Monday, February 13, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[alamble]

Why is wanting to be the Mets' GM a strange goal? Alex seemed puzzled she'd want to do that.

Because it is exceptionally rare for a woman to have a position at that level of power in the front office of a men's pro sports franchise. I can think of only one woman off the top of my head who's even close, and she has worked for the Yankees and the Dodgers. Also, the Mets are a mess.

[DBear]

I clammed on "A Good Man is Hard to Find" for that reason. I thought no way could it be that easy for 2K.

FJ: 1611 book, KJV, done.

[Jacobson00]

Who won?

[alamble]

Who won?

No one. Monica is leading going into tomorrow's half of the final.

[lisa0012]

Lame interviews. Did Alex really think a guy who took up fencing on his college club team is going to make the Olympics? I was a bit confused about Monica's college setup? How old is she and is she still in high school?

When I was in college I knew a few other people who went through the Texas Academy of Math and Science, or TAMS. You basically spend your last two years of high school concurrently enrolled in college at UNT. Of course, the people I knew had already completed TAMS and were enrolled at my university, and entered at age 18 but with two years of college credit. Since Monica is labeled a sophomore at UNT, I would assume she is technically also a senior in high school, or 17-18 years old.

Confirmed in local newspaper article: Monica is 18.

[econgator]

Why is wanting to be the Mets' GM a strange goal? Alex seemed puzzled she'd want to do that.

Because it is exceptionally rare for a woman to have a position at that level of power in the front office of a men's pro sports franchise. I can think of only one woman off the top of my head who's even close, and she has worked for the Yankees and the Dodgers. Also, the Mets are a mess.

The Mets were founded (well, co-founded) by Joan Whitney Payson, so why not a woman GM, too?

[jeff6286]

I thought this was a very exciting, entertaining, well-played game by all 3 players. They kept up a lightning-quick pace throughout most of the game, with very few pauses, no hesitation in picking clues, and thankfully, virtually no instances of "um", "uh", "give me", or the like that I could recall.

Sarah was fortunate to hit all 3 Daily Doubles, and used the first one nicely to double her score. I have a feeling that if she had hit the Strange History DD before she hit the Vocabulary one, she may have made a larger wager, and cashed in with the "Slavs" clue, but after coming up empty on "synchronicity" she obviously didn't want to risk falling too far below the other 2 players, especially on a $2,000 clue. On the Jung clue, I came up with "anachronism", which did at at least have "chron" in it, but I didn't think it really fit the definition. I thought that was a pretty tough clue, although certainly gettable with the Greek root given.

I went with OED as well on FJ, but was thinking that there was probably a better answer out there that didn't come to me in the time allotted. As soon as Monica's answer was revealed it made perfect sense to me, as it seemed logical for an English Queen to celebrate the anniversary of something named after an English King. I was considering things like the Magna Carta, Rosetta Stone, and Dead Sea Scrolls, trying to think of something that could have been translated in 1611, but unfortunately, for the second consecutive game I failed to think biblically, and was therefore nowhere near the correct response. I'm putting down a biblical answer on tomorrow's FJ no matter what, even if the category is "The NFL in the 21st Century".

I didn't really have any issue with any of the FJ wagers. The FJ clues were all pretty tough (to me and to the players) in the 3 semifinal games, so it makes sense that none of the players wanted to risk getting knocked out of contention by making a big wager and missing. They all seemed to be thinking similarly, betting between 25% and 50% of their scores. In most tournaments we seem to see at least one player make a big wager on the first day, but I thought it was smart for all of them to be conservative on this occasion.

[alamble]

Why is wanting to be the Mets' GM a strange goal? Alex seemed puzzled she'd want to do that.

Because it is exceptionally rare for a woman to have a position at that level of power in the front office of a men's pro sports franchise. I can think of only one woman off the top of my head who's even close, and she has worked for the Yankees and the Dodgers. Also, the Mets are a mess.

The Mets were founded (well, co-founded) by Joan Whitney Payson, so why not a woman GM, too?

Because Major League Baseball is the oldest of Old Boys' Networks. Mrs. Payson was an original co-owner of the Mets because she had money (and she was a former investor in the baseball Giants), not because she had baseball acumen.

[alietr]

Oh, how easily we forget Marge Schott! (and with good reason!)

[GregK]

A good show tonight. Shocked that all 3 didnt get FJ - as the Oxford English Dictionary wouldn't need to be translated from English to, uhh, English? Thought Sarah was sure to get that one given her semester in London.

I am really amazed with Monica now that I know she is essentially a skipped ahead high school senior in a gifted-type program. Since Monica said that she follows the boards, maybe she could tell us if she is planning to transfer to another college after finishing her program this year? The application essay writes itself.

[xxaaaxx]

On the Jung clue, I came up with "anachronism", which did at at least have "chron" in it, but I didn't think it really fit the definition. I thought that was a pretty tough clue, although certainly gettable with the Greek root given.

One thing I've got to work on: whenever they ask for something from the Greek, my brain locks up and only spits out Latin roots, and vice versa. For me not to come up with at least chron- when spotted Greek and time...yeesh. I might need to turn in my Trek fan card.

