Tuesday, February 10, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[MarkBarrett]

Part of a post in the Monday, February 9 thread

Sadly as I read ahead on NYT CoD this AM, I realized that my deplorably weak knowledge of Broadway on Tues game will break my longest-ever FJ winning streak.

Yes, the category name or a hint of a category name is not a spoiler for the FJ! clue. I understand that not everyone would feel the same way about goatman's post.

The way I see it is the post was made in the 2/9 thread and no matter the information there should not be anything (not even a sniff of anything) about the 2/10 game's FJ! round in it.

Not how the clue played for me, but suppose I recalled seeing goatman's post and thought of The Jersey Boys. Oh wait, I tell myself, he already knows it's a miss. It must be something harder or obscure that I should guess.

All of you NYT readers are more than welcome to read the category and clue with your morning coffee if you so choose. There are viewers who do not want to know anything in advance and are content to wait until Alex does it at the regular time.

A throwaway line impossible to avoid seeing in a safe zone of a game already seen just seems unnecessary to me. The Tuesday game thread was up when the comment was made? That's the place for it.

econgator: I guess I have to throw a nickel to Lucy?

[Bamaman]

(Clicks "like" button for Mark's post)

[zakharov]

Rock of Ages is nasty negbait.

But being in the NYC area, this was a pretty easy get.

I was expecting to see someone guess Beautiful, which I thought was bigger negbait than Rock of Ages.

Yes, hello, checking in with a Beautiful guess, even though I was pretty sure it was wrong. I just didn't think of the Four Seasons as "rock and roll."

[Linear Gnome]

I'm really irritated with myself for missing this FJ. I responded Motown, which didn't win a Tony and doesn't end with an induction into the R&R Hall of Fame, but does end with a special occasion feting the main character and is a show I saw more recently than Jersey Boys.

Nice game by Jennifer despite some baffling clams.

[SavoyGirl]

This was a board I'd really have fun with. Classical Music? Yes!!! Broadway Musicals for FJ? Hooray! What I couldn't understand was Eric sticking with the category when it was obvious he knew nothing about it...his attempt to pronounce Aida was laughable. When you've got control of the board early in the round, why pick a topic you know nothing about? Probably we wanted to keep a possible DD out of his opponents' hands. When he did hit the DD he shouldn't have bet even as much as $500. What's the minimum wager allowed for DDs?

Was thrilled to see Broadway Musicals come up in the Final, but was panicked for a millisecond when "rock & roll" came up in the clue, as that's my Achilles Heel. But was able to sort it out... Thought of "Beautiful" but that didn't win Best Musical. Remembered "Jersey Boys" beat out my favorite that season ("Drowsy Chaperone") so that's what I settled on.

Other assorted answers I liked: Louisa May Alcott, my childhood favorite author, and "oboe" as a good friend (and fellow J viewer) plays it.

[BigDaddyMatty]

Coryat: $34,800
44 R/1 W (Rang in without a clue on Jerusalem, and even the TOM of "the Old City" couldn't save me)
DD: 1/3 (Knew I was unlikely to know the Classical Music DD, and guessed radon instead of polonium as the second Curie-discovered element)
FJ: (Basically an instaget. First thought was Rock of Ages, but I immediately tossed it aside due to "Rock" being in the clue, then thought of Frankie and the Boys.)
LT: Erie Canal (DD), lithium & beryllium FDR, crowdfunding
Clam: Rooney & Kate (knew Rooney and thought I had heard of Kate, but wasn't quite sure enough), romance
Too Late: Oh, the huge manatee!

Oh, what a night! (SWIDT?) Good bounce-back after yesterday's debacle. Fun fact: Rooney Mara's name alludes to the fact that she is NFL royalty. One of her maternal great-grandfathers, Art Rooney, Sr., founded the Pittsburgh Steelers, while one of her paternal great-grandfathers, Tim Mara, founded the New York Giants.

Random thought: someone ought to form a doo-wop/classical mashup band called Frankie Vivaldi and the Four Seasons. I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

[This Is Kirk!]

Not sure what the distinguishing feature in the picture was - I couldn't get it too. Just looked like any other city (as compared to pisa, etc.)

I was in Montreal just 18 months ago and I didn't get it. Once I knew what I was looking at, I could see some things I recognized, but nothing that jumped right out at me.

I agree. I haven't been to Montreal, but I'm usually pretty good at identifying famous city landmarks and that one stumped me.

[Leander]

Not sure what the distinguishing feature in the picture was - I couldn't get it too. Just looked like any other city (as compared to pisa, etc.)

I was in Montreal just 18 months ago and I didn't get it. Once I knew what I was looking at, I could see some things I recognized, but nothing that jumped right out at me.

I lived in Montreal for a couple of years and recognized the silver dome of the Bonsecours Market pretty quickly, but I can see where most people (at least non Canadians) could see the photo as your generic European city. But I think I would have clammed in that case rather than throwing out wild guesses.

