Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

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hbomb1947
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by hbomb1947 »

Foretopman wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:20 am I have a problem with the Dark Ages $1200 clue: "Dark Ages guys Methodius & Cyril went down in history as the fathers of this system"

Alex said (according to our crack archivists) that the correct response is "(what is) the alphabet". Surely the ancient Phoenicians invented the alphabet, and what Methodius and Cyril invented was the Cyrillic alphabet. Am I right or am I wrong?
Yeah, I gave myself credit for Cyrillic alphabet. There were many alphabets before that one. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, etc.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by RobW »

LucarioSnooperVixey wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 1:33 am Pretty disappointing episode as there were a bunch of not so difficult misses including the three Daily Doubles.
I agree with that first bit of your sentence, the last bit let's just agree to disagree. :lol:

LucarioSnooperVixey wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 1:33 am Metric System was a pretty bad neg...
Ain't that the truth!

As this point the panic was setting in... as others have noted, that question was poorly phrased if they wanted "alphabet" - earlier in the game I would've done the right thing and clammed up.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by davey »

adding s to the response fit the clue itself closely by making it sound like a treat. I thought it was amusing and fit the category, which was not Before and After, after all...And it was the first revealed in the category, so we didn't know they would all be plays on phrases about comedy...
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Peter the accountant »

Rob, I could feel your pain through the TV screen. I suspect this demonstrates that there is an underappreciated element of luck in this game. You can know 90% of the right responses, but when a single clue in that 10% comes up at just the wrong time, it can be devastating to the entire game. Major props to you for digging out of that hole to be there for FJ.

Playing from the comfort of home, I was relieved to see FJ whittled down to a handful of possibilities. It was easy to eliminate NY, since NYC is not the capital. For me, the rest boiled down to which state had enough cities and towns to have had 24 of them in the top 100 by population. Probably MA, since it was a pretty important state for a long time. Boston is a better bet than Hartford for the top 100 today, so MA it is. A quick run through the rest of New England for any large capital cities and it's just waiting out the think music.

Congrats to Dhruv for the win and demonstrating that College Tournament champions belong in the general ToC.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by billiej »

For the second day in a row, the FJ seemed "too obvious" to me. I quickly eliminated ME, NH, VT and RI. The only question mark in my mind was CT, but once I remembered that Bridgeport>Hartford, it was a slam dunk for MA. But I still spent the rest of the time thinking I had to be missing something.

Even though I gave the intended response, I still precalled the Adam's ribbing reversal.

We gave an audible cheer when Rob slid into FJ! :D
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Woof »

A Wray wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:07 am
nlw44 wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2019 11:32 pm This quiz has two errors.
Spoiler
Nashville, TN is NOT one of the correct answers, as even the information above the quiz proper points out. And Columbia, SC is omitted as a correct answer. Columbia should replace Nashville.
No, the quiz is correct on both counts. That article is out of date.
The problem is what they mean by "largest city." If one includes metro areas, the answers are different than if one just looks at the population of the city proper. For instance, Columbus is only the largest city in Ohio if one ignores the great metro population of Cincinnati.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by mahatma »

Woof wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:13 pm
A Wray wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:07 am
nlw44 wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2019 11:32 pm This quiz has two errors.
Spoiler
Nashville, TN is NOT one of the correct answers, as even the information above the quiz proper points out. And Columbia, SC is omitted as a correct answer. Columbia should replace Nashville.
No, the quiz is correct on both counts. That article is out of date.
The problem is what they mean by "largest city." If one includes metro areas, the answers are different than if one just looks at the population of the city proper. For instance, Columbus is only the largest city in Ohio if one ignores the great metro population of Cincinnati.
This bothered me as well. Not that it changed my answer, because WECIB, but it feels like a sloppy question when it's unclear what they mean. In this case, what is an 'urban area', even?

