Wednesday, July 11, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Game Recap for Show #6418, 2012-07-11

CONTESTANTS
A.J. Motley, a student of diagnostic sonography from Wylie, Texas
Lynn Welch, a pharmacist from Evanston, Illinois
Prabhu Balasubramanian, a product manager from Mountain View, California (whose 1-day cash winnings total $9,199)

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Thank you, Johnny. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. The big question on today's program is not whether Prabhu can defend his "Jeopardy!" title successfully. It's whether I can pronounce his last name correctly.

Prabhu: [Laughs]

Alex: Balasubramanian. Not may-nian, right?

Prabhu: That's right.

Alex: Good. Thank you. Lynn and A.J., your names are easier. Good luck. Let's go to work in the Jeopardy! Round, shall we? Today all of us are dealing with these categories...

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
1933 (4/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
BABY, YOU'RE A RICH MAN OR WOMAN (5/5)
ABBREVIATED BANDS (4/5)
INTERNATIONALITIES (3/5) (Alex: Each correct response will contain the name of a nationality.)
FAST FOOD (5/5)
"F"-STOPS (5/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
A.J.: 13 R, 1 W (including 1 DD)
Prabhu: 10 R (including 1 rebound), 1 W
Lynn: 3 R, 1 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 3
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $2,200



SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
A.J.: $3,400
Prabhu: $3,400
Lynn: $200

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS



Alex: He has nothing to do with the Mötley Cröe band. His name is A.J. Motley. He is from Texas. And I want to hear about a visit to New Orleans, and in particular, the naked bike ride.

A.J.: Well, I was in New Orleans this past month. Luckily, it was--or this past year in June. Luckily, it wasn't in January. But, um, we were there, walking around on a Saturday morning, having--just sightseeing, and somebody mentioned something about a naked bike parade, uh, for an environmental cause. And within a couple of minutes, sure enough, we're on Bourbon Street, and here come about 500 or more people of varying genders, on bicycles, completely nude. Some with special costumes, but nothing covering anything else.

Alex: And did you want to join them?

A.J.: Oh, no! No, No. No. But I-I did enjoy seeing it. I mean, it's...

[Laughter]

Alex: I don't think I would have enjoyed seeing it.

A.J.: It was odd.

Alex: You may be weird, A.J.

[Laughter]




Alex: Lynn Welch is a pharmacist from Evanston, Illinois, who used to work with worms. Why?

Lynn: I-I used to work with parasitic worms,--

Alex: That's even worse.

Lynn: --and I'm not talking about my coworkers.

[Alex laughs]

Lynn: It was an invertebrate zoology lab.

Alex: And what was the purpose of the study?

Lynn: Uh, they were studying different drugs and their effects on the worms.

Alex: And the effects on the worms? [Laughs] Okay. Hmm.

[Laughter]

Alex: My pill's safe. It didn't kill the worm.




Alex: Prabhu, I wanna hear about the fact that you're a marathon dancer, and you participate in competitions, right?

Prabhu: So it's not--

Alex: You dance till dawn?

Prabhu: It's not competitions, but, uh, my alma mater, Stanford, has an annual event called The Big Dance where it's an all-night dance, from 9:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M. And, uh, it's mostly kind of social ballroom dancing--swing, waltz, Latin.

Alex: What about the tango, that wild...

Prabhu: I can bust it out every now and then.

[Laughter]

Alex: Yeah, you can? I bet you can. All right.

JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
A.J. found the Daily Double on the 29th clue. Prabhu had $5,400, Lynn had $1,400, and A.J. was at $7,000. A.J. wagered $2,000.

1933 $1000: He came to the U.S. in 1933 & helped found the School of American Ballet
(A.J.: Who is Nureyev?)

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
INTERNATIONALITIES $400: In this sport invented in Melbourne, goals are worth 6 points & "behinds" are worth 1
(Prabhu: What is Australian rugby?)
(Alex: Yes, Australian rugby--No. Sorry.)

