Wednesday, March 13, 2013 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Vanya]

Ya just can't win. Contestants make inadvisable wagers, people complain. A contestant extends his win streak with smart wagering, people complain.

[Steppenwolf]

Can anybody throw any clarification on David's contestant 'story'? I'm pretty sure he said he stood in a room with 100 billion dollars in cash ... which is a little hard to believe. That's almost Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's net worth combined, converted to cash??!? Even if he said 100 million (I rewound it and listened to it several times), it seems very unlikely. He seemed very reticent to elaborate, making me wonder if it was some kind of joke.

Perhaps if he told us, he'd have to kill us.

[This Is Kirk!]

"English" more than suggests that the paper's published in England. Any reasonable person would come to that conclusion.

Despite the fact nearly everyone in this thread who mentioned what they guessed named a city in India? Seems to me plenty of reasonable people came to a different conclusion. The question was fine.

[AdamAnt]

I had clues thrown at me that were so obvious for me that I didn't have the quick draw thinking to answer them correctly. I missed out on Tennessee Williams even after performing in The Glass Menagerie two years ago and I missed Lasik which is actually something I need for my left eye. Other than that I got the odd answer here and there, not enough for me to consider the big leagues just yet.

Loved Jillian's reaction when Alex told her she was correct. That would've been something had Drew wagered more and she ended up being the champion. Drew continues his streak and now is tied with Stephanie and Keith for most wins this season however the both of them have about $20K ahead of Drew. I wonder if his streak will continue.

[Leander]

Despite the fact nearly everyone in this thread who mentioned what they guessed named a city in India? Seems to me plenty of reasonable people came to a different conclusion. The question was fine.

I'd say that the question could have been better worded, but yeah, who would possibly think the largest English language Times newspaper would be in England, when the The Times of London has already been ruled out?

Maybe I'm showing my age in a digital world, but what was odd about the champ's wager to me is that Jeopardy contestants are usually very well and broadly read people. I wouldn't think that "Newspapers" would be the type of category that would cause a lot of concern (like "Opera" or "Ballet"), or that I would be willing to risk that it would stump my competitor. But he certainly made the right bet given what happened.

[Volante]

"English" more than suggests that the paper's published in England. Any reasonable person would come to that conclusion.

jboard: highest ratio of non-reasonable to reasonable people on the internet.

[silverscreentest]

"English" more than suggests that the paper's published in England. Any reasonable person would come to that conclusion.

jboard: highest ratio of non-reasonable to reasonable people on the internet.

4chan and reddit say hi

[John Boy]

Drew essentially bet for David to be incorrect--he wins if and only if David gets FJ wrong. He seems to have a sixth sense for things like this.

David perhaps should bet only $5199. Unless I'm overlooking something, that keeps him above Jillian in all scenarios and doesn't give up any possibilities.

I agree re David's bet. The extra four grand he wagered didn't add anything substantial to his chances of winning, and did lose him the extra thousand for second place. Oh well.

And as far as Drew is concerned, I'm blown away. Unless I'm mis-remembering, his FJ wagers have been pretty much orthodox. And here he comes into FJ with a lead and does not place the $1 lockout wager, essentially exposing himself to be passed by David. I've always thought you never do that UNLESS the FJ category is pretty awful for you. If he smelled a miss coming on this one he must be psychic.

Whatever it was that was an exciting win that moves him up to where the air is rare, 26th overall on the list of regular-season money winners. This is one awesome streak he's got going on. Can't wait for his game eight.

Drew...nicely done, my man. And if you ARE lurking on this board, I would love to hear your comment on this FJ.

[Volante]

"English" more than suggests that the paper's published in England. Any reasonable person would come to that conclusion.

jboard: highest ratio of non-reasonable to reasonable people on the internet.

4chan and reddit say hi

Can't divide by zero.

[Sherm]

Been on a really good FJ roll since the ToC, but wasn't getting this one in a month. Like someone else said. I was thinking India isn't speaking English. I even thought of India for a second and thought Nope. If I had gotten the country right, I would have gone with Mumbai in a second, never would have said India.

