Thursday, June 13, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

[Ironhorse]

I usually do well with wordplay, but I did terribly on the pronoun category.

Me too.

[floridagator]

I don't understand that "flimflam game" clue at all. I can't think of any terms for revered people that have "con" in them, nor do I see how "con" has to do with games.

A revered person is known as a CONI. Con is related to games because Con Conrad, before he became a songwriter, was a partner of Milton and Bradley. Together they invented games such as Pigeon Drop, Bank Examiner, and Nigerian Medley. These became known as Con games. In 1932, Conrad cashed out so that he could move to Hollywood. He won the first Academy Award for songwriting in 1934 for "The Continental," which also starts with con.

Despite urban legend to the contrary, Con Conrad had nothing to do with the Lincoln Continental, introduced in 1930.

[davey]

In today's case I was able to match E.J. & Adrienne for the solve as I had nothing better to guess and it seemed to fit just fine even though I knew nothing of the source.

Same here. I was 80% sure I'd be wrong as I didn't see how the clue led to it other than that I couldn't think of any other word.

Being a multiple time screener of the movie: The Right Stuff made me 500% sure I was correct.

So it's in the movie? I was so curious I just bought the Kindle edition of Wolfe to see if the word is in there. I first read it a million years ago. Apparently not. No matter. It's a great book (and movie!)
I just never thought of it - best I could come up with was malware. Pretty easy in retrospect...

Yep. anyone whos seen the movie more than once is bound to remember the scene:

Thanks very much. For the record, I have seen the movie more than once, and I didn't remember this. Been a ton of years though...

[Stanislaus Jacob]

I have seen the movie and remember the basic concept of that scene, but I had no memory that the word glitch was in it. Even if I had, I would not have known that the astronauts themselves actually originated the word. I actually got this one on the grounds of "What else could it be?," but I never knew it was originally astronaut slang. Did anyone fully know that before now?

[Woppy T]

I have seen the movie and remember the basic concept of that scene, but I had no memory that the word glitch was in it. Even if I had, I would not have known that the astronauts themselves actually originated the word. I actually got this one on the grounds of "What else could it be?," but I never knew it was originally astronaut slang. Did anyone fully know that before now?

I love The Right Stuff but had no memory of this. Best thing I could come up with was "snafu," and I figured the writers wouldn't go there.

[econgator]

I don't understand that "flimflam game" clue at all. I can't think of any terms for revered people that have "con" in them, nor do I see how "con" has to do with games.

A revered person is known as a CONI. Con is related to games because Con Conrad, before he became a songwriter, was a partner of Milton and Bradley. Together they invented games such as Pigeon Drop, Bank Examiner, and Nigerian Medley. These became known as Con games. In 1932, Conrad cashed out so that he could move to Hollywood. He won the first Academy Award for songwriting in 1934 for "The Continental," which also starts with con.

Despite urban legend to the contrary, Con Conrad had nothing to do with the Lincoln Continental, introduced in 1930.

Was that before or after he discovered Coni Island?

[This Is Kirk!]

I didn't think of FUBAR but did think of SNAFU, which I might have put down in desperation if I hadn't already thought of glitch.

Both my wife and I had SNAFU. I put that down right away and tried to think of something better for the rest of the time, but "glitch" never came to me.

I read "The Right Stuff" within the last couple years, but don't recall "glitch" being mentioned, although I'm sure it's in there. I saw the movie when it came out and haven't seen it since.

[davey]

I didn't think of FUBAR but did think of SNAFU, which I might have put down in desperation if I hadn't already thought of glitch.

Both my wife and I had SNAFU. I put that down right away and tried to think of something better for the rest of the time, but "glitch" never came to me.

I read "The Right Stuff" within the last couple years, but don't recall "glitch" being mentioned, although I'm sure it's in there. I saw the movie when it came out and haven't seen it since.

As I wrote above, I checked it on the Kindle edition. The word doesn't appear. It does seem like the kind of thing Wolfe would enjoy.

[This Is Kirk!]

I didn't think of FUBAR but did think of SNAFU, which I might have put down in desperation if I hadn't already thought of glitch.

Both my wife and I had SNAFU. I put that down right away and tried to think of something better for the rest of the time, but "glitch" never came to me.

I read "The Right Stuff" within the last couple years, but don't recall "glitch" being mentioned, although I'm sure it's in there. I saw the movie when it came out and haven't seen it since.

As I wrote above, I checked it on the Kindle edition. The word doesn't appear. It does seem like the kind of thing Wolfe would enjoy.

Oh, good. That makes me feel a little better.

[LucarioSnooperVixey]

56 R (Missed the Bottom Two in Lil' Rap and Liza Minelli(Knew it at one time.).)
DD: 3/3
FJ:
LT: Con, Rio Bravo, Iris, Jehovah's Witnesses, Lessing's Blessings

[gnash]

I didn't think of FUBAR but did think of SNAFU, which I might have put down in desperation if I hadn't already thought of glitch.

Both my wife and I had SNAFU. I put that down right away and tried to think of something better for the rest of the time, but "glitch" never came to me.

I read "The Right Stuff" within the last couple years, but don't recall "glitch" being mentioned, although I'm sure it's in there. I saw the movie when it came out and haven't seen it since.

As I wrote above, I checked it on the Kindle edition. The word doesn't appear. It does seem like the kind of thing Wolfe would enjoy.

Oh, good. That makes me feel a little better.

But what if there's a glitch in the Kindle edition?

[This Is Kirk!]

I didn't think of FUBAR but did think of SNAFU, which I might have put down in desperation if I hadn't already thought of glitch.

Both my wife and I had SNAFU. I put that down right away and tried to think of something better for the rest of the time, but "glitch" never came to me.

