "Michael, a fox," so he substituted "J" because it rhymes with "A."

David Selznick actually had no middle name and, therefore, no middle initial. Following the footsteps of his father, Lewis J. into the movie business, David Selznick decided that he'd sound more important with his given and surname balanced on the fulcrum of a middle initial, so he went through the alphabet and settled on O. as the most euphonious...but the O really means what it does in moist other applications: nothing, zero.
The category was "Hollywood Middle Initials," if I recall correctly. The word "Hollywood" should be a pretty good hint that there might be some pseudonymous letters to be found. I knew that Fox's J. was his own creation, and I found out about the the O. when I looked Selznick up on Wikipedia after making my last post.
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Re: The Battle for Middle Initial is about to begin...

Post by dhkendall »

Sage on the Hudson wrote:
seaborgium wrote:I can't tell you much about David O. Selznick (cue Sage whooshing in), but I can certainly tell you his name. All you had to do in that category was to have heard of the people.
A couple of the clues were actually trick questions, though the show's writers may not even have known it.

Firstly, Michael J. Fox's real middle initial is actually "A." When he became an actor, he didn't want people making the lame joke "Michael, a fox," so he substituted "J" because it rhymes with "A."
Yes, I shoudl know better considering who I'm asking, but, cite? No less a source than The Michael J. Fox Foundation says: "He later adopted the “J” as an homage to legendary character actor Michael J. Pollard."
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by bpmod »

And, in case it wasn't obvious enough, the only reason that Michael J Fox is known with a middle initial is because he was the second Michael Fox in the guild and he needed a way to distinguish himself from Michael Fox.

Brian
...but the senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity.

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Re: The Battle for Middle Initial is about to begin...

Post by BoK »

dhkendall wrote:
Sage on the Hudson wrote:.
Firstly, Michael J. Fox's real middle initial is actually "A." When he became an actor, he didn't want people making the lame joke "Michael, a fox," so he substituted "J" because it rhymes with "A."
Yes, I shoudl know better considering who I'm asking, but, cite? No less a source than The Michael J. Fox Foundation says: "He later adopted the “J” as an homage to legendary character actor Michael J. Pollard."
I first heard this factoid on the Universal Studios tour. I can't remember how the subject of Michael J. Fox came up, but this was in the 80s when Family Ties and Back to the Future were big.

Of course, just because the Universal tour guide said it, doesn't make it true.
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Vanya »

bpmod wrote:Ontario is in Canada.
Brian
It's also in California. It even has an airport. As for Celine being French Canadian (therefore from Quebec), I'm sure there are some French Canadians living in Ontario.
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Vanya »

dhkendall wrote: My embarrassing clue - the Britspeak clue (I believe the $200 one) about the British word for the last letter of the alphabet, I immediately piped up "zee! No, zed!" - thinking that they wanted the word that isn't "normally" used for that letter - to me, that's "zee". (Especially since I was thinking during the "websites" category "If I was on, I'd make a point of calling out "Websites aye to zed for ..."")
I was surprised when he didn't pronounce zebra (crossing) the British way (same vowel sound as zed).
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by bpmod »

Vanya wrote:
bpmod wrote:Ontario is in Canada.
Brian
It's also in California. It even has an airport. As for Celine being French Canadian (therefore from Quebec), I'm sure there are some French Canadians living in Ontario.
Not the Ontario in question. And any French person living in Ontario would consider himself/herself Canadian. Although I know lots of people around here that vehemently insist that they don't live in their particular place of residence (usually the city of Hamilton -- we have our own separatist movement right here in the city).

Brian
...but the senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity.

If I had 50 cents for every math question I got right, I'd have $6.30 by now.
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Vanya »

They even have their own name, Ontarois.
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by soxfan99 »

Turd Ferguson wrote:According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best-selli ... king_began Come On Over has sold 15,513,000 copies through 2011. I also found a claim that the SoundScan figures do not count sales from entities like BMG Music Club, which has reportedly sold nearly another 2 million.

That Wiki page I linked above is pretty cool, as for every year since 1999, it has a top 10 list of all-time best sellers in the SoundScan era, which began in 1991.
That's a good page. I can now add a new interesting trivia question to my repertoire:

"This album had the highest total US sales from 1991-2001, even though the only single year in which it was in the top 10 in sales was when it finished 6th in the year it was released"

Impressive record of longevity and steady sales, right there.
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Re: Thursday, June 14, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by gloriaclemente »

What a trip!

1. Do not contradict Alex, ever.

2. Do not talk about cats. Even rabid graveyard cats. http://www.igattidellapiramide.it/0_interno_E.html
MarkBarrett wrote:Kathy: Was it as painful as it seemed to give the Amazon.com response?

Thanks for noticing that. What I meant to add was "and I, for one, do NOT welcome our new computer overlords" but I chickened out.

bpmod, I hope you don't take offense at my "Blame Canada" clip. As I mentioned, my late grandparents were Canadian; I frequently wish I were Canadian. Canada is my (much more civilized) next-door neighbour ;) . Don't ask me how I feel about Shania Twain, though.

Watching myself was weird. My husband said "I've never seen you make that expression in real life." Thank goodness! I'm glad to know that "smugface" is not my normal look. I think I was just concentrating, hard.

In my alternate reality, my wager is revealed and it is a big fat $0. I was a bit overconfident on the category, as all the other potential answers discussed here were news to me too. But, all in all, I'm glad I didn't bet against myself.

Frustrating to come so close to the TOC. In that same alternate universe, TPTB decide to make an exception to the three-game rule just for me because of some bizarre reason. I have so much respect for people like Joel and David Gard, etc. who just keep rolling up the wins day after day. It is harder than you can possibly imagine.

After I lost, Maggie gave me a big hug and said "we all know you just wanted to play another game." I would've given back the money (well, some of it anyway) to get to play again at that point. There's nothing else like it. To that end, I will be going to TCONA in Vegas in August, and I hope to see some of you there.

Thanks for letting me hang out here!

Kathy
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