Tuesday, January 7, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

[AFRET CMS]

I played the FJ off the "clue of the day" this morning. Figured it had to be a soccer player to have a large international following (though I did consider Nadal and Federer), and wrote down "Ronaldo" with zero confidence.

When I looked it up, it turns out there are so many soccer players with Ronaldo as a first or last name that Wikipedia has a disambiguation page for them! And, I think I was probably thinking of the older player nicknamed "Ronaldinho," so I went all day thinking I'd have to call it a miss on the weekly FJ poll, since I wasn't specific enough.

Then -- David was awarded a correct answer with just plain "Ronaldo." So, I guess I get to count it as correct. My, my.

Karen's streak was fun to watch -- will miss her and will look forward to seeing how her style of play works out for her in the TOC.

[Volante]

I think we can all agree that Karen's the best player of the decade.

I might suggest using the archive to check out FJ in game 2 way back in 1984.

Colloquially, decades typically start with 0 so they share the 10s digit. E.g., twenties, fifties, sixties. They're not counting off from a specific time (no one refers to the "202nd Decade") (That said, decade without qualifiers is really any 10 year period. Lest we forget: http://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=913 )

Somehow I managed to get Messi -then- correctly overrule myself with Ronaldo AND failed to come up with Neymar who I would've scratched out Ronaldo for. So I just burned all my FJ luck for the next few weeks...

[BrigadierSolo13]

Coryat: $25,800 (34R, 2W)
DD; 2/3
FJ:
LT: nonpartisan (DD), Thomas Edison, NAACP (DD), HENRY Wadsworth Longfellow, Dubai

My 2 wrong were mistakenly saying Goethe instead of Nietzsche, followed by a swift head slap, and getting negbaited by saying Con-Ed instead of GE in Fun With ZIP Codes.

Non-partisan was a complete shot in the dark that would have paid off.

Considering I am half-Brazilian, soccer runs through my blood, and sports is my wheelhouse, so FJ was a WECIB for me.

I figured the writers wouldn't go too far back on this Final, so my precall only included more modern atheletes: Ronaldo, Messi, Lewis Hamilton, Anthony Joshua, or Manny Pacquiao.

[twelvefootboy]

I had the same answer as Lisa, 'the soccer guy'. I was trying to come up with Lionel Messi and would have gone with him even if I remember Ronaldo as my 'other soccer guy' I have heard of.

I enjoyed Karen's run, and I like that it ended fair and square with a thumpin'. We'll see if Lisa has the same depth that Karen does with the books and movies.

I got a big chuckle at the Tennessee Oilers response, and wonder if it gave the judges any second thoughts about accepting it. It's easy to know just enough to be dangerous, but this was a deep retrieval. I am pulling for them this weekend!

(PSA - the Houston Oilers, an original AFL franchise team from 1960, moved in 1996-7 and were the Tennessee Oilers for two seasons until assuming the Titans name. They retain the complete team history for records, etc.. IIRC, they were one of the first teams that were so bad the fans resorted to wearing paper bags on their heads - I just love the gallows humor. Update - it was the New Orleans Saints in the early '80s. They may want to dig them back out, lol..)

[brick]

Sorry to see Karen go. She seemed tired suddenly. Look forward to her in the Tournament.

[LucarioSnooperVixey]

54 R (Kevin McCarthy was my only miss.)
DD: 3/3
FJ:
LT: (Nonpartisan), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sally, Thomas Edison, (NAACP), Panama, Dubai

[This Is Kirk!]

No guess on FJ! NHO the correct response.

I got this FJ and actually was thinking "I predict TPH will say he's never heard of him."

My wife predicted Karen's demise tonight during the intro when she saw her red jacket. My wife hates red and is convinced it's bad luck when people wear it. So let that be a lesson for you Jeopardy! hopefuls out there.

Seriously though, great run for Karen and congrats to her.

[yclept]

Tough game for Karen but she pulled it together at the end to give herself a chance at FJ. Given that she was the only one to get the sports question right during DJ, there was hope when the FJ category was revealed that maybe she could pull off the miracle.

At the very least, her eight games should keep her away from Jason in the quarterfinals, unless a big string of super champions is going to be theme until the next TOC comes along.

[kerryoakie]

I really enjoyed Karen's run and am excited to see her in a future ToC.

Unfortunately, my FJ! was preempted by NBC's special coverage of the Iranian missile strikes, so I was unable to actually see her finish. Luckily, ABC didn't interrupt the GOAT Tourney!

[billiej]

I had the same answer as Lisa, 'the soccer guy'.

Same here. I could even add "name begins with an R". That's as far as I got.

[John Boy]

Damn, I went down the Beckham path too. And he isn't anywhere close to first place. Should've known it would have to be someone more contemporary.

I should have as well. Alas. Ask me the name of a contemporary soccer player and I stand and stare dumbly. At least I was close enough that I named a soccer player. I wonder how many people follow Diego Maradona. At least I didn't say Pele.

By the way, as much as I enjoyed Karen's streak, when she guessed about a 5' 6" long jump, I knew it was time for her to go.