I read "The Right Stuff" within the last couple years, but don't recall "glitch" being mentioned, although I'm sure it's in there. I saw the movie when it came out and haven't seen it since.

As I wrote above, I checked it on the Kindle edition. The word doesn't appear. It does seem like the kind of thing Wolfe would enjoy.

Oh, good. That makes me feel a little better.

But what if there's a glitch in the Kindle edition?

Well, that would just be FUBAR.

[opusthepenguin]

I didn't think of FUBAR but did think of SNAFU, which I might have put down in desperation if I hadn't already thought of glitch.

Both my wife and I had SNAFU. I put that down right away and tried to think of something better for the rest of the time, but "glitch" never came to me.

I read "The Right Stuff" within the last couple years, but don't recall "glitch" being mentioned, although I'm sure it's in there. I saw the movie when it came out and haven't seen it since.

As I wrote above, I checked it on the Kindle edition. The word doesn't appear. It does seem like the kind of thing Wolfe would enjoy.

Oh, good. That makes me feel a little better.

But what if there's a glitch in the Kindle edition?

He just told you there isn't.

[TenPoundHammer]

I don't understand that "flimflam game" clue at all. I can't think of any terms for revered people that have "con" in them,

I con.

Then what does the other half have to do with "flimflam game"? Conning isn't a "game".

[CasketRomance]

Pre-empted for golf.

same for me...did come across a crappy copy online a bit ago, though

[opusthepenguin]

I don't understand that "flimflam game" clue at all. I can't think of any terms for revered people that have "con" in them,

I con.

Then what does the other half have to do with "flimflam game"? Conning isn't a "game".

That's exactly what they want you to think.

[twelvefootboy]

I didn't think of FUBAR but did think of SNAFU, which I might have put down in desperation if I hadn't already thought of glitch.

Both my wife and I had SNAFU. I put that down right away and tried to think of something better for the rest of the time, but "glitch" never came to me.

I read "The Right Stuff" within the last couple years, but don't recall "glitch" being mentioned, although I'm sure it's in there. I saw the movie when it came out and haven't seen it since.

As I wrote above, I checked it on the Kindle edition. The word doesn't appear. It does seem like the kind of thing Wolfe would enjoy.

Oh, good. That makes me feel a little better.

Since we are reminiscing about this book : It is the only "novel" I've read in 45 years of adulthood. I couldn't put it down.
One best seller book in 4 decades is a close horse race with CasketRomance for the , but I definitely read a lot of educational material and historical stuff, especially about STEM biographies.

I don't remember the term "glitch" in it but I do remember the phrase "screwed the pooch". I liked it and used it over the same tired tropes. But a few years later I dropped the pooch bomb during a training session with my best customer and subsequently was charged with political incorrectness. Lesson one: Everybody doesn't share your experiences and sense of context

eta - I knew SNAFU had WW2 usage, and FUBAR was possibly about the same, but either way are not making the dinner hour reveal. Since "bug" was in the clue, that only left glitch from my frontal lobe.

[Category 13]

I have seen the movie and remember the basic concept of that scene, but I had no memory that the word glitch was in it. Even if I had, I would not have known that the astronauts themselves actually originated the word. I actually got this one on the grounds of "What else could it be?," but I never knew it was originally astronaut slang. Did anyone fully know that before now?

I love The Right Stuff but had no memory of this. Best thing I could come up with was "snafu," and I figured the writers wouldn't go there.

I'm not sure if the J! writers were going for an indirect link to the movie scene in The Right Stuff that I posted on the first page.
I never heard of Into Orbit but my mind just made the automatic connection to The Right Stuff when I saw "Mercury Astronauts" and "malfunction" because I have most of that movie burned into my memory.
In hindsight, the book Into Orbit seems a hell of a lot more obscure (for Jeopardy!) than either the movie or book The Right Stuff. JMO

[cthulhu]

Loved Jim’s response - very witty given the clue. Have any of those WW2 slang acronyms made it into a correct FJ response? (SNAFU, FUBAR, JANFU, FUBIS being my favorites. Interestingly enough, according to the Jargon File, the use of “foo” and “bar” in programming slang as the first and second metasyntactic variables is apparently unrelated to the WW2 slang...)

I certainly don’t recall “glitch” showing up in the late and very lamented Tom Wolfe’s completely brilliant The Right Stuff, but I’ll take Davey’s word for it. It’s possible that Wolfe used it in his also brilliant profile of Silicon Valley pioneer and Intel co-founder Robert Noyce (for the Esquire 50th anniversary issue in 1983, and reprinted in his 2000 collection Hooking Up). I’m an aerospace engineer, and have been known to utter the word on multiple occasions, so I got to it fairly quickly, but am not aware of the Mercury astronauts’ book. (Side note: back in the ‘80s, I had a coworker who was involved in John Glenn’s record-setting coast-to-coast supersonic flight in the late ‘50s, and he said that Wolfe’s portrayal of Glenn as a self-righteous jerk (most of the time) was fully accurate )

And count me among those who cannot stand the movie. There’s some interesting material about it in William Goldman’s book Adventures in the Screen Trade; Goldman was originally hired to write the screenplay, but when Kaufman came on board as director, he wanted to take the project in a much different direction than Goldman, and eventually Kaufman threw out Goldman’s screenplay and wrote it himself. I suspect I would have vastly preferred Goldman’s vision for the movie...

[davey]

Maybe I should repeat that "glitch" does not appear in the book The Right Stuff. The scene from the movie is cool, but if that's the only appearance, spoken by Gus Grissom with no indication it's a new word, it doesn't seem likely the J! writers had that in mind (but hey, whatever works!). Perhaps they just expected the distinctive but common word for "bug" to occur to the players.