Tuesday, July 10, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[fowlerism]

"So, that happened."
-Alec Baldwin as Bob Barrenger, State and Main

[econgator]

How about the "California beach" part? What else would one use on a California beach?

Sunglasses, suntan lotion, swim suits, bikinis, frisbees, coolers, umbrellas, flip flops ...

[TenPoundHammer]

How about the "California beach" part? What else would one use on a California beach?

Sunglasses, suntan lotion, swim suits, bikinis, frisbees, coolers, umbrellas, flip flops ...

It sounds like you guys are playing the Pyramid winner's circle in reverse.

[xxaaaxx]

Yeah, California beach -> surfing seemed stereotypical enough, but it was a complete and utter WAG.

[kristinsausville]

I think the year was part of the clue for the surfboards. At least it was for me. It wasn't long after that that all those Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, etc. surfing-related songs came out.

My sons have these two little beach balls that keep deflating, so I have to blow them up a few times each every time we go outside, and apparently the back of my mind was counting the panels.

Went for Iaccoca on Final -- the opposite of the beach ball clue in that I got thrown off by the year.

[Johnblue]

FJ was another instaget. Today's early exit-er seemed crestfallen by her debacle. Progress, in its own way. I was rooting for Stephanie to continue winning but whatever. Worst season ever?

[Austin Powers]

FJ was another instaget. Today's early exit-er seemed crestfallen by her debacle. Progress, in its own way. I was rooting for Stephanie to continue winning but whatever. Worst season ever?

Nah, it's just a rough patch. We had a rough patch last year, too, then a crop of TOCers came rolling through.

On the surfboard question, "garage" pointed toward to answer in my case.

[dhkendall]

Australia was founded as a prison colony. Brush up on your history.

Man visits Australia and, at customs, among the usual questions he is asked if he has a criminal record. The man replies "I didn't think that was still a requirement ... "

(My feeble remembering of someone else's joke)

[MDCSWildcats86]

I was hoping for John Elway in the draft category. Putting Stafford on the Rams kept me from running that category.

Would they have taken just "stock market crash", even after the others had given the wrong date?

...

I hate to sound like TPH, but I did not know Scott Joplin was black.

Didn't know he was black either, but 'rag' just screamed Joplin.

The thing that kept me from running the NFL cat: Too Tall Jones. I feel like I've missed a clue about him before, too.

Remember the GEICO ad a few years ago with him being too tall for the doctors scale "height-checker"?

[CyrusChan]

tough to lose on a FJ like today where it's pretty much indifferent between Gates and Jobs.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Australia was founded as a prison colony. Brush up on your history.

Heck, anyone fluent in Star Trek (original series) knows that

"Rag" = Scott Joplin; in fact, I can't think of any other rag composers/players off of the top of my head^. And they year of the award mentioned was not long after The Sting caused public awareness of and revival of ragtime in general, and to Joplin in particular.
_____

* There is a modern rag composer, William Bolcum, who's written some neat stuff. Pull up his "Graceful Ghost Rag" sometime on YouTube for a treat.

[TenPoundHammer]

^ I didn't even pick up on "rag" as a TOM for ragtime, so that didn't help me any.

[Bamaman]

I think we've done well lately. In the last month, we've had a five time champ and three three timers.

[MarkBarrett]

Added to the list of surprising stumpers should be gneiss even spotted the "gn" and Picnic spotted half of it.

Luck was on my side tonight. The DD looking for gravity was a guess going off nothing other than a force. The FJ clue had me staring at the clue and seeing no way to match the quote to my precalls of Mark Cuban or Jeff Bezos. Near the end of thinking time I had a thought the clue could be pointing to the auto industry. Before I could write Iacocca I let 1989 steer me away from that to scribble Steve Jobs with little confidence. [wipes brow]

Darn, I really wanted to see the last one in Directors. If it was a stumper I would have had the very rare night to double the combined Coryat which one again was 19400.

The players would have had to handle:
Brooks/Endearment
Attenborough/Gandhi
Forman/Amadeus
Pollack/Africa
Bertolucci/Emperor
Levinson/Rain Man

To me they're all about equal on the difficulty scale being spotted the director to name the movie, so I can't judge what's too easy or too hard for $2000.

I credited myself on stock market crash and my instincts say that would have been fine. The players overcomplicated it by getting colorful with the day of the week. If it was a BMS situation I would have tossed a coin on the T-Th days.

Scott Joplin kept me from running the African Americans. 1976 had me thinking how in the world could he have been alive then. But, rag = Joplin. I was confused. By the time I processed that honored didn't mean alive it was a hair too late. On the show I probably would have pulled the trigger because who else could it be?

Beach ball = six sides is the kind of mental puzzler Millionaire likes to toss around. I thought six but was too chicken to guess it.

[seaborgium]

Given Stephanie's FJ wager in her first game, I have to wonder if she considered a wager of less than $2,600.

I came into this thread expecting TPH to have posted, "I couldn't decide between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, so I left it blank. I choose wrong on 50/50s every time, anyway." I can imagine vacillating, but I think I read that quote last year when Jobs died. I definitely became fully aware of his antipathy toward focus groups and his "I'll tell the public what they want" attitude around that time, so it wasn't too hard for me to pick him.

Prabhu's DD wager was bad, squandering a late $1,400 lead, but at least Stephanie finished the round by nabbing $2,000, so he would have lost the lead no matter what he wagered. Only difference was that he knocked his maximum "win on a double stumper" wager way down. So he could have won more, but I'm sure he's not complaining about winning.

[TenPoundHammer]

Why was everyone so drawn to Steve Jobs though? As I said, I wouldn't have thought of the computer industry in a billion years.

[seaborgium]

He died in the last year, so I guess that quote rang a bell with me. Once I got there, I was in a computery state of mind, whence sprang the "could it be Gates?" doubts I was right to silence.

[SkeeBallRaif]

Anyone else go for Lee Iacocca on FJ?

That was the first name that popped into my head, purely because of the time frame. I eventually made my way over to Jobs; quote made sense for him and it seems like J! pulls out Jobs an awful lot these days anyway.

[davey]

Surprised at the TS on Jeeves especially when spotted Wooster. That was my only get in that category.

Four years of Spanish, a Peruvian classmate, and a Colombian exchange student, and I never knew that cabana = hut. (I never learned the Spanish words for bacon, otter, or a few other words I use every day, so...)

You use bacon and otter every day? Not at the same meal, I hope...
Forget not knowing Jeeves...they couldn't get The New Yorker spotted Thurber and White! Even Ross should be a giveaway...Native ground, folks! The only thing stranger would be, say, associating Emily Dickinson with an English university...!

I thought FJ was pretty obvious. Who else blared announcements of new products every couple of months? If he'd died 20 years ago instead of 9 months I might have considered somebody else...

[Volante]

Darn, I really wanted to see the last one in Directors. If it was a stumper I would have had the very rare night to double the combined Coryat which one again was 19400.

The players would have had to handle:
Brooks/Endearment
Attenborough/Gandhi
Forman/Amadeus
Pollack/Africa
Bertolucci/Emperor
Levinson/Rain Man

To me they're all about equal on the difficulty scale being spotted the director to name the movie, so I can't judge what's too easy or too hard for $2000.

Yeah, they'd've all have been another $2000 for me as well.
Was also on my way to sweeping the Australia one. *sigh* Always the categories I like they leave or ignore...

Settled on Jobs early. Oddly, it was 'entrepreneur' that kept me questioning him. Apple was established as a company for quite a while by that point (1984 being the famous commercial, for one thing.) Thankfully, knowing Jobs was more a tinkerer than a coder helped my confidence.