Tuesday, April 17, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Bamaman]

Could we have a moratorium on discussing FJs from previous games, at least for a week or so? I as just now able to see this game. however, thanks to comments from Thursday's thread, I already knew what museum they were going for. Now, I doubt I'd have gotten it anyway, but I think it is possible I might.

Even worse, we had someone give the full to Monday's FJ earlier in this thread. (I was able to see it "live") A lot of people, for a variety of reasons, have to watch the games out of order sometimes. So mentioning the FJ from the day before can really ruin it for someone. [steps off soapbox]

I was looking forward to the Pig Latin category and hated they didn't get any further. The number category would have been better if Alex had said "We'll give you an author and a number that appears in a title of a book he wrote".

I never knew where they got the name of Redstone Arsenal, but was an instaget, but I have home field advantage there.

On the last DD, she bet $100 too much. A $1,900 bet gives her the lead if right and a lock tie trailing position late in the game if wrong.

[iowabelle]

That Carl Sagan clue was particularly hard to parse: "Carl Sagan took on this vast subject, with thoughts on the 'intelligent' type 'beyond the solar system.'"

"This vast subject" points me to Cosmos, his most famous work, but the back end leads me somewhere else, and it's hard to know exactly what they're looking for. Mary did well to come up with "beings," IMO.

All I could think of was Comos, too, but that didn't make much sense with "intelligent." I'm glad I'm not the only one who has been wondering why some of these clues don't make sense to me.

[iowabelle]

I was excited when I saw Michelle Lalonde's name and wish she'd had more time to talk with Alex about it. Alex mentioned that it was a familiar name in Quebec, and I'm a Lalonde descendant too. I'd be interested in knowing whether Michelle is a very distant cousin (or if it was a married name).

Maybe there's something about the French-Canadian brain that makes it perfect for games like Jeopardy?

[dhkendall]

Maybe there's something about the French-Canadian brain that makes it perfect for games like Jeopardy?

You'd think so, but it only lasted two years in Quebec.

[iowabelle]

Maybe it's only attractive to those of us whose ancestors left?

But that's a "burn" to Alex, isn't it, that Jeopardy! didn't last over there?

[kristinsausville]

Interesting theory, as "Sausville" is a French-Canadian name.

[bpmod]

Interesting theory, as "Sausville" is a French-Canadian name.

And here I thought that "Sausville" was a French-Canadian place.

Brian

[alietr]

The only thing about FJ that threw me off was the dates. Air & Space is usually the most-visited museum every year, so I thought maybe something was different because they mentioned the specific years, but I stuck with it anyway. Put one in the win column. Another aspect that hasn't been mentioned is that all of the Smithsonian museums have free admission (except for having to pay for %^&$@(! parking at Udvar-Hazy), which tends to boost their attendance (not that each and every one wouldn't be worth a visit anyway). I cannot begin to tell you how perturbed I was that I was out of town for the Discovery fly-over. I did, however, post Carol Anne's fantastic picture (although she missed by a fraction of a second having a truly remarkable one) on my Facebook page, for those who haven't seen it.

[econgator]

(except for having to pay for %^&$@(! parking at Udvar-Hazy)

For those who don't know, the reason for that is to prevent it from becoming a parking lot for Dulles.

[Robert K S]

This show convinced me that what Jeopardy! needs is more remote-control inflatable sharks. And more Alex boxing sharks. Inflatable or otherwise. Who's with me?

The one specific example I can name is from Robert K S's second game...

I still think--as I thought at taping time--that that game was one of the weirdest in the show's history. Come on, they cut off play with eight clues unrevealed? And not even a celebrity game? WTH? Pass the salt, please. It's for my wound.

[Austin Powers]

This show convinced me that what Jeopardy! needs is more remote-control inflatable sharks. And more Alex boxing sharks. Inflatable or otherwise. Who's with me?

The one specific example I can name is from Robert K S's second game...

I still think--as I thought at taping time--that that game was one of the weirdest in the show's history. Come on, they cut off play with eight clues unrevealed? And not even a celebrity game? WTH? Pass the salt, please. It's for my wound.

Yes, that was completely nuts.

[TenPoundHammer]

This show convinced me that what Jeopardy! needs is more remote-control inflatable sharks. And more Alex boxing sharks. Inflatable or otherwise. Who's with me?

The one specific example I can name is from Robert K S's second game...

I still think--as I thought at taping time--that that game was one of the weirdest in the show's history. Come on, they cut off play with eight clues unrevealed? And not even a celebrity game? WTH? Pass the salt, please. It's for my wound.

Yes, that was completely nuts.

What ate up so much time on that game anyway?

[TreehugginCowgirl]

A few things:

One of the Boxcar Children books taught me Pig Latin when I was 7 or 8, and I drove my parents nuts speaking in it for weeks. I was excited, and then we only got to see one

Alex's "Space Age" comment was irritating and generally incorrect. As someone else mentioned earlier, we've moved onto the Information Age. I still would have never guessed Air and Space. I went with the apparently yet to open 9/11 museum.

I said aliens for the Carl Sagan question. Judges?

Those sharks are just as awesome as they look. My 4 cousins each got one for Christmas, and we had aerial shark wars. I highly recommend having one sneak up on your Grandmother.

[Doug527]

I'd neg "aliens", but I'm fairly sure that's a normative judgment on my part, because I don't think I'd neg "extraterrestrial life" (an EB article on which he is also listed as a contributor). I'm actually surprised that this question caused so much controversy...I thought it wasn't too poorly written, compared to some things we've seen lately.

"Carl Sagan took on this vast subject, with thoughts on the 'intelligent' type 'beyond the solar system.'" (emphases added)

To me, "life" is the clear answer given the prompt of "intelligent" (and sure, hindsight is 20/20 and all that). Clearly you need another judge who isn't as wishy-washy as I am.