Tuesday, October 2, 2018 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

[teapot37]

Did anyone join me on saying "Santa Maria" on Ships for $200? That clue reeked of negbait.

This little lady that sailed with Columbus was originally named the Santa Clara

"little lady" = niña

[klakins]

Did anyone join me on saying "Santa Maria" on Ships for $200? That clue reeked of negbait.

I knew Nude Descending a Staircase = Duchamp but lost track of the clue, as is common for me on Clue Crew clues.

For me it was probably even harder to picture "hyphenate" meaning anything else, since I thought that terms like "actor-director" used slashes, not hyphens. Am I alone in this thinking?

Your first and third comments are music to my ears - or perhaps art to my eyeballs is more appropriate given that I'm reading. I would never connect hyphens to a multidisciplinary artist - slashes are much more intuitive.

[Caboom]

Got to Affleck before Alex was done with the question, then took me a couple of seconds longer to figure out the category. This might be the first time ever I start the week by getting two triple stumpers.

[TenPoundHammer]

Did anyone join me on saying "Santa Maria" on Ships for $200? That clue reeked of negbait.

This little lady that sailed with Columbus was originally named the Santa Clara

"little lady" = niña

But it also has the word "Santa" in it, which could easily mislead you to think that the Santa Maria originally had another "Santa Something" name. It fooled one of the contestants.

[teapot37]

There is no reason for the phrase "little lady" to be in the clue if it wasn't the TOM.

[TenPoundHammer]

There is no reason for the phrase "little lady" to be in the clue if it wasn't the TOM.

But "Santa Clara" was also in the clue. Is there any reason for THAT not to be a TOM?

[Elijah Baley]

There is no reason for the phrase "little lady" to be in the clue if it wasn't the TOM.

But "Santa Clara" was also in the clue. Is there any reason for THAT not to be a TOM?

Isn't there a nifty thread for this discussion??

(And seriously, Santa Clara was there in the clue because that was the name of the ship before it became known as the Niña - kind of hard to avoid that. Per wikipedia: The Santa Clara was nicknamed affectionately the Niña ("the little one"), a pun on the name of her owner, Juan Niño of Moguer).

[bibliophage]

I got the right response to FJ because Affleck was the only actor I could think of who won for writing and producing. I just didn't think it could be right because his name isn't hyphenated. I have a pretty good vocabulary and try to keep up with slang and jargon, but I don't remember ever encountering hyphenate in this sense before.

By the way, they have used "HYPHENATES" as a DJ category title three times before, and in every single case, the correct responses were always hyphenated proper nouns (personal names, business names, and geographic names).

From 1985: https://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=5525
From 2000: http://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2049
From 2010: www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=3321

[Anachronism]

All the talk about whether the category name was confusing seems to have spared Cody a lot of well-deserved grief for his FJ wager. I'm thinking he outsmarted himself by wagering "little enough" not to fall behind Kirsten if he negged and she doubled her score. And forgot that he might win on a double-stumper if Doug wagered properly (he did) and he (Cody) wagered strategically (he did not). I mumbled to Cody during the last commercial break to wager $6,000, which would have won the game for him. Alas.

I hate to wade too far into the wagering criticism, because it's only an absolute when you know what others are thinking and your confidence in a category should play into your bet in some circumstances.

There are eight possible guessing outcomes - YYY, YYN, YNY, YNN, NYY, NYN, NNY and NNN. It seems reasonable to assign them close to equal weight, unless you're playing a ten-time champion. A good wager, therefore, should give you the possibility of winning given the most possible outcomes.

My initial take on Cody's optimal range is 3001-6000. It locks out third and gives him the opportunity to win in every outcome where the leader misses.

However, if Cody was confident in the category, and felt that maybe Doug wasn't (perhaps because he was practicing his viral dance moves during breaks), it may be worth the gamble. Sacrifice a bit of NNN and NNY in order to potentially steal a YYN or YYY where the leader didn't bet to cover.

While the eight outcomes are a small set, the bets aren't, because the wild card in game theory is the knowledge that if you are completely predictable, then you are more easily defeated.

Plus (and here's really the final word on what Cody did) on Monday's show he was leading going into FJ. It was also a triple-stumper and Doug did not bet to cover and won because of it. We can assume that Cody saw that taping, right?

Doug has gained considerable benefit by not being entirely predictable.