ABBREVIATED BANDS $1000: LP isn't just a long-playing record--it's also this "New Divide" band

INTERNATIONALITIES $800: A Geneva council in 1713 set forth rules on the opening of these controversial numbered financial tools

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
Prabhu: $6,000
A.J.: $5,000
Lynn: $800

[Archivists]

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
THE ILIAD & THE ODYSSEY (1/4, including 1 missed Daily Double)
WE LOVE "L.A." (4/5)
THE 50 STATES (4/5)
MOVIE TITLE REFERENCES (4/5)
THE HARD STUFF (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
OXYMORONS (3/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
A.J.: 10 R, 1 W (including 1 DD)
Lynn: 6 R (including 1 DD), 0 W
Prabhu: 5 R, 1 W

Clues revealed: 29
Triple Stumpers: 7
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $9,600



FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Lynn snagged the next Daily Double on the 18th clue. Prabhu had $8,800, Lynn had $4,800, and A.J. was at $13,000. Lynn wagered $2,000.

THE HARD STUFF $1200: The star variety of this deep blue gemstone has other minerals embedded inside super-hard corundum

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was A.J. who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 28th clue. Prabhu had $10,400, Lynn had $7,200, and A.J. was at $19,400. A.J. wagered $400.

THE ILIAD & THE ODYSSEY $1200: In order to retrieve the body, this man kisses the hands that killed his son
(A.J.: Who is Hector?)
(Alex: Hector was the body. He was the son of [*].)

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
THE 50 STATES $2000: Bays along the coast of this state include Great Egg Harbor, Barnegat & Sandy Hook

MOVIE TITLE REFERENCES $1600: 2009: Human consciousness injected into an alien physical body

WE LOVE "L.A." $400: In 1913 he was sent to the Colored Waifs Home in New Orleans, where he learned to play cornet
(Prabhu: Who is Armstrong?)
(Alex: No. sorry.)
...
(Alex: You forgot the category--We Love "L.A.")

OXYMORONS $800: 1980 Travolta movie about mechanical bulls & bravery

OXYMORONS $1200: A substitute master of ceremonies for a TV talk show

THE ILIAD & THE ODYSSEY $1600: The war could have ended quickly if these 2 men hadn't been kept from their duel by the goddess Aphrodite

THE ILIAD & THE ODYSSEY $2000: Odysseus' now aged former nanny Eurycleia recognizes him by this physical sign
[The end-of-round signal sounds.]

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
A.J.: $19,000
Prabhu: $10,400
Lynn: $7,200

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
INAUGURAL ADDRESSES

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Crush for first place.
A.J.: Wager $1,801 to cover Prabhu, but no more than $4,599 so as not to fall behind Lynn's doubled score.
Prabhu: You have the hope of surpassing A.J. if you come up with the correct response. Bet at least $8,601 to force A.J. to wager to win while also protecting your position from being usurped by Lynn.
Lynn: Unfortunately, your score is less than the difference between the scores of the first and second place players, so unless they both blunder, you're competing for second place and have no hopes of first. Wager as much as you desire, but remember, you'll have better chances of advancing to second place if you have a larger sum left over on a Triple Stumper.

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
He said, "it is 72 years since the first inauguration of a president under our national Constitution"

FINAL SCORES
Lynn: $7,200 + $7,198 = $14,398 (Who was Lincoln?) (3rd place: $1,000)
Prabhu: $10,400 + $7,000 = $17,400 (Who was Lincoln?) (2nd place: $2,000)
A.J.: $19,000 + $1,801 = $20,801 (Who is Abraham Lincoln?) (New champion: $20,801)
(Alex: [revealing Lynn's response] Yes, indeed. 72 and 1789 gives you 1861.)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $11,800

GAME DYNAMICS


CORYAT SCORES
A.J.: $21,400, 23 R, 2 W (including 2 DDs)
Prabhu: $10,400, 15 R, 2 W
Lynn: $6,400, 9 R (including 1 DD), 1 W
Combined Coryat: $38,200

BATTING AVERAGES
A.J.: 24/60 = .400
Prabhu: 16/58 = .276
Lynn: 10/59 = .169
Team: 50/63 = .794

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
1933 $600: Ratified in 1933, the 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition, put into effect by this amendment
(Lynn: What was the 19th Amendment?)

