Tuesday, April 30, 2013 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[This Is Kirk!]

As for my DD... ACK! I can't believe I drew a blank. One of my best friends went to the University of Pennsylvania, and she will be giving me grief about that one for the rest of my life.

Somehow the fact that Ben Franklin founded Penn escaped me, too. I said Brown. Glad you enjoyed your J! experience, at least.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I have to say that I'm a big fan of the prolific Johnny Mercer, and I've never heard that anyone re-named a river in his honor. There's an absolutely wonderful recording of Mercer performing at the 92nd Street Y in NYC late in his life. He performs some of his well known songs and tells some great stories. He had written the lyrics to "Moon River" for the film "Breakfast At Tiffany's" (music by Henry Mancini) and at one of the initial screenings in Hollywood the film was very well received. On the way out of the theater one of the producers was heard to say to the others "Great movie. You guys do what you want but as far as I'm concerned that damned song can go!"
Mercer had a great laugh about that since "Moon River" went on to win the Academy Award and gave Mercer a (much needed) bump to his career.

Moon River never hit my brain; I always associate the tune with Mancini (and, of course, Andy Williams). I also threw down "Savannah River" just to put something down, and knowing that's where he's from (and I have the pictures of his statue to prove it - of course, the plate next to it references "Moon River" ).

Mercer statue (378x640).jpg (190.75 KiB) Viewed 3089 times

[TomC4253]

Just to continue a bit on Mr. Mercer, he wrote complete songs on his own (music and lyrics) but mostly he collaborated.
The amazing thing is he wrote songs with over 90 different people.
If you look at the complete list, which is substantial, you'll see that a lot of them are unfamiliar, but there are a LOT of what are referred to as "American Popular Standards".

http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/songs/detailed/C18

[OrangeSAM]

On that question where the answer was the Pythagorean theory, I almost said "Who is the Tin Woodsman?"

Bamaman says that it was actually the Scarecrow. That's not quite right either. The Scarecrow DOES say something that sounds like the Pythagorean Theorem, but "he" (i.e., the writers) got it wrong! He says: "The sum of the square roots of two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side." Oops. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fv ... bvip1Ot6jQ (Starts at about 1:16.)

That's not a goof. That's deliberate characterization. The scarecrow doesn't actually get brains; he only thinks he does. Was it that... obtuse?

Oh, how acute!

As for my two must-see TV shows, they are Survivor and The Amazing Race per Mrs OS. Well, I actually just have to be in the room while she watches them. That way if she feels compelled to say something she isn't talking to an empty room.

[Johnblue]

I watch TAR & Survivor too & about 5 other shows regularly. DVRs are awesome!

Easy FJ for me. The champ is low-key to the nth degree but he knows a good amount. Not bad for an old guy!

[harrumph]

One of the great Mercer lyrics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPmfu9ty4Xg

[ahirbhairav]

Hi! Based on my username, you might guess that I was a contestant in this game. The buzzer was not my friend, but c'est la vie. I won't be the first to say that, nor will I be the last. As for my DD... ACK! I can't believe I drew a blank. One of my best friends went to the University of Pennsylvania, and she will be giving me grief about that one for the rest of my life. (At least I was able to name-drop my alma mater on national television.) I give Larry and David credit; both of them went on pretty good runs. FJ seemed like a wash, seeing as how I was locked in to third place. Overall, it was a good experience!

Welcome to the board. I must say you did really well.

[harrumph]

Hi! Based on my username, you might guess that I was a contestant in this game. The buzzer was not my friend, but c'est la vie. I won't be the first to say that, nor will I be the last. As for my DD... ACK! I can't believe I drew a blank. One of my best friends went to the University of Pennsylvania, and she will be giving me grief about that one for the rest of my life. (At least I was able to name-drop my alma mater on national television.) I give Larry and David credit; both of them went on pretty good runs. FJ seemed like a wash, seeing as how I was locked in to third place. Overall, it was a good experience!

Welcome to the board, I was rooting for you at the animal shelter story.

[bomtr]

From day one, I found Survivor completely unwatchable, an unbearable exercise in narcissism, artificiality and voyeurism. I loathe it, not on the scale of the phony romance shows like--no, I won't even say their names--but close. I enjoyed the first few seasons of Amazing Race, mostly as a travelogue but some of the little competitions were interesting too. Now, however, all the jump cuts undermine any travelogue aspect--you hardly get a glimpse of the places they go--and the makers have decided people would rather see people bicker and false 'drama' than see the sights anyway. They're probably right, but not for this member of the audience. I no longer can watch it.

