The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

[lisa0012]

And, I will (sort of) repeat what Jeff said: Have fun. If you are not having fun while watching, find something else more fun to do.

Fun? You make it sound like a game or something

[Tpmorrison]

TPH - You said today that you marked Defoe down as an 0/5 as soon as it came up. Ignoring the fact that this is not a fun or productive thing to do (as previously mentioned) and ignoring that the writers obviously won't ask five questions about actual Defoe literature (since only 2-3 of his works are particularly well-known), it should have been fairly obvious that something about Robinson Crusoe would come up, and likely in the lower-level questions. So marking it as an immediate 0/5 was definitely just setting yourself up for an unnecessary failure, at least in my opinion, since one of them was likely to be a sure-thing.

[goatman]

TPH - You said today that you marked Defoe down as an 0/5 as soon as it came up. Ignoring the fact that this is not a fun or productive thing to do (as previously mentioned) and ignoring that the writers obviously won't ask five questions about actual Defoe literature (since only 2-3 of his works are particularly well-known), it should have been fairly obvious that something about Robinson Crusoe would come up, and likely in the lower-level questions. So marking it as an immediate 0/5 was definitely just setting yourself up for an unnecessary failure, at least in my opinion, since one of them was likely to be a sure-thing.

Absolutely. Pls dont' set yourself up for failure with negativity before the challenge;

This is like Sir Gawain saying; "Bloody Hell, the damned Green Knight is my worst category in 'Opponents I Should Have Easily Bested'; I'll take a bye on him and just call it a day.
Don't want to get my armor dirty anyway, eh wot!?"

Let the clues be presented before you pass on them. Very often the category is a distractor, although not as bad as WOF where they're totally non-representative as negbait.
(E.g., "Thing" becomes "Mood", etc or even sillier nominative clauses in which Things really are not even Nouns, LMFAO.)

[goatman]

J! has four places for viewers to always take a guess (some home players will guess on everything) with the Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy! You should always try to say something when those come up. 85% of the guesses may be wrong; that's okay. All we want to see is a guess in the FJ! round for a city, a country, a British king or a president when relevant. We'll save movies, TV shows or books for 2016.

WOF thing...

Mark... you harshin' on my man TPH?!? This is an EdThread not a BeatTPHonHisHeadThread!!

TPH take no notice of the small man behind the curtain! I am the great and powerful Goatman!

Also: We're from the Government and we're here to help!

I mean no malice with Hammer. I was just having a little fun with the WOF thing. We've both been around here long enough that the give and take is nothing new.

I'm the 5'2" guy who played J! on a big box. Why you bringing my height into this? At least you didn't target the lack of hair.

ZOMG I had no idea who you are the oblique reference to Oz is entirely spurious! Are your episodes on U-Tube! I gotta watch! Sheepin it so sorry!

[goatman]

What's your ultimate goal? To get on the show? To learn new stuff? To get better at answering J-type trivia questions? To impress a bunch of message board geeks?

I think just to suck less playing the game from home and maybe learn new stuff as a bonus. But I'm seriously getting way, way WORSE the more I play.

AHHHHHHA!!! NOW that means you are at the beginning of starting to become 'slightly better'!! It means the dim light of awareness is glowing... because you are becoming aware of the stuff you don't yet know, before you were just painfully and blissfully ignorant. Now you start to see that... A little learning is a dangerous thing, drink deeply from the Pierian Spring, my friend! (Alexander Pope)
Keep on keepin on, read a little bit after the show in evenings about clues you didnt' get and check back here after another year of sheepin' it!

[TenPoundHammer]

TPH - You said today that you marked Defoe down as an 0/5 as soon as it came up. Ignoring the fact that this is not a fun or productive thing to do (as previously mentioned) and ignoring that the writers obviously won't ask five questions about actual Defoe literature (since only 2-3 of his works are particularly well-known), it should have been fairly obvious that something about Robinson Crusoe would come up, and likely in the lower-level questions. So marking it as an immediate 0/5 was definitely just setting yourself up for an unnecessary failure, at least in my opinion, since one of them was likely to be a sure-thing.

Defoe = Crusoe was one of those "oh yeah, I knew that" moments right after it came up.

[MarkBarrett]

J! has four places for viewers to always take a guess (some home players will guess on everything) with the Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy! You should always try to say something when those come up. 85% of the guesses may be wrong; that's okay. All we want to see is a guess in the FJ! round for a city, a country, a British king or a president when relevant. We'll save movies, TV shows or books for 2016.

WOF thing...

Mark... you harshin' on my man TPH?!? This is an EdThread not a BeatTPHonHisHeadThread!!

