Wednesday, November 20, 2013 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[OrangeSAM]

Tim Horton's and hockey, eh?

Then I may be half-Canadian.

[This Is Kirk!]

NHO Satanic Verses. Wasn't getting this no matter how much TOM you beat me over the head with.

Probably a little before your time, but it made quite a flap when it came out. The Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie claiming the book was blasphemous. I believe Rushdie essentially went into hiding for years due to this.

[Johnblue]

And then he married Padma Lakshmi...

[dhkendall]

NHO Satanic Verses. Wasn't getting this no matter how much TOM you beat me over the head with.

Probably a little before your time

"Before your time" is no excuse for anyone, especially TPH (who has been told that many times). After all, looking at your first game, Kirk, you got a clue on LBJ, baseball players from 1969 & 1979, and one on Mozart (the other two may not quite be before your time, but I'm sure this one is!). I'm sure even TPH knows a few things about World War II, US presidents before Reagan, and Hank Williams, Sr. "Before your/my time" is never an excuse, it's a cover-up for not wanting to learn. (TPH should have said "NHO Satanic Verses. Now I have. Guess I should learn a little about it in case it comes up again, unless I want to stop telling people how I did since it'll be the same thing over and over.")

Still have no idea how you got Venice out of that image in Space for $1000, either — it's zoomed out way too far for the canals to be visible even on my HDTV.

The "powerful republic 500 years ago" is a start. (And don't you *dare* say "The Venetian Republic was before my time!"). But the built up city on an island (that was around 500 years ago, ruling out Singapore and New York) is another big one. After all a city with that many canals can't be landlocked.

Actually, and somewhat surprisingly, Hudson's Bay Company is correct, even though the body of water is Hudson Bay.

As many of you may now, the Hudson's Bay Company is still around (though it long got out of the fur trading business, in an effort to keep up with the times) as a general clothing and the likes retailer (someone more versed in American store brands than me can make a suitable comparison, I can't quite nail one down with my limited knowledge.) Every Bay store (as they're still known around here, despite a recent rebranding effort) that I've been in still proudly displays a "Founded May 2, 1670" sign in the store, and it therefore is listed as one of North America's oldest companies still in existence. (The oldest companies in the world honour goes to Japan, who have a few still running after I believe 1200 years continuous operation.) It may seem odd in the States, but no one bats an eye here when the Bay would have a "340th birthday celebration".

I was rooting for the Canadian to get that clue. In fact, I'm Canadian (lived there for the first 36 years of my life) and one of my colleagues from my student days is now a teacher in Saint John, New Brunswick, so I was rooting for the woman in the middle. That is, until the woman on the left revealed that she had two huskies! For me, good taste in dogs trumps nationalism.

I'm sure it's odd when the Massachusettsite is by far the most southerly contestant of the 3 on stage. (And the Canadian is second of the bunch)

I also didn't previously know that the diaphragm is shaped like a dome, but I got that one anyway.

That one I learned from acting classes - can't ever recall it being mentioned in my many, many years in Toastmasters. (I'm sure it was mentioned in some official publication or PR material though, leading to the clue.)

[harrumph]

Eli: You are not alone. Landline only for me.

Ditto. I loathe cell phones.

Me too... can this be in the weekly poll?

[billy pilgrim]

I find it difficult to believe that anyone has not heard about the Salman Rushdie fatwah. It was even a bit on seinfeld.

[Bamaman]

I've never read that book nor have I ever had any interest in doing so. But I remember the huge story when the death threat was put out against Rushdie so I figured it out from that. But I haven't heard anything about him or the book since then, so someone not around at the time might not be able to know that.

I do have a cell phone, but it is an old flip phone.

[seaborgium]

I don't feel like faulting Eli for betting everything on FJ. Mary Beth made two piddling DD bets, and he was in a position where our book of strategy dictates a small wager. Now, he could have seen that he "shouldn't" wager more than $2,400, and he might have thought (or hoped) Mary Beth, looking for an excuse to wager small, would notice the same thing and bet $3,799. Becky and Timothy, on the other hand, were in four-fifths positions where there was no underwager strategy as simple for the leader.

I don't have to jump through hoops to justify Maryanne's bet. She had to finish at $12,400 bare minimum, ideally at $14,001 or more.


Almost instaget FJ. I think I had it by the time I read "Koran" (the word, not the book, ha, ha). Sucks to be a trailing player in a triple get semifinal when there was but one get in the other two.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Eli: You are not alone. Landline only for me.

Ditto. I loathe cell phones.

Had no clue what Satanic Verses was about, so there was no way I was getting FJ.

Nor did I, but I remember the controversy over the book (they don't put out a fatwa on you for nothing!), so it made sense to me.

[silverscreentest]

I made the same mistake on that clue about Main Street USA being inspired by Fort Collins. Main Street makes you think of Walt Disney's midwestern upbringing.

The Satanic Verses is not a fun read, especially if you're not familiar with Islamic culture.

It's been a while since I was in The Bay, but at the time, it was like Macy's, a general, mid-level department store.