[TenPoundHammer]

From day one, I found Survivor completely unwatchable

Likewise.

[Leander]

From day one, I found Survivor completely unwatchable

Likewise.

I was sort of naive in assuming it was going to be about, you know, survivor skills. I was probably the only person interested in the competitions rather than all the plotting and "alliances". I did last one season with it though.

Used to love TAR, but have gotten bored with it in recent years.

[reddpen]

On another note, Professor Trebeck lectured again; Oh no, think 17th century etc. for the Galileo answer

Obviously you were too busy taking a mental note to complain yet again about it to remember what Alex actually said. Hint: it had nothing to do with time frame.

What Alex actually said was, "17th century Italian... was Galileo."

Somehow the fact that Ben Franklin founded Penn escaped me, too. I said Brown.

I said Brown too and was thrilled that a quick run through the Ivies had landed on a publisher, given the prominence of Little Brown & Co., ... which of course has no other connection with Brown's founders or namesake. [mockoutrage]That's some nasty neg-bait there![/mockoutrage]

In Colleges for 2K, the champ ignored the clue's warning away from Damascus (see above). The only reason I got it was because this guy was my great uncle.

Two tough boards in a row for me, both 5K below my average Coryat. On the plus side, I've gotten 10 of the last 11 FJs. Don't know much about Johnny Mercer, but the cat and "body of water flowing" took me right to "Moon River," albeit via 485 MADison Avenue and Poet Lauridiot Frank Jacobs:

Chopped liver
Onions on the side
My social life has died... from you.

[Austin Powers]

That Johnny Mercer statue looks like Jon Voight.

[TomC4253]

I believe the model for the statue was Mercer's nephew , who was wearing a coat that had belonged to Mercer.

[John Boy]

I got the first two in the dictionary category easily, then had no chance at 'bulldog', cursed under my breath for missing 'balance' (my brain just kept repeating 'scale' over and over again), and stared at the screen in utter bewilderment wondering where in all creation they got those definitions for 'online' from.

I agree the category was pretty bad. I also got the first two, was totally befuddled by the next two. On the bottom clue I actually did think "online" but chalked it up to a brain glitch and assumed it couldn't possibly be right. I clammed, then slapped my head.

[jkbrat]

Larry is certainly slow, but seems to have decent buzzer speed and a good breadth of knowledge.

Agreed -- Larry went 4/6 in $2000-level clues (negging on the "be careful here" Syrian clue [he wasn't] and TSing in that awful dictionary category). Great gets with "Abbottabad" and "kapok" -- the guy knows his stuff (and stuffings, apparently).

I was sort of naive in assuming it was going to be about, you know, survivor skills. I was probably the only person interested in the competitions rather than all the plotting and "alliances". I did last one season with it though.

No, you're not the only one -- I also wanted it to be more about that -- and I wanted the winner to be the person who best exemplified those skills rather than seeing all the losers band together to vote off the best ("Oh, Malcolm! How could they???" ).

I swear it off at least every other season, but there's still just enough there (good contestants, challenges, survival skills, etc.) for me to relent and try to give it "one last chance".

Used to love TAR, but have gotten bored with it in recent years.

Love the travel; hate the drama. J!-worthy material does come up on occasion, though, so I don't feel nearly as guilty about this one .

And, what --- no love for "Sherlock"? Just because they only make, like, 3 episodes/century, that's no reason not to still be a devoted fan!

[econgator]

From day one, I found Survivor completely unwatchable

Likewise.

I never even made it to Day 1.

[Fishercat]

History books was a nice surprise, but the rest of that was ugh. The slow category picking has ended up with two categories not being revealed that I could run too.

I'll diverge on Survivor. It's one of my favorite shows and the strategic/social aspect is positively fascinating to me (perhaps if Malcolm played his Idol gambit better he'd still be around, but I still love him as a contestant). I would post my list of TV, but it's a really, really long list.

[Woof]

From day one, I found Survivor completely unwatchable

Likewise.

I never even made it to Day 1.

You and me both, The ads were enough to dissuade me.

[ElendilPickle]

Hi! Based on my username, you might guess that I was a contestant in this game. The buzzer was not my friend, but c'est la vie. I won't be the first to say that, nor will I be the last. As for my DD... ACK! I can't believe I drew a blank. One of my best friends went to the University of Pennsylvania, and she will be giving me grief about that one for the rest of my life. (At least I was able to name-drop my alma mater on national television.) I give Larry and David credit; both of them went on pretty good runs. FJ seemed like a wash, seeing as how I was locked in to third place. Overall, it was a good experience!

Welcome to JBoard!