I get the same sort of heeby jeebies with 'tallest building' questions.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by This Is Kirk! »

RobW wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:52 am
LucarioSnooperVixey wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 1:33 am Pretty disappointing episode as there were a bunch of not so difficult misses including the three Daily Doubles.
I agree with that first bit of your sentence, the last bit let's just agree to disagree. :lol:
I disagree, too. Not to say your DDs were impossible, but they certainly weren't gimmes. I came up with Havisham but not iconoclast. I thought the one in the first round was tough, too. I said the same thing as Dhruv.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by alietr »

Peter the accountant wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:20 am Playing from the comfort of home, I was relieved to see FJ whittled down to a handful of possibilities. It was easy to eliminate NY, since NYC is not the capital.
It's also easy to eliminate NY because it's not in New England.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by jeff6286 »

I suspect the reason they said urban areas is because much of New England is full of towns, villages, and other unincorporated places, so the 24/100 slots that Massachusetts held in 1840 likely included a great many things that were not cities.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by davey »

alietr wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:41 pm
Peter the accountant wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:20 am Playing from the comfort of home, I was relieved to see FJ whittled down to a handful of possibilities. It was easy to eliminate NY, since NYC is not the capital.
It's also easy to eliminate NY because it's not in New England.
;) ;) ;) ...York is in England, yes? So how can New York not be in New England??... ;) ;) ;)
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by AFRET CMS »

Rob, you're still one of my heroes and if we ever meet in person you'll receive the genuflection due a 6-time daily champion. I've always maintained that it's good to be good, but it's also good to be lucky -- every player eventually hits the statistical combination that leads to a defeat.

If Ken Jennings had had those categories and those clues against those opponents in his first game instead of in his 75th, he'd be just another Jeopardy contestant.

I always wonder how many players meet their 50th game categories and opponents in their first game and never get the chance to show us they could be superchampions.

Great job, and my personal opinion that anyone who second guesses anything you did is simply publicly displaying their ignorance.
I'm not the defending Jeopardy! champion. But I have played one on TV.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by LeFlaneur »

CasketRomance wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2019 9:21 pm shouldn't the answer to the clue regarding methodious and cyril and fathers of this system have been cyrillic alphabet? they created that alphabet and it wasn't the first alphabet in the world
My sentiments as well. My LT: Mull, Havisham, Iconoclast, Cyrillic alphabet, Arizona. FJ: Thought about New Hampshire, but immediately decided on Massachusetts. I incorrectly answered Radium and Curium. Had considered Polonium but what do I know. I flunked chemistry badly in 11th grade. :oops:
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by BigDaddyMatty »

Coryat: 35,800
46 R/5 W
DD: 3/3
FJ: :mrgreen:
LT: radium & polonium (DD), mull, Celie, Miss Havisham (DD), iconoclast (DD), University of Utah, University of Arizona, Seattle

Oh, Rob. I was pulling for you. I thought for sure with your obvious skill, both as a J! player and as a Prolific Trivia Writer, that you'd know Miss Havisham cold. I'm proud of you for sticking it out after that, continuing to make good wagers, and fighting your way into FJ! Regardless of your performance in this game, you have accomplished something very few people have, and you should hold your head high.

I agree with others that FJ! would have been more reasonable without the New England clue. There are only six states to choose from. Of those, three (ME, NH, VT) are not remotely plausible, one (CT) has a capital that is not its largest city, and one (RI) is too small to have very many cities of significant size.
floridagator wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2019 7:06 pm I suspected immediately that Massachusetts was the correct answer for final jeopardy. The capitals of Vermont New Hampshire and Connecticut are not even the largest city in their respective States. I can't believe Portland Maine is in the top 100 of population. That left Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Leaving aside the question of whether Providence is in the top 100 today, I knew there weren't that many places in Rhode Island that could be that high in population in 1840.
Also, the capital of Maine is Augusta, not Portland.
Bigdogstalfos wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2019 8:32 pm
John Boy wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2019 8:13 pm I for one thought the U. of Utah clue was wicked negbait for BYU.
I had to catch myself to not say BYU, but it’s not in the PAC-12. Utah was a layup after that. I think BYU is still in the Mountain West?
BYU left the MWC in 2011, becoming an independent in football and a member of the West Coast Conference in most other sports.
seaborgium wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 2:28 am Did anyone else take exception to Rob's placement of an S at the end of Cracker Jack Handey? I let it go because I thought there could have been a possessive in the latter part of the clue (like "writer whose 'Deep Thoughts' were...") and didn't want to go back and check, but with the game archived now I can't make that S acceptable in my mind.