[This Is Kirk!]

"Before your time" is no excuse for anyone

No, it's not, but I'm willing to give a little more leeway on something that can be reasonably considered "pop culture." But I have a feeling the weekly poll will bear this out as not a difficult Final Jeopardy clue.

And speaking of pop culture, I had no idea Rushdie was once married to Padma Lakshmi.

[skullturf]

I agree with the general idea that aspiring trivia buffs should try to learn things that are "before their time", but I also think there's a difference between things that happened in 1989 and things that happened in 1929.

Popular culture from 1929 that's remembered today is considered "classic", and we often learn about it in school. Popular culture from 2009, we just remember it because we were there. But, depending on how old we are, maybe popular culture from 1989 or 1979 or 1969 falls in that awkward middle zone, where we don't remember it firsthand, but it's also not quite old enough or "classic" enough to be immortalized in history books or taught in school.

I mean, I still think aspiring trivia buffs should brush up on their weak spots and try to fill in gaps in their knowledge, but I think there definitely does exist an awkward zone of "That's just long enough ago that I don't know anything about it."

[Vanya]

Eli: You are not alone. Landline only for me.

Ditto. I loathe cell phones.

Me too... can this be in the weekly poll?

I'm surprised at the number of Luddites in this forum. I would get rid of my landline but the wife won't let me.

OTOH, OED's designation of "selfie" as the word of the year is enough to turn anyone off technology.

[MarkBarrett]

Eli: You are not alone. Landline only for me.

Ditto. I loathe cell phones.

Me too... can this be in the weekly poll?

I'm surprised at the number of Luddites in this forum. I would get rid of my landline but the wife won't let me.

OTOH, OED's designation of "selfie" as the word of the year is enough to turn anyone off technology.

AOL is still my place for e-mail that I've used since the first Clinton administration and even though I have a DVR I still have VCRs hooked up.

[John Boy]

Eli: You are not alone. Landline only for me.

Ditto. I loathe cell phones.

Had no clue what Satanic Verses was about, so there was no way I was getting FJ.

You don't need to know what it's about. (I don't either). Just that Rushdie got into deep doo-doo with the Ayatollahs over defaming the Koran/the Prophet/Allah, and, oh yes, the name of the book which is very much in the dictionary of cultural literacy. It stumped me for a few seconds, but I managed to pull it out from all the TOM in the clue.

[John Boy]

Congrats to all three finalists. Looking forward to an exciting two evenings.

[harrumph]

Eli: You are not alone. Landline only for me.

Ditto. I loathe cell phones.

Me too... can this be in the weekly poll?

I'm surprised at the number of Luddites in this forum. I would get rid of my landline but the wife won't let me.

I had one for a bit but I used it so infrequently that I would forget how to use it.... I know that they're good if your car breaks down but I use a bicycle for almost all my transportation needs. I don't understand how the people you see walking around with their ears continually glued to them have so many people to talk to at such length.

[dhkendall]

Eli: You are not alone. Landline only for me.

Ditto. I loathe cell phones.

Me too... can this be in the weekly poll?

I'm surprised at the number of Luddites in this forum. I would get rid of my landline but the wife won't let me.

I had one for a bit but I used it so infrequently that I would forget how to use it.... I know that they're good if your car breaks down but I use a bicycle for almost all my transportation needs. I don't understand how the people you see walking around with their ears continually glued to them have so many people to talk to at such length.

My wife and I both have cell phones, but we really only use them for talking to each other - I don't even have call display on it as 90% of the calls are from her, so any missed call I just call her back.

What my cellphone is good for is that it's a smart phone - with my work hours I'm barely on the computer anyways so I've been doing a lot more on the iPhone, including making posts on jboard about how I rarely use my iPhone as a phone but rather as a smartphone.

[jpahk]

Iron Man For All Seasons? Isn't it "A Man For All Seasons"? What happens to the "A"? That one seems like it's cheating the rules of Before & After, even if Jeopardy! doesn't usually care about leading articles. Have they ever done one like that before?

That's a good question. I agree that it's cheating. With a little work, they could've come up with a more awesome clue anyway. "Tony Stark squares off against Kal-El in this play by George Bernard Shaw".

this would have been better, especially since the court of henry viii had already been asked about earlier in the category. plus, man & superman is a fantastic play, better than bolt's.

The Satanic Verses is not a fun read, especially if you're not familiar with Islamic culture.

strongly disagree! i thought it was a fantastic book. rushdie's prose is luminous, his ideas are interesting, and his characters are wonderfully memorable. midnight's children is better, sure, but that's praising with faint damnation.

[silverscreentest]

The Satanic Verses is not a fun read, especially if you're not familiar with Islamic culture.

strongly disagree! i thought it was a fantastic book. rushdie's prose is luminous, his ideas are interesting, and his characters are wonderfully memorable. midnight's children is better, sure, but that's praising with faint damnation.

We'll disagree, then. Haroun and the Sea Stories is accessible to everyone and takes a dig at Sarah, Duchess of York (a Fergie).