Friday, October 16, 2015 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[TenPoundHammer]

Symbols was an easy run. When ellipsis was $1,000, I sensed a run was imminent.

All but Tolstoy in Picture This.

NHO any of the 9 brands we got to see in Liquor.

Cat's-paw was my only miss in Categorical. Surprised myself by a.) not taking the "catastrophe" negbait, and b) getting the lach trash on "cataclysm". I think it helps that a friend of mine has used "cataclysm" when helping me with world-building.

WLT Alexander the Great or Chicago at $400?

"Hmm, Angels… no wait, that's not right, they're in Anaheim, not LA, so that doesn't work. Oh crap, are there any other MLB teams with Spanish names? Gah, my mind's gone blank, I can't pull any other remotely foreign-sounding team names. Why even bother, it's clearly not the Angels anyway since I suck at sports clues."

[Robert K S]

What did Alex say in Russian after the balalaika clue? (Phonetically sounds like "Wachin hareshow")

[Linear Gnome]

Zelda was indeed awesome. She also was a contestant back in the Art Fleming days. (and as I recall, she said she won).

Thanks for pointing that out!

BTW, I commented briefly in Wednesday's game thread but neglected to mention that I enjoyed watching you play and reading your comments. I hope you'll continue to stick around here!

What did Alex say in Russian after the balalaika clue? (Phonetically sounds like "Wachin hareshow")

That would probably be очень хорошо, which translates to "very good".

[danspartan]

I was like "whats a DOUBLE REDUNDANCY" and never even got to thinking about teams. Yeesh.

[silverscreentest]

The writers must be on the same baseball boards I frequent. If anyone posted this FJ there, someone would say it was interesting the first 800 times they heard it. But if I you haven't heard it before, I understand the confusion.

Maybe a better clue would be a team that changed its name the most times without leaving its metro area, or even changing its home venue.

[jwatcher16]

What a moronic FJ.

I knew it was going to be wordplay and that I would miss it. Guessed the Padres.

I actually thought of the Phillies about 10 seconds after the think music ended, and now that I see Brian's explanation of the clue, I have to say that econgator is exactly correct here. That was a moronic FJ clue. A baseball fan would have a hard enough time with that one, but a non-baseball fan probably has very little chance of pulling it.

Yeah, I thought about the Phillies, too. Didn't really think of the Angels - but yeah - Angeles and translating. BTW, Mike Trout, the pitcher is an Angel, right? He comes from my county in NJ.

And I missed a Jeopardy category on "cat" ?(missed this show I have been sending them vibes to have a category about cats; since the word was in quotation marks it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for ----- but does close count? --- that is if anyone believes in such things

[alietr]

I have to admit that I didn't even think about the fact that "Los Angeles" needs to be/can be translated. It's just so ingrained.

[silverscreentest]

BTW, Mike Trout, the pitcher is an Angel, right? He comes from my county in NJ.

I don't know about Mike Trout the pitcher, but Mike Trout the outfielder plays for the Los Angeles Angels and is from New Jersey. Jersey Mike's lost a prime endorsement when he went to Subway.

[hbomb1947]

I don't get the hate on the FJ! clue. Sure, you can argue about whether "The" is part of the full name of the team, but the Angels are the only team with even one true redundancy. And it's not like you had to be some sort of a cunning linguist, given that "Angels" and "Angeles" are cognates separated by a single letter.

First of all, arguably the Phillies also have one true redundancy (although there's no "translation" involved there, so that crappy ballclub doesn't really fit the clue). But also it's a matter of remembering what the latest incarnation of the name of the awkwardly-monikered team is. If you think of them as from Anaheim, you may never get to "Angeles / Angels." I'm more than a casual baseball fan, and the team never occurred to me. And I'm not the only one. Finally, you can't just casually dismiss the "the" issue and the vagueness of "double redundancy" in the clue.

[bpmod]

My goodness, there's a lot of TPHness going on with regard to this FJ clue, although, to be fair, I also misremembered the earlier conversation.

Brian

[John Boy]

So, uh, Josh buddy, you couldn't have dressed up a little? One polo shirt is an accident. Two in a row looks like carelessness.

More likely two in a row is a fashion statement. And the statement he's making is, "I really don't care how anyone else thinks I should dress."

I wouldn't dress like that on J! if I ever got the chance, but if the CCs don't mind, I don't.

[nserven]

Would they have negged a player who didn't include the "The," since that's supposedly what makes it a double redundancy?

I wrote "Who are the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim?" even though I wasn't sure if "of Anaheim" was still part of the name. It seems like they change their name every half-hour or so.