I fell victim to the clues being taken out of order in the Landlocked category: I didn't know which South American country (of the two that fit the category) had the Guaraní language and currency, but Bolivia having been the correct response to a previously revealed clue would have been extremely helpful.
Same and same.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by A Wray »

jeff6286 wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:44 pm I suspect the reason they said urban areas is because much of New England is full of towns, villages, and other unincorporated places,
Actually, the exact opposite is true. New England has no unincorporated areas; all land is part of an incorporated city or town (towns are incorporated), and these cities and towns are the main units of local government, while counties have little or no power.

However, your second clause,
jeff6286 wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:44 pm so the 24/100 slots that Massachusetts held in 1840 likely included a great many things that were not cities.
probably is true. Because "city" and "town" in Massachusetts refer to different forms of government, not to the sizes of the places, towns can have very large populations.
mahatma wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:24 pm
Woof wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:13 pm
A Wray wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:07 am
nlw44 wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2019 11:32 pm This quiz has two errors.
Spoiler
Nashville, TN is NOT one of the correct answers, as even the information above the quiz proper points out. And Columbia, SC is omitted as a correct answer. Columbia should replace Nashville.
No, the quiz is correct on both counts. That article is out of date.
The problem is what they mean by "largest city." If one includes metro areas, the answers are different than if one just looks at the population of the city proper. For instance, Columbus is only the largest city in Ohio if one ignores the great metro population of Cincinnati.
This bothered me as well. Not that it changed my answer, because WECIB, but it feels like a sloppy question when it's unclear what they mean. In this case, what is an 'urban area', even?

I get the same sort of heeby jeebies with 'tallest building' questions.
There's some confusion here -- Woof is referring to the Sporcle quiz, and mahatma is referring to the FJ clue. I don't agree that "largest city" is ambiguous, at least on a trivia quiz. If they wanted the largest metro area, they would say that. Also, Columbus actually is the largest metro area in Ohio, because much of the Cincinnati area is in Indiana and Kentucky. (And shoutout to the Cincy suburbs for helping oust America's worst governor yesterday!)

As for the FJ clue, if you want to argue that "urban area" is unnecessarily vague, I won't disagree, but it doesn't seem that that prevented anyone from getting it.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by BigDaddyMatty »

By the way, does anyone here have the foggiest clue what an "astronomy interpreter" is?
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by trainman »

BigDaddyMatty wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:54 pm By the way, does anyone here have the foggiest clue what an "astronomy interpreter" is?
Presumably someone who works at a planetarium and/or under the actual stars, pointing out constellations and whatnot.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by floridagator »

I said poles also and was amused that that was a BMS. I have no idea what 90 degrees latitude could refer to other than the poles. So they BMS that and let Adams and Roosevelt slip?
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by seaborgium »

twelvefootboy wrote: Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:18 amThis is a wheelhouse for me, but no way I connect the dots to Ra and Po as the same year. Did anyone get this wicked clue? I wonder where it would have left James if he got this clue and missed it with his normal all-in play?
(quoting and de-spoilerizing in appropriate thread)

I got them and didn't find it hard. The Curies famously discovered radium, and prior to that (albeit less famously) named polonium for Marie's home country. I doubt James would have missed it.
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Re: Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by opusthepenguin »

seaborgium wrote: Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:27 am
twelvefootboy wrote: Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:18 amThis is a wheelhouse for me, but no way I connect the dots to Ra and Po as the same year. Did anyone get this wicked clue? I wonder where it would have left James if he got this clue and missed it with his normal all-in play?
(quoting and de-spoilerizing in appropriate thread)

I got them and didn't find it hard. The Curies famously discovered radium, and prior to that (albeit less famously) named polonium for Marie's home country. I doubt James would have missed it.
Agreed. If you narrow the clue down to the Curies--which isn't entirely defensible unless your knowledge is broad enough that you can probably solve this clue directly, but it's not unreasonable either--then you're really thinking about three elements. One of them, curium, is chronologically an outlier. That leaves the other two.

A bit of trivia that is probably good to know: Curium was named after both Marie and Pierre Curie, in both senses of the word "after".
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