Wednesday, September 27, 2017 Game Recap and Discussion [SPOILERS]

[econgator]

Brown University rings no bells. Probably because it's an anti-Hawley-Smoot.

If only someone on this board went to Brown ...

[Kenny]

Note to future contestants: The word flapper in a clue is all-but-pavlovian for "Fitzgerald."

Did the FJ clue remind anyone else of http://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_ ... fitzgerald?

Right,as soon as I saw flapper and famous husband, it steered me to the 1920s and Zelda Fitzgerald was an instaget. For that Bolivar & books DD I was sure it had to be Amerigo Vespucci. Great solve by Austin.

[This Is Kirk!]

I thought of Eleanor Roosevelt first, but the flapper bit steered me to Zelda Fitzgerald.

Great game, Pasha. You gave it a good run!

[twelvefootboy]

Pasha, we hardly knew ye . It was a fun game and I hated rooting against Austin but he seemed to own the buzzer for the first 1/3rd and last 1/3rd. He got in his own way but pulled a gutsy DD from a goofy category where the top box was a Triple Stumper. You said you bet for the extra grand at second place, which is my biggest peeve with the show - ridiculous payouts for 2nd and 3rd.

Thanks for sharing your experiences up to now, and I hope you are enjoying the deep breath now that your confidentiality obligation is over. Whatever do-over you wish you had, I hope you can let it go. You were very affable and redeemed yourself well.

FJ- I started with Eleanor R, thinking it would be a cute Jeopardy type factoid, and then decided it was either Gertrude Stein or the wife of the dude that wrote Gatsby. I remembered Fitzgerald in time, but no way getting to Zelda. I'm surprised at some of the regulars missing it, but it will probably still poll high.

If Austin gets cut down, I hope it's by a great Coryat player, and not by his gunslinger betting mentality. He is fun to watch. I thought the DD for two country names was tough and am amazed by the Napoleon get.

[Golf]

If Austin gets cut down, I hope it's by a great Coryat player, and not by his gunslinger betting mentality.

I will never understand why terms like gunslinger and the like are applied to those who actually know how to wager in order to maximize winning chances.

[hbomb1947]

If Austin gets cut down, I hope it's by a great Coryat player, and not by his gunslinger betting mentality.

I will never understand why terms like gunslinger and the like are applied to those who actually know how to wager in order to maximize winning chances.

Yeah, 2 players with "gunslinger mentalities" were Roger Craig and Alex Jacob. They did all right.

[AndyTheQuizzer]

If Austin gets cut down, I hope it's by a great Coryat player, and not by his gunslinger betting mentality. He is fun to watch. I thought the DD for two country names was tough and am amazed by the Napoleon get.

There's a reason why I've adjusted my prediction model to use "pre-FJ score" and not "Coryat score".

[jwatcher16]

Hi all -

Just getting started in this thread, so bear with me. I do want to say thanks to MarkBarrett for posting that link to Jennie's bio and credits. I haven't seen any of her work, either, but I do appreciate seeing this resource

[jwatcher16]

Let me add my congrats on your Jeopardy! appearance, Pasha. It was great to actually see you and yes, I was rooting for you. As others have noted, you acquitted yourself well even though the win wasn't to be. I do hope you'll look back and be glad you had your shot. Thanks for sharing your experience a bit so far and feel free to share more. Did you have a viewing party?

********
Re: Zelda Fitzgerald - I guessed her, but as with someone else (I beg forgiveness here for not noting exactly who...), the "letters" brought Abigail Adams to mind, but when they got to the "flapper," I knew I wasn't in the right era, and knowing she was also a writer, I guessed Zelda.

********
Someone mentioned TOC (again, please forgive me for not remembering who). It's been a WHILE, so will there be a TOC coming up sometime? What online time I use doesn't often get me to the show's site. So thanks in advance.

[seaborgium]

Usually I recognize at least one item in New to OED, but not this time. Freak flag?!

You've never read or heard "let your freak flag fly"?

[TenPoundHammer]

Usually I recognize at least one item in New to OED, but not this time. Freak flag?!

You've never read or heard "let your freak flag fly"?

Not that I recall. Or if I did, it felt like such a one-off phrase that I wouldn't expect it to be in OED.