WE LOVE "L.A." $2000: This seventh-generation Tennessean now represents the state in the Senate

THE HARD STUFF $1600: (Kelly of the Clue Crew presents the clue.) The mineral orthoclase scratches a pane of glass, but apatite doesn't, which puts glass between orthoclase & apatite on this scale, devised by a German mineralogist to measure hardness

THE ILIAD & THE ODYSSEY $800: Apollo & Athena appropriately assume the shape of these carrion eaters to observe the battling Greeks & Trojans
(Alex: Less than a minute to go now.)

CORRECT RESPONSES
George Balanchine
Australian rules football
Linkin Park
Swiss bank accounts
sapphire
King Priam
New Jersey
Avatar
Louis Armstrong
Urban Cowboy
a guest host
Paris & Menelaus
a scar
Lincoln
the 18th Amendment
Lamar Alexander
Mohs
vultures

[Bamaman]

You are within striking distance of a lock and you don't go for it on a late DD? at least everyone made it to FJ today.

Instaget FJ, it would have been funny if someone had written

Spoiler: show

"Who is Linkin?"

[TenPoundHammer]

Wow, J! was easy for me. 22 right, even though I went 0/5 in International. (NHO Alsatian or French press, clammed on Australian rules football and White Russian, and couldn't understand the Swiss bank clue.) Clammed on Golden Gate since I would kinda expect something that had ground broken to, you know, be mostly on land.

I always get sapphire and emerald mixed up for some reason. I used to have those down cold — the Kmart store brand crayons had both Emerald Green and Sapphire Blue. (They also had two of the most fun colors to say: chartreuse and gamboge.) Also, I can never remember whether Alaska or Hawaii is the 49th state. I picked up Lach Trash on Egg Harbor in the same category because I remembered seeing the name on my mall list.

How the hell is "guest host" an oxymoron? Urban Cowboy was also a stretch there IMO (also, for some reason, I couldn't get my mind off Saturday Night Fever in time).

WALL•E and Avatar were the only two of those five films that I had even heard of.

Inagural addresses, huh? I'm hosed. Hmm. Lincoln… no wait, that can't be right. Four score and seven is 87. 87-72 is 15… who would've been 15 before Lincoln? Damn it, why can I never remember these *!@#$ing presidential successions?

[Austin Powers]

So the champ started strong but the other guy made his move starting the bands category. But all in all I thought it was a very good J, much better than what we witnessed yesterday. There didn't seem like anything that the players should have gotten but not, though perhaps Australian rules football after the first answer was ruled incorrect (the champ had a couple of unusual fumbles today). I wasn't surprised to see Balanchine missed, but that's a great bottom row DD. Classic show material there.

Rough spots I hit included a couple in the fast food (just don't eat it much, but still got three of them), and in the international category - for example, I was thrown off by the wording on the Swiss Bank Account question, which was strangely worded, I thought.

DJ went pretty smooth, they didn't have any incredible gets (well LA went well enough, I thought, on questions like Laura Ashley) but no painful misses ("Avatar" maybe). I said Hector and Achilles for the duel - almost makes sense, but I think if the category was run in correct order I would have realized what they really wanted there. That's the type of academic category that I wish we would have seen more of.

I laughed out loud at the WKRP question.

If I got the number correct, the champ didn't bet enough to catch up to the leader if the leader missed on a lockout bet. Hey, it's not my money. (ETA I had the champ's initial amount wrong).

As for the question itself, I could see someone flipping out - OMGMATH - but really all it was asking was name a famous president around 1860. Ok, I will say Lincoln.

It was awesome to see the guy hunt for DDs late - such awareness is unusual lately - but strange to see him not bet to lock, even if he correctly surmised that he would probably be wrong.

[xxaaaxx]

You are within striking distance of a lock and you don't go for it on a late DD? at least everyone made it to FJ today.