[harrumph]

With the FDR TS Alex should have stopped the game and told them all to go home. The clue essentially asked who was president during WWII.

[Onairb]

I am shocked, just shocked, that the contestants didn't recognize Montreal. Moscow and Prague the 2nd largest cities in their countries?

LOL at Eric for guessing Irving Berlin as assistant conductor of the NY Philharmonic. LOL, Berlin couldn't even read music.

We think of tournaments as high-level events, but these teachers are untested except for last week's quarter-finals, which turned into a crapshoot because of lousy betting in at least three games. This gives the teachers' tournament more of an "anything-can-happen" dynamic.

See, putting aside their pitiful showing with the chemistry category, I stopped caring after that FDR clue. I knew that guy was gonna say Truman, I could just feel it, but...Eisenhower???!?! I'm not perfect, I'm sure I miss plenty of clues that most here would consider gimmes, but when a clue tries to give away free money by asking them who was president in 1944, and it's a TS with two wrong guesses, forget it.

They're TEACHERS, for God's sake...they don't know who the hell was president in 1944?
I'm getting sick of people being so totally clueless about World War II-era clues. If you don't know history, don't try out for the show.

[Lefty]

I'm getting sick of people being so totally clueless about World War II-era clues. If you don't know history, don't try out for the show.

I'd agree, except that one might still get on and win.

[Bamaman]

Volume me as another who was clueless on Montreal.

[bpmod]

I have been to Montreal several times. Not only did the picture not look remotely familiar to me, I thought that Montreal had fallen from second-largest city in Canada.

Nobody yet has fessed up to having responded to FJ! with my guess. I spent the thirty seconds trying to come up with a show that was about a particular rock 'n' roller, but Jersey Boys never came to mind. I settled on a show based on the music of a particular singer, without knowing either way if he fit into the plot of the show. As soon as Alex made his post-think music extra clue, I got it instantly.

Brian

[Bamaman]

If you are talking about Movin' Out, that was my guess.

[jjwaymee]

Jennifer once again bet from a lock position. Curious, I looked at the TOCs to see if it was common or rare for it to happen in the semis:

Tom Nissley
Bill MacDonald
Robin Carroll
Steve Berman
Brian Wangsgard
Bob Verini
Chuck Forrest
Jerry Frankel

were the ones I spotted doing it on a quick search.

I can see the thought process behind making a small, irrelevant wager just to have *some* skin in the game during FJ. Probably slightly more fun than risking zero and zoning out for 30 seconds thinking about how you blew up the "beard-off" final that Alex was musing about.

[mrparadise]

Should have got FJ! but didn't. Showing my age, went with "Bye Bye Birdie", a 1960 Tony winner (I think) about a fictionalized Elvis.

[nserven]

Should have got FJ! but didn't. Showing my age, went with "Bye Bye Birdie", a 1960 Tony winner (I think) about a fictionalized Elvis.

That was my guess, as well.

[dhkendall]

I'm getting sick of people being so totally clueless about World War II-era clues. If you don't know history, don't try out for the show.

I'd agree, except that one might still get on and win.

You have forgotten they give out (at least) two tests to make sure that people who do know something about something get on? I'm sure I saw an obvious "oh duh, yeah!" headslap from at least one contestant on reveal. Y'all seem to forget about The Lights with alarming regularity, I haven't kept track of who said what in this thread, but I bet that there's not too many who have actually been on the show giving the contestants grief over that miss. (I swear, mbclev is more sympathetic than some of y'all.)

[dhkendall]

I have been to Montreal several times. Not only did the picture not look remotely familiar to me, I thought that Montreal had fallen from second-largest city in Canada.

I was actually surprised to see that this is from a Canadian, it would be rather well-publicized I think if Montreal fell from that status. Montreal (~4 million) has always been close in population to Toronto (~5.5 million), no matter how you count Toronto has always been #1 and Montreal has always been #2, at least in our lifetime. (I have a DVD of episodes of You Bet Your Live with Groucho Marx and one of the questions was asking the largest city in Canada and the correct answer was Montreal, I'm guessing this episode was from the 1950s. I should also check to see what my 1939 world atlas says.)

The only other city over one million is Vancouver (greater Vancouver anyways is ~2 million, metro Vancouver is only about 650,000, smaller than Winnipeg.). Depending on how it's counted, Calgary and Ottawa may have hit 1 million very recently (they were close last time I checked).

[skullturf]

I'm Canadian and I didn't get Montreal.

One thing that occurs to me only after the fact: There probably aren't that many cities that Jeopardy! would clue, in part, by saying that the city is the second largest in its country.

Actually, based only on the "second largest" piece of information, St. Petersburg is maybe not a bad guess. I can only think of a few other world cities where it seems likely to me that Jeopardy! would expect you to know that they're the second largest in their countries. Besides St. Petersburg and Montreal, maybe Barcelona and Melbourne. I don't think there are a huge number of other very well-known ones.