[dhkendall]

Spoiled on FJ While it was sports related, so I doubt I would have got it, I would have loved to try.

Loved the Symbols category as it reminded me of my Punctuation and Typography One Day Special on Learned League

Echo the "Zelda doesn't look old enough to have been on Fleming's Jeopardy! before" chorus. In fact I was torn between cheering for her and Josh! (absolutely nothing against Matt, btw), Zelda because her sense of humour in the interview segment reminded me of Maria Weglinsky, and Josh! because not only he was my cheering interest from yesterday because he had a background similar to my own, but because he's a metal head … just like me! (After the interview segment I paused the tape so I could cue up "Reign in Blood" on YouTube, and then got distracted with other good ones and didn't get back to the broadcast until almost an hour later) I'm starting to think that they wanted to give me the call, and they said "call that guy who spoke up during the audition, who did standup comedy, is funny, personable, and a metal head" and Josh!'s phone rang.

[Onairb]

What a moronic FJ.

I knew it was going to be wordplay and that I would miss it. Guessed the Padres.

I actually thought of the Phillies about 10 seconds after the think music ended, and now that I see Brian's explanation of the clue, I have to say that econgator is exactly correct here. That was a moronic FJ clue. A baseball fan would have a hard enough time with that one, but a non-baseball fan probably has very little chance of pulling it.

Instaget for me. However, I first heard of this 'puzzle' when a San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter, Bruce Jenkins, used it as filler in his column several years ago(when the team's owner first came up with the idiotic 'Los Angeles of Anaheim' label).
There are always going to be a certain number of people who just 'shut down' clues like this...'EEEEWWW! It's sports/wordplay/wordplay about sports!'...but I think this one might have been easier than some would suggest.

[Onairb]

WLT Alexander the Great or Chicago at $400?

The first referenced 'Macedonian leader'. Nine times out of ten, that's Alexander(Otherwise, it would be his father, Philip, but clues about him tend to mention his son).
The Chicago clue mentioned State Street, which is pretty much a giveaway(like Park Avenue for NY, or Lombard Street for SF).

[TenPoundHammer]

WLT Alexander the Great or Chicago at $400?

The first referenced 'Macedonian leader'. Nine times out of ten, that's Alexander(Otherwise, it would be his father, Philip, but clues about him tend to mention his son).
The Chicago clue mentioned State Street, which is pretty much a giveaway(like Park Avenue for NY, or Lombard Street for SF).

Because no other town has a State Street, right? There were TWO in the backwater town where I spent most of my life.

[This Is Kirk!]

WLT Alexander the Great or Chicago at $400?

The first referenced 'Macedonian leader'. Nine times out of ten, that's Alexander(Otherwise, it would be his father, Philip, but clues about him tend to mention his son).
The Chicago clue mentioned State Street, which is pretty much a giveaway(like Park Avenue for NY, or Lombard Street for SF).

Because no other town has a State Street, right? There were TWO in the backwater town where I spent most of my life.

I'd say it was more the Marina City Towers themselves. They are fairly well-known buildings in Chicago. State Street is just a little extra info that may help. They also grace the cover of Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" LP, for what it's worth.

[opusthepenguin]

There are always going to be a certain number of people who just 'shut down' clues like this...'EEEEWWW! It's sports/wordplay/wordplay about sports!'...but I think this one might have been easier than some would suggest.

It was no trouble for elites like you and me. But I can see how it would seem a tad difficult to the hoi polloi masses.

[dhkendall]

WLT Alexander the Great or Chicago at $400?

The first referenced 'Macedonian leader'. Nine times out of ten, that's Alexander(Otherwise, it would be his father, Philip, but clues about him tend to mention his son).
The Chicago clue mentioned State Street, which is pretty much a giveaway(like Park Avenue for NY, or Lombard Street for SF).

Because no other town has a State Street, right? There were TWO in the backwater town where I spent most of my life.

But it's a case of what J! is likely to ask about. I will make it a True Daily Double that if you do an Archive search, Chicago will come up more often than your hometown. There's a Lombard St that's pretty well known here in Winnipeg (the building I worked in from 2000-2010 was on it), but the world famous one is in Frisco. (Having said that, when I hear "State Street" I think Atlantic City has an equal shot at notoriety thanks to Monopoly.

[zakharov]

There are always going to be a certain number of people who just 'shut down' clues like this...'EEEEWWW! It's sports/wordplay/wordplay about sports!'...but I think this one might have been easier than some would suggest.

It was no trouble for elites like you and me. But I can see how it would seem a tad difficult to the hoi polloi masses.

Were you sipping from a snifter of brandy while typing this post?