Monday, January 4, 2016 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Game Recap for Show #7206, 2016-01-04

Alex returns to full mobility.

CONTESTANTS
Charlene Lee, a journalist from Jersey City, New Jersey
Terry McElhennon, a customer service representative from New Bern, North Carolina
Ashley Wilson, an organization development consultant from Alexandria, Virginia (whose 2-day cash winnings total $52,402)

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Thank you, Johnny Gilbert. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our show. It's, uh, good to be back on my own two feet. And it's a great pleasure to be able to welcome these two talented newcomers, charlene and Terry, who get to match off against a very good champion in Ashley. But good luck to all of you. Let's go to work now in the Jeopardy! Round, shall we? And here are your categories. First off...

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
IF THEY MARRIED (2/5)
STATE CAPITALS (4/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
MEDICINE (5/5)
RUSSIAN RULERS (4/5)
4-LETTER WORDS, SAME FIRST & LAST LETTER (5/5)
EMMY: THE MEN (2/2)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Ashley: 9 R (including 1 rebound), 2 W (including 1 DD)
Terry: 9 R (including 1 rebound), 2 W
Charlene: 4 R (including 1 rebound), 2 W

Clues revealed: 27
Triple Stumpers: 4
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $2,800



JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Ashley found the Daily Double on the 5th clue. Ashley had $1,400, Terry was in the red with -$200, and Charlene had a deficit with -$800. Ashley made it a True Daily Double, wagering $1,400.

STATE CAPITALS $1000: It was selected as a compromise between North Platters & South Platters, who each favored different locale
(Ashley: What is Pierre?)

SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
Terry: $2,200
Ashley: $1,200
Charlene: -$200

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS



Alex: Charlene Lee is a journalist who once lived in Germany and discovered that, unlike the United States, there are many countries in Europe that levy a tax on you if you own a television set. Correct?

Charlene: Correct. And I sort of ignored it, figuring, what--what can they do? So one day after I've been living there about a year, I get this registered letter, and it's threatening to take me to court. And if I don't pay up plus interest, they're going to assign a bailiff to enter my home and confiscate my TV. But the catch is, because I don't owe enough to warrant the full confiscation of a--of my TV, they're going to take away my color TV and replace it with a black and white one.

[Laughter]

Alex: So you did what every good citizen would do--you paid up.

Charlene: I paid up, plus interest.

Alex: All right, good for you.




Alex: Terry McLenehen?

Terry: Uh, McElhennon, sir.

Alex: McElhennon from new Bern, North Carolina. I understand you're an organizer of local music and concert events. What does that mean exactly?

Terry: Yes, uh, well, some friends and I from high school have been into live music. We've gone to festivals for years. And, uh, New Bern is a smaller town. So we decided to start organizing our own events, bringing in bands and showing people a good time.

Alex: Okay, good for you.




Alex: Ashley Wilson from Alexandria, Virginia. She is our champion. And her favorite place to visit is...

Ashley: South Africa.

Alex: Where in South Africa?

Ashley: Johannesburg was my favorite part.

Alex: Did you get down to the cape area?

Ashley: I did. It's beautiful there. Actually, it reminds me of California a little bit.

Alex: Not only is it beautiful, but it has a number of wonderful wineries. I--I don't know how I know that. I must've read about it somewhere.

[Laughter]

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
IF THEY MARRIED $200: If the host of "So You Think You Can Dance" married the rapper of "Drop It Like It's Hot", she'd be...

IF THEY MARRIED $600: If a poster girl "Charlie's Angel" had wed the actor who was Sonny Corleone, she could've marched to D.C. as..

IF THEY MARRIED $1000: If an Oscar winner for "Ghost" married the Italian physicist for whom element no. 100 is named, she'd cheer herself as...

RUSSIAN RULERS $1000: Featured in a Mussorgsky opera, he warred against Sweden in the 1590s to gain access to the Baltic
(Charlene: Who was Peter the Great?)

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
Terry: $3,800
Ashley: $3,400
Charlene: $0

[Archivists]

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
COLORULLY ALLITERATIVE (3/5)
MATH WORDS (4/5)
WHAT A CHARACTER! (2/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
"YU", I OUGHTA (4/5)
CLASSICAL MUSIC VENUES (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
EMMY: THE WOMEN (1/3)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Ashley: 7 R (including 1 rebound), 1 W
Terry: 8 R, 4 W (including 1 DD)
Charlene: 4 R (including 1 DD), 1 W

Clues revealed: 28
Triple Stumpers: 8
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $11,600



FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Charlene snagged the next Daily Double on the 4th clue. Ashley had $4,200, Terry had $3,000, and Charlene was at $1,600. Charlene made it a True Daily Double, wagering $1,600.