[xxaaaxx]

Dear J! writers: a closeup of a strawberry is not worth 2000. It's too early in the season for this.

I've heard the phrase "let your freak flag fly" my whole life, but it was just added last year!? DEFCON -- which has existed for what, 50+ years? -- was JUST added?? I'm not even sure why an abbreviation like Bama is significant enough to add (no offense bamaman), or if it is, why now. One of these days I'll look up how OED decides to add stuff and maybe it'll make sense.

Was there something else to that Napoleon DD other than "European leader who was probably Bolivar's contemporary"? Is the bit about the books a famous fact? I got it right, but it felt like a complete WAG.


Instaget FJ. Flapper -> Fitzgerald -> Zelda, done.

[threearruda]

Someone mentioned TOC (again, please forgive me for not remembering who). It's been a WHILE, so will there be a TOC coming up sometime? What online time I use doesn't often get me to the show's site. So thanks in advance.

Yes, the show's site posted on their "upcoming events" page that the ToC begins airing November 6.

Here's Matt Carberry's ToC tracker as well if you'd like to remind yourself who we might be seeing.

[Ironhorse]

I had a total brain freeze and went with Ella Fitzgerald on FJ. Oops.

[John Boy]

It was achingly addictive, and yes, I felt like I could have stood there for 10 more games, which made it all the more frustrating that I didn't win it. On the other hand, like me, Austin loves playing the game, and I think the two of us really spurred each other on. If I had to lose, I didn't mind losing to someone that good, and that fun to play against.

You played well and were most enjoyable to watch. If Austin goes on to win even more, perhaps you'll enjoy some level of serenity in the matter, as if your team lost in the first playoff round to the eventual Super Bowl winner ("at least I know how good a team it took to beat us").

Every time I see a game with three um, not-quite-so-good players, I think about guys like you who probably could have won games like that but had the misfortune instead to go up against a buzz saw. Hold your head high. I certainly get the "achingly addictive" part, even after spending less than a half hour in front of the cameras.

In this game Austin showed us a lot of poise not to falter when behind for a long time, and lot of guts on the DD. And of course a sole get on FJ. I don't know if he is "the anointed one," but he has played a couple of very nice games so far. Congrats and retroactive good luck tonight.

In FJ I keyed in on the word "flapper" to locate the era, immediately transitioned to F. Scott, and wrote down Zelda before the music was half done. Maybe, just maybe this will be my first 5-for-5 FJ week of the new season.

[julycoaron]

I was in Rodgers & Hammerstein's TWO BY TWO a year and a half ago, which is about the story of Noah and the Ark. One of my lines was "Cubits? Nobody talks in cubits anymore!" Of course I got that one.

Oscar Hammerstein had been dead for ten years before "Two by Two" opened on Broadway. Richard Rodgers did write the music, but the lyrics were by Martin Charnin.

[zerobandwidth]

Oh my. Well this thread has been active.

The strawberry was overvalued at $2000.

For the palm print, I thought of delta but switched to confluence, like Pasha. Strawberry for $2000??

My six-year-old daughter who was up almost an hour past her bedtime shouted out this response. I mean, really.

Pasha started bouncing a bit in the first round but kept going to the top of the board where there are no DD's 99.9% of the time.

Hey, Pasha, good game, sorry it didn't go your way! But why'd you keep going to the top box?!

I was hoping to use the momentum to burn across the top to get an easy preview of the other categories. It was a habit I got into practicing at home. It also worked surprisingly well against Ivan and Dennis in the morning warm-up. Trouble is, the only reason that worked was I was playing against the computer and other opponents who… well, haven't dreamed their entire lives of being on the show.

I guess you could say it's like the Forrest Bounce, but executed badly.

And no, I wouldn't have gotten the Napoleon DD anyway.

Pasha seemed very unsure what to do on the DJ DD and ended up wagering a round number whereas Austin knew exactly what he was doing with his.

In FJ Austin and Jenny wagered correctly, Pasha should have wagered between $2701-$3300. His actual wager can't win on a WWW scenario so might as well wager everything.

I did enjoy Pasha's attitude, he was enjoying himself.

