Coryat: $36,800
49 R/3 W
DD: 2/3
FJ:
LT: beech, (Beelzebub), Lawrence of Arabia (DD), caduceus (DD), Mount of Olives
It looks like an asbestos-bound copy of Fahrenheit 451 is likely to fetch around $20,000 at auction, in case anyone wants to save up their pennies for the next time one goes on the block.
DBear wrote: ↑Fri Oct 09, 2020 3:04 pm
Ran "C" the Doctor. Thought Kafka was Czech.
[edit] He is Czech, but spoke & wrote in German. Boo
davey wrote: ↑Fri Oct 09, 2020 11:08 pm
As Alex said, Brian "changed syllables." He transposed the letter l - Bee-zel-bub. If he'd left it in its proper place - Beel-ze-bub - 3 syllables would have been fine, as I understand the rules...
I'd spell his mispronunciation as "Beezlebub" (which is how the Archive has it)—it only transposes the L one place, and I can imagine people's minds on autopilot reading it assuming they see "zle," which is a more common letter combination in English than "lze." (There are 617 results in J! Archive for "zle," and just 44 for "lze.")
I was expecting Nabokov tonight, but not in FJ; I thought it would be funny to have Lolita or another novel he wrote in English in THE WORK'S ORIGINAL LANGUAGE, just to potentially throw the contestants for a couple of loops. One for the Russian-named author not writing his later novels in Russian, and one for having English as a response in a category where one would expect five foreign languages to be the responses.
I never knew exactly what asbestos was for except for making lawyers rich. But if it was in a lot of old buildings I figured it made sense that it was a fire protectant and I got the solve.
BigDaddyMatty wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:37 am
It looks like an asbestos-bound copy of Fahrenheit 451 is likely to fetch around $20,000 at auction, in case anyone wants to save up their pennies for the next time one goes on the block.
And if you want a carcinogen in your house.
I sent a clip of the RISD question to Chris Frantz, Talking Head's (and Tom Tom Club's) drummer, since he is a RISD alum. He was suitably amused. Since it's that time of year, I will say that RISD students had the best costumes for Halloween.
BigDaddyMatty wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:37 am
It looks like an asbestos-bound copy of Fahrenheit 451 is likely to fetch around $20,000 at auction, in case anyone wants to save up their pennies for the next time one goes on the block.
And if you want a carcinogen in your house.
I sent a clip of the RISD question to Chris Frantz, Talking Head's (and Tom Tom Club's) drummer, since he is a RISD alum. He was suitably amused. Since it's that time of year, I will say that RISD students had the best costumes for Halloween.
da Doctah wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:31 pm
So the contestant loses for "Beazle Bub", but it's okay for Alex to mispronounce "Yankovic" while reading the clues?
Actually, years ago they kicked him off the show for mispronouncing it. But Alex appealed and the judges contacted Weird Al who said either pronunciation was fine. So they decided to invite Alex back and he hasn't lost a game since.
da Doctah wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:31 pm
So the contestant loses for "Beazle Bub", but it's okay for Alex to mispronounce "Yankovic" while reading the clues?
"Yankovic" is derived from a name that ends with a ch sound (at least the way an American accent pronounces it), and there are surnames that end with a C that have retained the ch pronunciation. (And spelling it "Yankovich" is likewise not an issue, since there are also last names ending with ch that are pronounced in English with a K sound at the end; see this FJ.) There is no similar way to justify pronouncing "Beelze-" as "beezle." (However, I think they should have had Alex re-record that reading to pronounce Yankovic the way Al does.)
I'm in shock that the FJ! went 1-for-3. The clue was more puzzle than knowledge, and it was a pretty simple puzzle as there was only one word that could possibly be a "keyword" in the clue - asbestos. It's almost always included on those "lists of banned/challenged books", and the irony is always noted.
I could understand if a contestant went "Fahrenheit" and then flubbed the number - that's easy enough to do. Fahrenheit 457? Right library, wrong bookshelf, but at least you're close. Brave New World? Eh, at least it's dystopian. And Invisible Man isn't even close.
Although it's not technically an error, and probably omitted to help with clue length, no doctor would EVER write down a length of .008 mm for a capillary width. It's always written 0.008 mm, to prevent misreading. And to hell with significant figures - it's never 10.0 mm, always 10 mm.
I came close to running OXFORD, but I misappropriated a pronoun in the $800 clue. I thought "her husband" was Bhutto's husband, not the husband of a future British PM. Given that we've had no openly LGBTQ PMs in Britain AFAIK, it narrows it down to 2, and I'd have gone for the more recent one. I also had a brain fog on Rowan Atkinson - if I'd been given Think! time, I would have gotten there. I had a Hail Mary on Lawrence of Arabia - I thought they were going for the actor, and I couldn't think of Peter O'Toole. If it had been my DD, I would have just shrugged and gone "Who is Lawrence of Arabia", and my jaw would have dropped.
I used to pass by the Christian Science Church about once a month to go to Boston's Symphony Hall - it's right across the street from it. In fact, I would have seen John Bolton there last Wednesday. That clue seemed way undervalued and not a top row clue - MBE = Christian Science is a Pavlov, but is the whole Boston thing a huge part of it? I always figured I knew it because I'm from and live here.
I absolutely hated the SNAP CRACKLE POP category. They do those every once in awhile, and they're basically free money spaces. They did one with TREBEK SAJAK OR (someone mismatched - Ozzy Osbourne?) that was good for yucks, but again, pretty easy.
Speaking of yucks, now I see why BEFORE AND AFTER hasn't happened this season yet (I think). It's always nice to get some audience participation with the chuckling.
I could understand if a contestant went "Fahrenheit" and then flubbed the number - that's easy enough to do. Fahrenheit 457? Right library, wrong bookshelf, but at least you're close. Brave New World? Eh, at least it's dystopian. And Invisible Man isn't even close.
I always worry that I'll get the number wrong, but I haven't yet.
Brave New World is from 1932, while Invisible Man came out in 1952, so in that sense it's much closer.
Anyone watching closely on the Pippi Longstocking clue would have caught a rare glimpse of the ring-in indicators on the sides of the gameboard lighting up:
(slowed to 0.25x speed)
seaborgium wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 3:24 am
Someone in the J! contestants Facebook group has pointed out that San Francisco de Asis Church is not in Taos, NM, but in Ranchos de Taos.
The clue did not state that the church is located in Taos, just that it might be a destination for someone visiting Taos (as it's only half a mile away).