Wednesday, January 4, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[MarkBarrett]

I looked at the archive hits for "Johnny Got His Gun": http://www.j-archive.com/search.php?sea ... mit=Search

Next I looked at my scoresheets and I only had the clue correct for the 2011 clue.

Tonight with the wording not holding my hand I was not able to solve it. If the clue had given the work and asked for the author I think I would have guessed Trumbo not for the work, but for a blacklisted name. The clue was one where I think TRD would have something insightful to add since he was nails on Hollywood history.

TOC level seems appropriate to me. AQOTWF was my guess even though I knew the author and the blacklisting portion were not adding up.

What was all that yelling I heard tonight? Oh, Artie Shaw! Or was it John Quincy Adams?

Horse of a different color for me with not even a sniff that bird could have been acceptable. Perhaps I'll poll mad as a wet hen.

Early on my instincts told me Dave was going to run away with the match. Nicholas seemed off from the get go while Dave's timing seemed to be near perfect on many clues.

Nice try by Dave to attempt to turn the Islands in the Stream category into a simple multiple choice.

[Tehshigelisok]

Had never heard the phrase "horse of a different color."

Horse of a Different Color by Big & Rich is my all-time favorite country music album.

The thing I like about Dave is he's always present in the moment, always responsive to whatever's going on, and so he'll respond appropriately with a chuckle or a smile when something funny happens. He's not too locked down in the game to notice things like that. Plus, he seems to be having a hell of a good time!

Seconded.

[Paucle]

Had never heard the phrase "horse of a different color."

There's this really obscure movie out there that has the phrase, you should check it out. It's called The Whizzer of Ads or something like that.

[opusthepenguin]

I said "Doc Oc" for "Doctor Octopus". Do I still get credit?

Also, "gaucho pants" seemed kind of lame. Both my wife and I thought of "gauchos", but it didn't fit the category. I didn't know anyone called them gaucho pants. An online search suggests they're called that in sales catalogs. I guess I would have predicted that. That's catalog speak, not what people call them when they get them home and put them on. (At that point, they're called "ugly".) American Heritage lists "gauchos", describing them as "calf-length pants". No entry for or mention of "gaucho pants". Dictionary.com begrudgingly indicates gauchos are "also called gaucho pants".

Anyway, I didn't get it and I'm bitter.

[opusthepenguin]

I also thought of "bird of a different color." Had never heard the phrase "horse of a different color." Although this is by no means scientific or decisive, as a crude sniff test, the horse phrase brings up 110,000 results on Google, and the bird phrase brings up 964,000.

I totally would not have predicted that. I've always heard and read "horse". I figured "bird" was flat out wrong and was surprised when Alex made the score correction. I'll probably start hearing the bird version everywhere now.

[Tehshigelisok]

Also, "gaucho pants" seemed kind of lame. Both my wife and I thought of "gauchos", but it didn't fit the category. I didn't know anyone called them gaucho pants.

I got caught up in this one too.

[MDCSWildcats86]

Congrats Dave! Outstanding performance.

Never heard of the book or the author on FJ! Bounced around a couple Hemingways just to say something in the era.

Dalton Trumbo was a blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter and member of the "Hollywood Ten". (refer to film historians for better info on them).

JGHG was made into a movie in 1971, Trumbo wrote/directed it. Metallica used stock footage/audio from the film in their "One" video (similar subject matter), and wound up buying the film rights so they can freely use clips of the film in concert.

[bomtr]

I also thought of "bird of a different color." Had never heard the phrase "horse of a different color." Although this is by no means scientific or decisive, as a crude sniff test, the horse phrase brings up 110,000 results on Google, and the bird phrase brings up 964,000.

I totally would not have predicted that. I've always heard and read "horse". I figured "bird" was flat out wrong and was surprised when Alex made the score correction. I'll probably start hearing the bird version everywhere now.

If you add the word 'cliche' to the google search, the bird stumbles and the horse takes the lead, 25000 to 9400. There are extenuating circumstances in the original search that lead to the odd result.

[MarkBarrett]

I said "Doc Oc" for "Doctor Octopus". Do I still get credit?

