Tuesday, October 6, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

[Archivists]

J! Round

[Archivists]

DJ! Round

[theFJguy]

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
GEOGRAPHY FUN

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
It’s the largest country in area that begins & ends with the same letter

Garrett Marcotte: 18200+9500=27700 (2x = $41,700)
Claire-Marie Murphy: 13800+13000=26800
Mandy Friel: 3300-3300=0

Correct response:

Spoiler

Australia (Mandy – Algeria)

Daily Doubles
Claire-Marie: 2600+200
Mandy: 4400-1500
Garrett: 11000+4000

Coryats
Garrett: 15400
Claire-Marie: 12400
Mandy: 4800

Combined: 32,600

Scores at the end of the Jeopardy! Round
Garrett: 6200
Claire-Marie: 5400
Mandy: 2800

[MarkBarrett]

Mandy is the first Friel to lose game 1. Claire-Marie not winning puts surname Murphy now below 25% for winning the first game.

Alex was funny in commenting after the Ken Jennings category about looking over his shoulder.

Garrett wins again. Gotta watch out for those software engineers.

The FJ! category had me thinking U.S. and I was ready for the capitals with "City", the "New" states and capitals named for presidents.

The FJ! clue had me try countries by big size first and I kept striking out although I needed only to go a little further. Next I tried the alphabet approach and like a dummy I did Zs and Ys first. Switching to the other end ended the torture and a solve in over five seconds counts as much as one done quicker.

Haven't asked cheezguyty anything in a while: How many winners (no matter the day) have won with $27,700? Like football scores that seem unusual today's winning total struck me as uncommon.

[Robert K S]

The United States, commonly called "America" and particularly by the denizens of the country in which this particular game show is set, is about 1.3 times the area of the accepted response country. I put down the accepted response but this was not a great clue. Just asking for trouble, IMHO.

For anybody who cares to argue the point, you first have to argue with:
- Definition 1 of "America" on dictionary.com: "United States."
- Definition 3 of "America" in Merriam-Webster: "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA"
- Top Google result for query "America": Wikipedia article for the United States
- At least within the United States, virtually unambiguous meaning of "American" as referring to the United States or its people
- While there are many other countries that are in the territory referred to as "America", no other single country is referred to simply as "America", so the response "America" is unambiguous to that country; it appears that no other country has the word "America" in its name (correct me if I am wrong)
- If we're going with full official names, the full official name of the intended response country isn't "X", it's the "Commonwealth of X", which does not begin and end with the same letter

As I see it, there's simply no non-arbitrary criteria that makes the intended response right but "America" wrong.

I'm trying to think of an easy fix to the clue, e.g., one word that would have pinned it to the intended response, but it appears that even specifying the "area" as "contiguous area" wouldn't have helped since the contiguous United States is still larger than X.

[MarkBarrett]

Finally done: http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=6838

As if the five KJ clues were not enough media to deal with, the first segment gifted me with two more. Was that enough? No, the second segment added a Clue Crew clue to the mix. The DJ! round was kinder with just one clue with images.

No surprise the game had unplayed clues.

[DBear]

What was Alex waiting for on the cantilever clue? did he just not hear the contestant?
messenger RNA for mitochondrial is just evil IMO
If a country starts & ends with the same letter, it's almost always going to be A. Made it easy to solve FJ

[Bamaman]

Wrote down both Australia and Argentina to be safe. Crossed off Argentina to get the solve.

Australia is the sixth largest country in the world. Argentina is #8 and Algeria is #10.

[Hugo Z]

Hey, isn't "Geography Fun" an oxymoron?

[mahatma]

If a country starts & ends with the same letter, it's almost always going to be A. Made it easy to solve FJ

But if they asked for the smallest...

[Bob78164]

This game is a loss for the Weak Form of Shore's Conjecture. The second-place player bet "big." --Bob

[MinnesotaMyron]

Hit on Algeria and never looked back.

[TenPoundHammer]

I was 0/5 in Mountain G.O.A.T.s and Front Office Baseball.

Also bombed the Movie Tagline category in DJ! I recognized each movie title, but couldn't tell you thing one about any of them.

Hesitated a bit but was able to lock in Australia.

Lach Trash: touch base

[econgator]

That was a nightmare DJ board for me: only 15 correct.

FJ, thankfully, was much easier.

I'm trying to think of an easy fix to the clue, e.g., one word that would have pinned it to the intended response, but it appears that even specifying the "area" as "contiguous area" wouldn't have helped since the contiguous United States is still larger than X.

It would require some sourcing. Maybe something like, "Per the names in the CIA Fact Book ..."

[AndyTheQuizzer]

The United States, commonly called "America" and particularly by the denizens of the country in which this particular game show is set, is about 1.3 times the area of the accepted response country. I put down the accepted response but this was not a great clue. Just asking for trouble, IMHO.

For anybody who cares to argue the point, you first have to argue with:
- Definition 1 of "America" on dictionary.com: "United States."
- Definition 3 of "America" in Merriam-Webster: "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA"
- Top Google result for query "America": Wikipedia article for the United States
- At least within the United States, virtually unambiguous meaning of "American" as referring to the United States or its people
- While there are many other countries that are in the territory referred to as "America", no other single country is referred to simply as "America", so the response "America" is unambiguous to that country; it appears that no other country has the word "America" in its name (correct me if I am wrong)
- If we're going with full official names, the full official name of the intended response country isn't "X", it's the "Commonwealth of X", which does not begin and end with the same letter

As I see it, there's simply no non-arbitrary criteria that makes the intended response right but "America" wrong.

I'm trying to think of an easy fix to the clue, e.g., one word that would have pinned it to the intended response, but it appears that even specifying the "area" as "contiguous area" wouldn't have helped since the contiguous United States is still larger than X.

A Canadian passport just says "Canada" on it.
An Australian passport just says "Australia" on it.
An American passport says "United States of America" on it.

[mas3cf]

Coryat $37,000 (45R, 1W)
DD 2/3
FJ

Had 25 straight DDs until the Movie one. Might have gotten it if I had a few extra seconds. Didn't come to me right away and I panicked. That stings because I've put a lot of effort into learning Best Picture winners.

This game exposed how weak I am at wordplay categories. Anything of the form "It's A and also B" tends to tie my brain in knots. Need to go through the Archive and drill in those until my brain is wired for them.

Can someone more knowledgeable than I explain why "mantra" isn't right for Religion $1600? I know it's wrong, but would like to understand the difference.

[jeffwolfe]

Names used at the United Nations:
Australia
United States of America

Names used by the International Olympic Committee:
Australia
United States of America

[Bamaman]

Finally done: http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=6838

As if the five KJ clues were not enough media to deal with, the first segment gifted me with two more. Was that enough? No, the second segment added a Clue Crew clue to the mix. The DJ! round was kinder with just one clue with images.

No surprise the game had unplayed clues.

That first baseball clue threw me for a loop. They went to video and I was expecting a baseball park and a church pops up. Then I almost say Ebbets before correcting myself.

[mas3cf]

Finally done: http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=6838

As if the five KJ clues were not enough media to deal with, the first segment gifted me with two more. Was that enough? No, the second segment added a Clue Crew clue to the mix. The DJ! round was kinder with just one clue with images.

No surprise the game had unplayed clues.

And just yesterday (or maybe Friday?) Alex commented on how so many games have had unplayed clues. If they're going to do that many video clues, they could at least have Motormouth Moschitta read them...

[DBear]

If a country starts & ends with the same letter, it's almost always going to be A. Made it easy to solve FJ

But if they asked for the smallest...

It would be Andorra. Aruba is a territory.