[Jacobson00]

Who won?

No one. Monica is leading going into tomorrow's half of the final.

Oh right, i completely forgot it is a 2 days finale. New to this

I have aquestion, something i always wanted to know. On the finale jeorpardy, they give you the clue and tell you to make a wager. How come they don't give you the question before asking you to make the wager. I know it may sound easier,. But it is too broad to just give the subject.

[TenPoundHammer]

On the Jung clue, I came up with "anachronism", which did at at least have "chron" in it, but I didn't think it really fit the definition. I thought that was a pretty tough clue, although certainly gettable with the Greek root given.

One thing I've got to work on: whenever they ask for something from the Greek, my brain locks up and only spits out Latin roots, and vice versa. For me not to come up with at least chron- when spotted Greek and time...yeesh. I might need to turn in my Trek fan card.

I keep doing that too. Every time they say Greek, all I can think of is Latin roots.

[Bamaman]

Who won?

No one. Monica is leading going into tomorrow's half of the final.

Oh right, i completely forgot it is a 2 days finale. New to this

I have aquestion, something i always wanted to know. On the finale jeorpardy, they give you the clue and tell you to make a wager. How come they don't give you the question before asking you to make the wager. I know it may sound easier,. But it is too broad to just give the subject.

If you saw the FJ answer and were totally stumped, you'd bet zero.

[sbart518]

A good show tonight. Shocked that all 3 didnt get FJ - as the Oxford English Dictionary wouldn't need to be translated from English to, uhh, English? Thought Sarah was sure to get that one given her semester in London.

I am really amazed with Monica now that I know she is essentially a skipped ahead high school senior in a gifted-type program. Since Monica said that she follows the boards, maybe she could tell us if she is planning to transfer to another college after finishing her program this year? The application essay writes itself.

Yeah, I knew the answer wasn't OED. I just needed to write something down. Unfortunately, talking about the King James Bible is not the popular discussion topic among Londoners; it would have been helpful. Oh well! In retrospect, I should have bet less, but if I got that question, I would have had a mighty large lead, so it was worth the risk at the time.

[jeff6286]

Who won?

No one. Monica is leading going into tomorrow's half of the final.

Oh right, i completely forgot it is a 2 days finale. New to this

I have aquestion, something i always wanted to know. On the finale jeorpardy, they give you the clue and tell you to make a wager. How come they don't give you the question before asking you to make the wager. I know it may sound easier,. But it is too broad to just give the subject.

That's kind of the point. It would be much easier to make a wager if you already knew what the question was, because in many cases you may know as soon as you see the clue whether or not you are going to get it right. It would completely change the game if wagers weren't made until after the clue was revealed. Sure, it would still be an exciting game, but it wouldn't quite be Jeopardy. Imagine betting it all with a lock game because you're pretty sure you know the correct FJ response? But are you sure? Also, it would be interesting to have to not only figure out the correct response and write it down, but also have to decide on your wager and write it down, all in 30 seconds.

[Bamaman]

A good show tonight. Shocked that all 3 didnt get FJ - as the Oxford English Dictionary wouldn't need to be translated from English to, uhh, English? Thought Sarah was sure to get that one given her semester in London.

I am really amazed with Monica now that I know she is essentially a skipped ahead high school senior in a gifted-type program. Since Monica said that she follows the boards, maybe she could tell us if she is planning to transfer to another college after finishing her program this year? The application essay writes itself.

Yeah, I knew the answer wasn't OED. I just needed to write something down. Unfortunately, talking about the King James Bible is not the popular discussion topic among Londoners; it would have been helpful. Oh well! In retrospect, I should have bet less, but if I got that question, I would have had a mighty large lead, so it was worth the risk at the time.

Did you consider going all in on your FJ bet? I was a bit surprised nobody did that.

[emtwo]

In regards to moving to another university after I graduate from this program: most likely. UNT's a fine place, but do you really want to go to the same place for college that you went for high school?
The application essay, though... ha. Ha ha. I'd actually submitted all my applications about the week before I got the call to be on the show, so I did send some emails to some admissions offices along the lines of "Hey... so you know how my application was pretty mediocre right? Well I'M GOING TO BE ON JEOPARDY so yeah thought you should know." Past that I don't know how much of an impact they'll have.

I'm with Sarah and Zack in that OED was the first thing that occurred to me, but I got off that track pretty quickly. I figured "well they wouldn't need to translate a dictionary, since those are originally in English..." I knew it wasn't the OED, but I had no alternative answers so I was lost for a couple seconds after that until I realized who was king in 1611.

[bpmod]

Lame interviews. Did Alex really think a guy who took up fencing on his college club team is going to make the Olympics?

Oh! Fencing!

All I heard was "I jngmhtu mrntn nafbrh ndfhrttyng..." etc.

And what was with all the jumping? Every time he rang in, he was not in the camera frame for a split second, then jumped up and became visible.

Brian

[BuzzABoom]

FJ was an instaget for me, but would it have been safe to rule out OED as an answer if one had remembered it being mentioned in one of the vocabulary categories during DJ? I can't remember which clue it was, but I believe it was the 1200 one.