I'll say yes since I said Doc Ock and counted mine as fine. Plus you didn't use an umlaut.

[bpmod]

Also, "gaucho pants" seemed kind of lame. Both my wife and I thought of "gauchos", but it didn't fit the category. I didn't know anyone called them gaucho pants. An online search suggests they're called that in sales catalogs. I guess I would have predicted that. That's catalog speak, not what people call them when they get them home and put them on. (At that point, they're called "ugly".) American Heritage lists "gauchos", describing them as "calf-length pants". No entry for or mention of "gaucho pants". Dictionary.com begrudgingly indicates gauchos are "also called gaucho pants".

Anyway, I didn't get it and I'm bitter.

Ditto. Exactly. Oh, except for the "my wife" part.

Brian

[a1srvng]

This is just a peeve of mine but I'd like to know how other people feel about it.

I detest it when a contestant continually responds to an answer with the LAST NAME, trying to embarrassedly play it safe, totally demolishing the easygoing flow of a game. Dave does this and it is irritating. Yesterday, he responded "Who is Curtis" for Jamie Lee Curtis. "Who is Curtis"? Do you mean Tony? Ken? If you asked "Star of "Misfits", would you say "Who is Monroe"? "Jailhouse Rock". Presley? "Former president who blah blah". "Who is Johnson" "Johnson"? Which one? Somehow these little men with their nervous precautions just spoil it. Instead of just rolling his eyes, I wish Alex would put a stop to it. We know you little guys are brilliant but why not try just answering(asking) the question.

I just refuse to watch these little guys and come back to the show when they're finally gone.

[bomtr]

One Sunday when I played slow-pitch softball, we had an unusually early game, about 9 a.m., and the weather was odd, bright sun breaking through a clean, wispy-white low-lying fog over a dew-laden field. First inning and I come up to bat fourth. I was a pretty good hitter, and that first fat pitch comes floating over the plate, I take my customary full rip at it--and touch nothing. Nothing! That never happened, and I nearly ripped my shoulder socket. I stepped out of the batter's box, stared at the bat, stared into the field, and missed the next pitch too. Eventually I popped out. Four times, each at bat just a little farther into shallow left field. I mention this because the way I stared at my bat for the hole that missed that fat pitch is the same way that Nicholas was staring in what looked to me like disbelief at his buzzer all the way through this game, and he kept popping out, just a little deeper.

The rematch with that team, when I came to the plate, the shortstop leaned in to the pitcher and said, "Remember this guy?" The next pitch came screaming back six inches from the pitcher's face, which had exactly no time to dodge. The next pitch an inning or two later, I hit oh, about 80 feet over the center fielder's head. The look I had on my face as I passed the shortstop on my way around the bases must have been pretty much like Dave looked throughout this game: "Yeah, not like that last game. I play the game like this!"

Nice recovery, Dave, from last game. Your buzzer was back for this one.

I had nothing for FJ. Knew it wasn't the German Remarque; knew it wasn't Hemingway--no blacklist there. Give me a day and I likely get to Trumbo and Johnny. Give me 30 seconds and I'm just staring.

[bpmod]

This is just a peeve of mine but I'd like to know how other people feel about it.

I detest it when a contestant continually responds to an answer with the LAST NAME, trying to embarrassedly play it safe, totally demolishing the easygoing flow of a game. Dave does this and it is irritating. Yesterday, he responded "Who is Curtis" for Jamie Lee Curtis. "Who is Curtis"? Do you mean Tony? Ken? If you asked "Star of "Misfits", would you say "Who is Monroe"? "Jailhouse Rock". Presley? "Former president who blah blah". "Who is Johnson" "Johnson"? Which one? Somehow these little men with their nervous precautions just spoil it. Instead of just rolling his eyes, I wish Alex would put a stop to it. We know you little guys are brilliant but why not try just answering(asking) the question.

I just refuse to watch these little guys and come back to the show when they're finally gone.

Since the LAST NAME is all that is required unless specifically stated otherwise, contestants save a lot of time by not giving first names, especially when they are obvious. Granted, some of your examples are not obvious.