Instaget FJ

That about covers it, though I'll admit, I did the math at least 3 times to make sure I wasn't missing some sort of trick.

ETA:

DJ went pretty smooth, they didn't have any incredible gets (well LA went well enough, I thought, on questions like Laura Ashley) but no painful misses ("Avatar" maybe). I said Hector and Achilles for the duel - almost makes sense, but I think if the category was run in correct order I would have realized what they really wanted there. That's the type of academic category that I wish we would have seen more of.

If I got the number correct, the champ didn't bet enough to catch up to the leader if the leader missed on a lockout bet. Hey, it's not my money.

I said Paris...and Agamemnon. Obviously I need to read them again

IIRC, champ had 10400, bet 7000, and ended with 17400, leader had 19000, so a shutout bet takes him down to 17199. All the champ's wager did was ensure he'd win 3400 less if he won, but it wasn't a bad wager.

[Austin Powers]

You are within striking distance of a lock and you don't go for it on a late DD? at least everyone made it to FJ today.

Instaget FJ

That about covers it, though I'll admit, I did the math at least 3 times to make sure I wasn't missing some sort of trick.

ETA:

DJ went pretty smooth, they didn't have any incredible gets (well LA went well enough, I thought, on questions like Laura Ashley) but no painful misses ("Avatar" maybe). I said Hector and Achilles for the duel - almost makes sense, but I think if the category was run in correct order I would have realized what they really wanted there. That's the type of academic category that I wish we would have seen more of.

If I got the number correct, the champ didn't bet enough to catch up to the leader if the leader missed on a lockout bet. Hey, it's not my money.

I said Paris...and Agamemnon. Obviously I need to read them again

IIRC, champ had 10400, bet 7000, and ended with 17400, leader had 19000, so a shutout bet takes him down to 17199. All the champ's wager did was ensure he'd win 3400 less if he won, but it wasn't a bad wager.

Okay that makes sense, I was thinking the champ had 10,000 on the nose for some reason.

[xxaaaxx]

Of course, given the 100 wager last Thursday, 8601 might've been safer. I still would've bet it all in that spot.

[StevenH]

I missed the J! round but I thought that DJ was pretty hard. I was excited for the Illiad and Odyssey category but I missed every clue in it! That hurt.

FJ was just a matter of doing the math, and I got to 1792+72=1864=Lincoln.

[marpocky]

FJ was just a matter of doing the math, and I got to 1792+72=1864=Lincoln.

Lucky you, since Washington's (and Lincoln's) inaugural address were both 3 years earlier than that.

[marpocky]

How the hell is "guest host" an oxymoron? Urban Cowboy was also a stretch there IMO

...because "guest" and "host" are typically opposite roles? Similarly, cowboys don't tend to work in urban areas, so there was absolutely no stretch on that one either.

[StevenH]

FJ was just a matter of doing the math, and I got to 1792+72=1864=Lincoln.

Lucky you, since Washington's (and Lincoln's) inaugural address were both 3 years earlier than that.

Haha, yeah, I guess I did get kind of lucky. Don't know why I was so focused on election years...

[hbomb1947]

So the champ started strong but the other guy made his move starting the bands category. But all in all I thought it was a very good J, much better than what we witnessed yesterday. There didn't seem like anything that the players should have gotten but not, though perhaps Australian rules football after the first answer was ruled incorrect (the champ had a couple of unusual fumbles today). I wasn't surprised to see Balanchine missed, but that's a great bottom row DD. Classic show material there.

Rough spots I hit included a couple in the fast food (just don't eat it much, but still got three of them), and in the international category - for example, I was thrown off by the wording on the Swiss Bank Account question, which was strangely worded, I thought.

DJ went pretty smooth, they didn't have any incredible gets (well LA went well enough, I thought, on questions like Laura Ashley) but no painful misses ("Avatar" maybe). I said Hector and Achilles for the duel - almost makes sense, but I think if the category was run in correct order I would have realized what they really wanted there. That's the type of academic category that I wish we would have seen more of.

I laughed out loud at the WKRP question.