I said Johannesburg to have something, knowing it was wrong. Big city, but not big enough to really answer the clue. Again, it shows how important thought process is. A much larger circulation than New York or London. Probably is going to be a national type of paper, more than one with a city in the name. Never thought of that in 30 seconds. A better guess for me would have been "Times of South Africa" which does follows the logic of the correct India answer.

[seaborgium]

I forgot the category on the first clue of the game, and said New York instead of Albany. So I bookended this episode with a miss for not naming a capital, and a miss for naming a capital. New Delhi here as well.

Victory for Shore's conjecture (the Shoretegic wager would have won for Drew, and the standard wager would have lost). The second-place player bet "big," as Bob says. David overwagered, but there was a reasonable overwager he could have made. Jillian had $5,200, which is more than the $1,399 Drew would have fallen to if he'd covered David by $1; therefore, she could have been expected to wager less than $3,800. Therefore, David could have reasonably bet $6,599. In this case, that wouldn't have cost him second place.

I now know that my college roommate's sister (Anne Olson) goes up against Drew today. (I knew she had taped and would be on this week, but I assumed that as a local, she'd be on Friday.)

[CoachP]

Add me to the list of folks going for a city in India instead of the country itself. I also briefly considered Hong Kong.
Was surprised at the TS's for Salt Lake City (remembered in Ken Jenning's "Brainiac" his comments on his hometown howdy riffing on the Beehive State), Glee, and Checkpoint Charlie (after being spotted "checkpoint").

[thejeopardyfan]

Drew's left a comment about his wager.

[TenPoundHammer]

Despite the fact nearly everyone in this thread who mentioned what they guessed named a city in India? Seems to me plenty of reasonable people came to a different conclusion. The question was fine.

I'd say that the question could have been better worded, but yeah, who would possibly think the largest English language Times newspaper would be in England, when the The Times of London has already been ruled out?

Me. I already said that.

[bpmod]

Despite the fact nearly everyone in this thread who mentioned what they guessed named a city in India? Seems to me plenty of reasonable people came to a different conclusion. The question was fine.

I'd say that the question could have been better worded, but yeah, who would possibly think the largest English language Times newspaper would be in England, when the The Times of London has already been ruled out?

Me. I already said that.

I think that, when somebody on JBoard asks a question beginning with "Who would (or could) possibly think that...", it can be assumed that the person is leaving out the "other than TPH" right after the "who".

Brian

[Sherm]

Drew's left a comment about his wager.

Basically, he just didn' like the catagory, and he was right.

The concern I would have is if I'm going to lose one would bother me much more than the other. It wouldn't bother me so much if I made the shut out wager, missed it, and I lost. It would just rip my heart out if I underbet, knew the answer and I lost. I'd beat myself up over that for a while.

At the same time, if I'm at the podium and the FJ topic is fashion or word origins. Good possiblity, I do what Drew did.

[Sage on the Hudson]

They also told us it wasn't the New York Times. Is that paper published in England?

Only indirectly, but that didn't foreclose on the possibility that there might yet be another newspaper in England called the times with a greater circulation. It said that the newspaper in question has a circulation one-and-half times that of the New York Times and Times of London combined.

And "English" is still too broad a word to be interchangeable with "English language." An insipid clue is still an insipid clue.

[seaborgium]

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

[Vanya]

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

Obviously the clue wasn't to TRD's taste.

[Volante]

They also told us it wasn't the New York Times. Is that paper published in England?

Only indirectly, but that didn't foreclose on the possibility that there might yet be another newspaper in England called the times with a greater circulation. It said that the newspaper in question has a circulation one-and-half times that of the New York Times and Times of London combined.

And "English" is still too broad a word to be interchangeable with "English language." An insipid clue is still an insipid clue.

Yes, you're right, it DID leave open the possibility of a "Times of" newspaper with a higher circulation that that of the two serving the largest cities in native English speaking countries.

What of it?

I caught that myself, but there's no way a city *smaller* than NY or London would have a higher circulation than both combined. If you actually came to that explicit conclusion, then...