But my pet peeve is when the response is "Who is Johnson?" for a president, and it gets accepted without a BMS. And then, the next response is "Who is Kennedy?", and it is not accepted without a BMS. Same for a female senator named Clinton, when an actress named Smith is accepted as-is.

But, that being said, you go ahead and not watch the "little guys" (whatever that means). They are called returning champions and there's (at least) one playing every day.

Brian

[bpmod]

"Yeah, not like that last game. I play the game like this!"

What an awesome story! Very fitting.

Brian

[dhkendall]

For some reason, as soon as I saw the categories revealed in the first round I heard the Sony board screaming about how UNFAIR it was to give a Hindu priest a Bible category. (Good thing he did quite well, I'm sure a category on quotes from the Bhagavad Gita would be a stand and stare to everyone else. )

I was as clueless as the three contestants, SWAGging For Whom the Bell Tolls.

What is the "S" in "SWAGging" for??

Never heard of the book or the author on FJ! Bounced around a couple Hemingways just to say something in the era.

Same, settled on "A Farewell to Arms" (knowing little about that book, but at least knowing more than the book that was the correct answer ... )

I forgot to ask: is "mad as a wet hen" a common phrase? The rest of that category was a breeze, but that one had me staring at the screen.

Was an instaget for me, surprised to hear a few hadn't heard of it.

I forgot to ask: is "mad as a wet hen" a common phrase? The rest of that category was a breeze, but that one had me staring at the screen.

The only place I've ever heard that term is in the song "You Ain't Much Fun" by Toby Keith.

And that settles it, Mr. Keith, who writes music that ideally should be understood by fans from a wide cross-section of people, wouldn't bother to use uncommon terms. (And before anyone thinks that's a slam on country music, the same holds true for any popular singer in any genre.)

I also thought of "bird of a different color." Had never heard the phrase "horse of a different color." Although this is by no means scientific or decisive, as a crude sniff test, the horse phrase brings up 110,000 results on Google, and the bird phrase brings up 964,000.

I'd personally never heard of the "bird" one, was this Google search with or without quotes?

The thing I like about Dave is he's always present in the moment, always responsive to whatever's going on, and so he'll respond appropriately with a chuckle or a smile when something funny happens. He's not too locked down in the game to notice things like that. Plus, he seems to be having a hell of a good time!

I'm sure that's why he got The Call to begin with, Dave is exactly the kind of person they want on the show - honest, humble, funny, entertaining, and smart.

Nice try by Dave to attempt to turn the Islands in the Stream category into a simple multiple choice.

I think (although he can confirm or deny, being a boardie) he was just genuinely confused as to what he was supposed to answer (and so was I, I said "Solomon Islands" for the first one (although I wasn't sure if the first island in the clue was a Solomon or not - I would have assumed that Alex would have corrected me that they want the body of water rather than an archipelago that may or may not have been correct, and counted myself with a get, since I knew what body of water Guadalcanal was in.)

This is just a peeve of mine but I'd like to know how other people feel about it.

I detest it when a contestant continually responds to an answer with the LAST NAME, trying to embarrassedly play it safe, totally demolishing the easygoing flow of a game. Dave does this and it is irritating. Yesterday, he responded "Who is Curtis" for Jamie Lee Curtis. "Who is Curtis"? Do you mean Tony? Ken? If you asked "Star of "Misfits", would you say "Who is Monroe"? "Jailhouse Rock". Presley? "Former president who blah blah". "Who is Johnson" "Johnson"? Which one? Somehow these little men with their nervous precautions just spoil it. Instead of just rolling his eyes, I wish Alex would put a stop to it. We know you little guys are brilliant but why not try just answering(asking) the question.

I just refuse to watch these little guys and come back to the show when they're finally gone.

And are you also upset when they say "Alcoholic, four" instead of "The Main Alcoholic ingredient for four hundred dollars?" The main reason they do the last name thing is to speed up the show, like they are expressly suggested to do by the contestant coordinators. If it was ambiguous (like "Johnson" for a president) Alex will say "be more specific". If it's unambiguous (like "Obama" in a president's category), they'll accept it, both of these have thousands of precedents, making it officially sanctioned. Might as well stop watching altogether, since they'll keep doing that until the show gets cancelled. (And note, I fully intend to do it whenever I get on.)