If I got the number correct, the champ didn't bet enough to catch up to the leader if the leader missed on a lockout bet. Hey, it's not my money. (ETA I had the champ's initial amount wrong).

As for the question itself, I could see someone flipping out - OMGMATH - but really all it was asking was name a famous president around 1860. Ok, I will say Lincoln.

It was awesome to see the guy hunt for DDs late - such awareness is unusual lately - but strange to see him not bet to lock, even if he correctly surmised that he would probably be wrong.

Maybe it's a tribute to my healthy eating these days (or at least healthier than it used to be), but I only went 1 for 5 on the fast food category; and that solitary get was the one where they gave you "BK" in the clue.

I too fell into the Hector and Achilles trap on the $1600 in the Homer category. I would have liked to see the uncovered clue in that column, although if one of them had to be unrevealed, it might as well have been the $400-level.

That FJ was hella-easy. It was the kind of clue that made me wonder, "Am I missing something??

The Swiss Bank account clue was instaget for me. The fact that Swiss bank accounts have been in the news in the Presidential campaign recently may have helped,

As a native New Jerseyan, I wish I could have been there to scoop up the $2K geography clue.

[Johnblue]

TPH: that cop show is called Hawaii Five-0 for a reason.

I can't believe some of the TSs but still, much better game than the 2 prior ones. I like the new champ but his chat tale was awkward/weird. A contestant wannabe's worst nightmare. Well, that or ending DJ with -$6200...

[TenPoundHammer]

I honestly never made the connection of Hawaii Five-O -> 50th state until just now.

Just like I never noticed that Palmolive comes from "palm" and "olive oil" (in part because I thought the syllable break was pal-molive, not palm-olive). Or that delicatessen comes from "delicat" and "essen" in German, even though I was well aware of "essen" being a German word.

[davey]

As for the question itself, I could see someone flipping out - OMGMATH - but really all it was asking was name a famous president around 1860. Ok, I will say Lincoln.

Someone flipping out about the math? Oh, that could never happen...Unless someone said, Of course it's Lincoln, but I better do the math, easiest thing go forward 100, 1889, now back 30 years, 1859...and then I subtracted 2 more years, and thought Oh, a trick, Buchanan! (Aren't all presidents famous...?) I am suitably chastened about the bad things I said about the contestants yesterday...And the truth is, the remaining seconds still left plenty of time to count forward, like a normal person...

[TenPoundHammer]

As for the question itself, I could see someone flipping out - OMGMATH - but really all it was asking was name a famous president around 1860. Ok, I will say Lincoln.

Someone flipping out about the math? Oh, that could never happen...Unless someone said, Of course it's Lincoln, but I better do the math, easiest thing go forward 100, 1889, now back 30 years, 1859...and then I subtracted 2 more years, and thought Oh, a trick, Buchanan! (Aren't all presidents famous...?) I am suitably chastened about the bad things I said about the contestants yesterday...And the truth is, the remaining seconds still left plenty of time to count forward, like a normal person...

Or you fark it up the way I did by forgetting that Washington didn't take office until 1789.

[zakharov]

I haven't had a game that good in a long time. I was 90% sure about Lincoln, enough to count it as a get for me. Pretty sure I got at least 3-4 in every category, no "Medical Talk" or "Opera" here, thank the lord.

Did Alex seem to be a particularly jolly mood to anyone else?

[TenPoundHammer]

Did Alex seem to be a particularly jolly mood to anyone else?

I just want to say: I like it when Alex laughs and jokes around. Especially because when I first started paying attention to the show in the late 90s, he seemed ridiculously buttoned-down and stern. I think I first started noticing Alex loosening up around the time Ken came around — maybe Ken's wit started to rub off on Alex.

However, I might get a little concerned if Alex starts saying things like "Many moon come, that's a niner" or "Junior G-man magic carpet".

[econgator]

FJ was just a matter of doing the math, and I got to 1792+72=1864=Lincoln.

At least you did it better than Alex, who stated that 1789 + 72= 1863. Surprised they didn't edit that bit.