[MDCSWildcats86]

I guessed Lionel Messi just to have something.

At least everyone had the right sport, so not mentioning soccer player didn't have an effect on the outcome.

[Bamaman]

Damn, I went down the Beckham path too. And he isn't anywhere close to first place. Should've known it would have to be someone more contemporary.

I should have as well. Alas. Ask me the name of a contemporary soccer player and I stand and stare dumbly. At least I was close enough that I named a soccer player. I wonder how many people follow Diego Maradona. At least I didn't say Pele.

By the way, as much as I enjoyed Karen's streak, when she guessed about a 5' 6" long jump, I knew it was time for her to go.

Maradona has 5.2 million.
Pele has 4.1 million.
I have 65.

[opusthepenguin]

I think we can all agree that Karen's the best player of the decade.

I might suggest using the archive to check out FJ in game 2 way back in 1984.

Colloquially, decades typically start with 0 so they share the 10s digit. E.g., twenties, fifties, sixties. They're not counting off from a specific time (no one refers to the "202nd Decade") (That said, decade without qualifiers is really any 10 year period. Lest we forget: http://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=913 )

Thank you. People see the correct response to that 1984 FJ and often don't understand WHY it's the correct response. They think the lesson is that you always need to time shift forward by a year when referring to a numeric period of time. That's as irritating as people thinking the grammatical rule is "never use 'me'. Always use 'I'." That's really irritating to Mrs Penguin and I.

The important thing to remember is that there's no Year 0. So the first century didn't go from the beginning of 0 through the end of 99, the way it ought to. It went from 1 to 100, and the second one started in 101. However, the 100s started in 100, right on schedule. Similarly, the decade called the 20s includes the years with a 20-something in them. Previously that was 1920 to 1929. Now it's this decade (as well) and things get a little confusing. 1930 was NOT part of the 20s. That's contrary to the meaning of "20s".

[Ironhorse]

I said Ronaldo but with a nagging "what if it's Messi" fear. Fresh in my mind was a meme about Ronaldo bragging about his lavish life on social media, which gave him the edge in my mind. Soccer is not my specialty at all and those are really the two modern players I could name.

[AFRET CMS]

My wife predicted Karen's demise tonight during the intro when she saw her red jacket. My wife hates red and is convinced it's bad luck when people wear it. So let that be a lesson for you Jeopardy! hopefuls out there.

I wore red for my first appearance, and it worked out OK. Of course, that was because we walked onto to the stage.

If we were beamed into position, no way would I have worn a red shirt.

[jeff6286]

I feel like Ronaldo should not be correct. If there is ever going to be a case in FJ where you have to provide the first name to distinguish the person from another suitably famous person, then you should have to on this one, as Ronaldo alone specifically points to a different person.

[opusthepenguin]

I feel like Ronaldo should not be correct. If there is ever going to be a case in FJ where you have to provide the first name to distinguish the person from another suitably famous person, then you should have to on this one, as Ronaldo alone specifically points to a different person.

Do you think the clue would still be be fair and gettable with this requirement? When I Google "Ronaldo", Cristiano is all I get. Link after link after link to him on the first page of results. There is one thing off to the side which says, "People also search for". That has four links (with an expansion to 15 if I click on the thing asking for more): David Beckham, Lionel Messi, Georgina Rodríguez, Ronaldo. In that order. That last link takes you to a Google search for "Ronaldo (Brazilian footballer)". So apparently he's the one who needs extra verbiage and can't be referred to as simply Ronaldo. Ironic and a little sad, but that's his position these days.

#Ronaldo refers to Cristiano almost exclusively on Twitter. The only other suggestion they have is Ronaldo "Jacaré" Souza of MMA and submission grappling fame. On the other hand, Ronaldo Nazário aka Ronaldo did scoop up the @Ronaldo handle. The more famous one has to make do with @Cristiano.

I suppose the clue could be reformulated to specifically ask for the last name only. That would answer the objection while still making the clue gettable. Or the contestants could be told ahead of time that first and last name are required. But that might tip them away from Messi and Beckham. I definitely get that in that world "Ronaldo" by itself can refer to someone else who goes only by that name.

[jeff6286]

I guess there is an argument to be made, based on a massive gulf in current prominence, but the thing is this isn't some obscure player from a century ago. The Brazilian Ronaldo is a whopping 9 years older than Cristiano and as it says right on his wiki, he is also widely considered to be among the greatest players of all time. It's sort of like if you say Elvis, everyone knows who you mean, but Elvis Costello also exists and is pretty famous, so saying "Who is Elvis?" to FJ really shouldn't be acceptable. I don't know if there is an example in J! history of this. Elvis is different from Madonna, Oprah, Shakira, and some other mononyms that really don't have any other famous people with the name. (Well unless you count that other Madonna)

[cthulhu]

Knew FJ was a soccer player, knew it was Ro-something...ended up with Rodolfo.
Sorry to see Karen go - low-key but plucky! At least we’ll se her again in the ToC.