TPH take no notice of the small man behind the curtain! I am the great and powerful Goatman!

Also: We're from the Government and we're here to help!

I mean no malice with Hammer. I was just having a little fun with the WOF thing. We've both been around here long enough that the give and take is nothing new.

I'm the 5'2" guy who played J! on a big box. Why you bringing my height into this? At least you didn't target the lack of hair.

ZOMG I had no idea who you are the oblique reference to Oz is entirely spurious! Are your episodes on U-Tube! I gotta watch! Sheepin it so sorry!

Height, hair, glasses...I've heard it all and I can take it. I of course knew you were not doing anything intentional with the OZ reference, but you set the table for a comeback. If my games are on YouTube they are not there from me. I might do a small portion of one for my upcoming 10th anniversary using my tried and true method of digital camera on video mode pointed at TV screen later this year.

Others have posted saying they did not see me play and wonder how I sound. I would naturally have to pick portion of a game when I got some clues right, while avoiding parts featuring the silly guesses I erred with more than once.

(Eliminating one wisecrack) It will be a short clip. [rimshot]

[MDaunt]

In Xanadu did Kublai Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
Where Alph, the sacred river ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea...

[This Is Kirk!]

Wales at $400? Really?

Llewellyn (or darn near anything with a double "L") should be Pavlovian for Welsh/Wales. Also the reference to mining.

[TenPoundHammer]

Bumping from Tuesday thread:

Is there any way to make my brain stop blanking entirely on something I should know handily? I hit a total dead end and couldn't name a single desert in 30 seconds. This kinda thing happens all the time, and not even pausing the recording to buy more time tends to help it any.

Exactly the sort of post that belongs in your eponymous thread.

[zakharov]

Try flash cards with these common lists so they come more easily? Not sure how much we can help there.

[dhkendall]

"15" Years was totally impenetrable to me. What led to 315 at $200?

Constantine is from the 4th century (300s), or at least his world-changing acts were done then. Like making Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire in I think 330.

[This Is Kirk!]

"15" Years was totally impenetrable to me. What led to 315 at $200?

Constantine is from the 4th century (300s), or at least his world-changing acts were done then. Like making Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire in I think 330.

Was that really the $200 clue? Seems awfully difficult for a top row clue.

[dhkendall]

"15" Years was totally impenetrable to me. What led to 315 at $200?

Constantine is from the 4th century (300s), or at least his world-changing acts were done then. Like making Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire in I think 330.

Was that really the $200 clue? Seems awfully difficult for a top row clue.

The TOM in the $200 clue was the Constantine Arch (or something similar) being dedicated in this "15" year. And, as I pointed out, Constantine is inexorably tied with the 4th century, so 315 is the only good response here. (But then you'd have to know that Constantine is 4th century, but you know that, don't you Kirk?)

[zakharov]

I would agree that it was a bit overvalues for the top row, I found the others much easier. YMMV.

[This Is Kirk!]

(But then you'd have to know that Constantine is 4th century, but you know that, don't you Kirk?)

Nope. I can't really imagine that's common knowledge at all.

[dhkendall]

(But then you'd have to know that Constantine is 4th century, but you know that, don't you Kirk?)

Nope. I can't really imagine that's common knowledge at all.

Well, there's one way to settle this - pistols at 10 paces!

But I left my duelling gloves in my other pants, so we'll have to settle with asking Mark to put this as a poll question.

[Bamaman]

I agree it was a bit tough for the top row, but I can't remember the others. I missed the first one because I hadn't quite caught the theme yet.

[Leander]

I agree it was a bit tough for the top row, but I can't remember the others. I missed the first one because I hadn't quite caught the theme yet.

(Not necessarily in order)

Magna Carta
Battle of Agincourt
Founding of Havana
Death of Louis XIV

I can see Agincourt being tricky, but I did think for most people the Constantine year was harder than any of the more recent events.

[mrsal67]

"15" Years was totally impenetrable to me. What led to 315 at $200?

Constantine is from the 4th century (300s), or at least his world-changing acts were done then. Like making Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire in I think 330.

Was that really the $200 clue? Seems awfully difficult for a top row clue.

The TOM in the $200 clue was the Constantine Arch (or something similar) being dedicated in this "15" year. And, as I pointed out, Constantine is inexorably tied with the 4th century, so 315 is the only good response here. (But then you'd have to know that Constantine is 4th century, but you know that, don't you Kirk?)

In a way you are both right.
I knew Constantine is tied to the 300's but when it talked about dedication of his arch I wondered if it was during his lifetime or done posthumously to honor him for making Christianity the religion of the empire.
So I guessed 315 but would not have been surprised if it was 415.

Now you can both put down your weapons and hug it out.