[MarkBarrett]

One Sunday when I played slow-pitch softball
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"Yeah, not like that last game. I play the game like this!"

Your story fits very well how the game went for Dave and Nicholas. Thanks for sharing.

I'll take that and hijack the thread with my own. I was batting second on a slow pitch softball team. The first guy up on my team struck out not even coming close to doing anything with the ball. I came to bat and I saw the center fielder move in a few steps since I was similar in appearance to the first guy.

I didn't hit the ball 80 feet over the center fielder's head, but it went far enough over him that I also had a nice trip around the bases. It was the smile on the umpire's face that I remember most as he had seen me in previous games and knew not to judge a book by its cover.

Dave in the TOC could be someone to squeak by with a wildcard in the first game and pull out and upset in the semis. I'll predict now that Dave will have a TOC experience of Jekyll and Hyde-ness.

[barandall800]

Due to my erratic J! watching schedule as of late, this was my first time seeing Dave play (bummed to see that I missed out on a tie yesterday...hopefully I'll have the chance to watch the game later, even if I do know the end result), and I was quite impressed. Loved his personality, his buzzer skills were great, and nice to see him get a lock. Jaldhar's TDD was a fun moment, and it was great to see him get the clue right.

FJ...total loss. Eventually went with "All Quiet On The Western Front" like the contestants, while having a strong feeling it was wrong. (Had to have something down, at least. Thanks, Mark, for pointing out that at least year-wise it wasn't too bad of a guess.)

I was as clueless as the three contestants, SWAGging For Whom the Bell Tolls.

What is the "S" in "SWAGging" for??

Don't mess with his SWAG.

[fowlerism]

I detest it when a contestant continually responds to an answer with the LAST NAME, trying to embarrassedly play it safe, totally demolishing the easygoing flow of a game.

I hope Emily (RJL) watched this game for the Young Frahnk-en-steen reference.

I blurted out "Who is Fro-derick Frahnk-en-steen?" I'm counting it.

[earendel]

Whatever funk Dave was in on Tuesday was definitely gone yesterday. Congrats on becoming a 5x champion.

Count me among those who went with AQOTWF for FJ! even though I knew it wasn't right (better a SWAG than a blank screen).

[alietr]

This is just a peeve of mine but I'd like to know how other people feel about it.

I detest it when a contestant continually responds to an answer with the LAST NAME, trying to embarrassedly play it safe, totally demolishing the easygoing flow of a game. Dave does this and it is irritating. Yesterday, he responded "Who is Curtis" for Jamie Lee Curtis. "Who is Curtis"? Do you mean Tony? Ken? If you asked "Star of "Misfits", would you say "Who is Monroe"? "Jailhouse Rock". Presley? "Former president who blah blah". "Who is Johnson" "Johnson"? Which one? Somehow these little men with their nervous precautions just spoil it. Instead of just rolling his eyes, I wish Alex would put a stop to it. We know you little guys are brilliant but why not try just answering(asking) the question.

I just refuse to watch these little guys and come back to the show when they're finally gone.

Since the LAST NAME is all that is required unless specifically stated otherwise, contestants save a lot of time by not giving first names, especially when they are obvious. Granted, some of your examples are not obvious.

Saving time is one aspect, but the less important one. Say the desired question is "Who is Benjamin Franklin?" If you say just "Franklin", you are ruled correct. If you say "Benjamin Franklin", you are correct. If you say "Bejamin Franklin" or "Benamin" or otherwise screw up in how you say his first name (and a lot is possible under the lights), you are ruled wrong. If you say "John Franklin" (temporarily forgetting his actual first name), you are ruled wrong. So the upshot is that smart players like Dave say only the last name to eliminate the possibility of screwing up on the first name. If they want more, they'll ask for it. It's very good training and smart playing to get yourself to say only the last name and suppress saying the first name unless asked for it.