As I admitted earlier, I regret not going all-in on the DD — in my one good category, no less — and the FJ! wager was just a choke. I was so flustered by the bad wagering position that I just wrote a number that was close enough and ended with 50 (my jersey number in high school football )

And yes, that game was intensely fun. Austin is not just a great player, he's a fun player. Both of us were there to play a game. The morning warm-up was similarly goofy… except Austin had an even higher concentration of FCC violations than he did in Tuesday's match.

I can see Austin going on a nice run, but there are holes in his game for sure. Seems like he had to be coached to call the category first, then the dollar amount. He kept catching himself and struggled with it until the very last clue. Seems like a waste of precious brain power to me. Wonder how he got that odd habit of calling in reverse. Hey Pasha, can you corroborate this?

Several folks had issues with clue-calling in the morning warm-up, to the point where it became an in-joke with our player group. That's why we appeared to be giggling about it during the game; it was about the thousandth time someone had done it.

Pasha, you had Austin on the ropes and several times I thought you were going to win. Congrats on playing well against a buzzsaw who clearly seems headed for super-duper champion status. And I'm glad that you were so visibly enjoying the experience.

Well played game, Pasha! I personally thought the boards were a tad tougher, so add in Austin and this was going to be a challenge. Definitely rose to the occasion.
Been some very entertaining games to watch recently. Glad to see y'all were having fun as well.

Agreed - I really enjoyed watching you, Pasha. I especially liked your reaction when you managed to buzz in first at last and got a clue right I was rooting for you throughout, not just because you're a boardie but because (especially when you laugh) you're the spitting image of a friend of mine. Great job, and against less of a powerhouse you clearly could have won.

Yeah, I would have had a slim lead going into FJ! if not for that last — and truly incredible — DD from Austin, so I'm pretty happy with it. At my watch party, there were several people who are not regular watchers of the show who said they had no idea J! could be so fast-paced and tense, and this game would have been a nail-biter even if they didn't have someone to root for. I think I might have made a few more fans of the show.

Except for the "new to the OED" category, and maybe the bands one (with its high TOM), none of the categories were really in my wheelhouse. There were games before and after this one which would have been much better matches for me. And yeah, then you add a player like Austin. Oh well. J! really is two parts luck and one part blind luck.

And I was SO HAPPY I got the NIN clue. I'm a huge fan and was thrilled to be in the position to say "Who is Nine Inch Nails?" on Jeopardy!, because honestly, how often is that going to happen?

Pasha, we hardly knew ye
Thanks for sharing your experiences up to now, and I hope you are enjoying the deep breath now that your confidentiality obligation is over. Whatever do-over you wish you had, I hope you can let it go. You were very affable and redeemed yourself well.

Thanks. It was a treat. And hey, I won't be leaving the board any time soon. At the very least, I've also seen the next seven games already…

Did you have a viewing party?

Yes I did! And I spent much of the time heckling myself on the TV. I'm actually a bit hoarse this morning.

You played well and were most enjoyable to watch. If Austin goes on to win even more, perhaps you'll enjoy some level of serenity in the matter, as if your team lost in the first playoff round to the eventual Super Bowl winner ("at least I know how good a team it took to beat us").

Yeah, after watching him pull out a decisive runaway in his first game, I was happy that, if it had to be a loss, it was at least a close one. And… uh… (whispering) keep watching…

[zerobandwidth]

Upon review, all seven lights on Jeannie's podium were already out when she corrected her phrasing. Bogus!

[morbeedo]

Hey, could we get a poll question for the Napoleon DD? Some here are saying how hard that clue was, but WECIB if you can place Bolivar in the early 19th c? I suppose it's a curious fact because Bolivar fought for independence while Napoleon wanted to rule the world, but still. What else fits?

From Wikipedia:

In 1800 he was sent to Spain to follow his military studies in Madrid, where he remained until 1802. Back in Europe in 1804 he lived in France and travelled to different countries. While in Paris, he witnessed the coronation of Napoleon in Notre Dame, an event that left a profound impression on him. Even if he disagreed with the crowning he was highly sensitive to the popular veneration inspired by the hero.

[econgator]

Usually I recognize at least one item in New to OED, but not this time. Freak flag?!

You've never read or heard "let your freak flag fly"?

I can't say that I have either.