CLASSICAL MUSIC VENUES $1600: One of the most photographed buildings in the world, it sits on Port Jackson's Bennelong Point

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Terry who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 21st clue. Ashley had $7,400, Terry had $6,600, and Charlene was at $4,400. Terry wagered $1,000.

WHAT A CHARACTER! $1600: Make no mistake, a character named Dr. Pinch is a quack physician & teacher in this Shakespeare play
(Terry: What is Much Ado About Nothing?)

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
COLORULLY ALLITERATIVE $1200: Joe Louis was aka known as the Sepia Slugger & the Tan Tornado, but you probably know him best by this nickname

COLORULLY ALLITERATIVE $1600: This annually updated register records notable personages from the U.K. & elsewhere
(Terry: What is Who's Who?)

MATH WORDS $2000: For 5, -5 is the additive this

EMMY: THE WOMEN $800: Emmy Bridgewater was a leading British exponent of this art style that (ironically) derives from French for "super real"

WHAT A CHARACTER! $800: Charles Dickens' own father was the inspiration for the eternally optimistic Wilkins Micawber in this novel
(Terry: What is Great Expectations?)
(Charlene: What is Oliver wist?)

WHAT A CHARACTER! $2000: This author created the characters Fred Cornplow, Doremus Jessup & Geroge Babbit
(Alex: The author is [*] and we have less than a minute to go now, Terry.)

"YU", I OUGHTA $1200: It's near the end of an alphabetical list of coffee brands

EMMY: THE WOMEN $2000: Emmy Verhey, who wields a 1676 Guarneri in concert, is a virtuoso on this instrument
(Ashley: What is the harp?)
[The end-of-round signal sounds.]

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
Terry: $8,400
Ashley: $7,400
Charlene: $4,400

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
MILESTONES IN U.S. HISTORY

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Four-fifths for first place.
Terry: Wager $6,401 to cover Ashley.
Ashley: You have to wager $1,401 to cover Charlene's doubled score, but certainly no more than $2,999, so as to force Charlene to be right to have a chance at winning.
Charlene: Think about risking $2,400 or less, thereby beating Terry on the Triple Stumper (should Terry wager to cover Ashley's doubled score).

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
This president began a State of the Union Address by congratulating the historic 100th Congress

FINAL SCORES
Charlene: $4,400 + $4,300 = $8,700 (Who is Ronald Reagan?) (2nd place)
Ashley: $7,400 - $7,400 = $0 (Who is Carter?) (3rd place)
Terry: $8,400 + $6,401 = $14,801 (Who is Reagan) (New champion: $14,801)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $14,400

GAME DYNAMICS


CORYAT SCORES
Terry: $9,400, 17 R, 6 W (including 1 DD)
Ashley: $8,800, 16 R, 3 W (including 1 DD)
Charlene: $4,400, 8 R (including 1 DD), 3 W
Combined Coryat: $22,600

BATTING AVERAGES
Terry: 18/59 = .305
Ashley: 16/59 = .271
Charlene: 9/59 = .153
Team: 43/63 = .683

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
STATE CAPITALS $800: Attractions in this capital include the Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum & the First White House of the Confederacy
(Charlene: What is Richmond?)
(Terry: What is Birmingham?)

MEDICINE $200: Latin for "poison", it's a submicroscopic agent infecting living organisms & causing disease
(Ashley: What is pathogen?)

RUSSIAN RULERS $400: Ths Russian man with an appropriately scary gaze is seen here
(Terry: Who is Rasputin?)

MEDICINE $800: The Weber hearing test is conducted by striking this instrument & placing it on the head
(Alex: That's it. Less than a minute to go.)

EMMY: THE MEN $400: It was mob rule for him as one of "The Sopranos" in 2003
[End-of-round signal sounds]

CLASSICAL MUSIC VENUES $800: Named for the wife of a czar, the Marriinsky Theatre is in this city
(Terry: What is Moscow?)

CLASSICAL MUSIC VENUES $1200: (Kelly of the Clue Crew reports outside David Geffen Hall.) As of fall 2015, this orchestra performed its glorious music at David Geffen Hall, formerly Avery Fisher Hall

CORRECT RESPONSES
Lincoln, Nebraska
Cat Dogg
Farrah Caan
Whoopi Fermi
Boris Godunov
the Sydney Opera House
A Comedy of Errors
the Brown Bomber
the Blue Book
additive inverse element
surrealism
David Copperfield
Sinclair Lewis
Yuban
the violin
Ronald Reagan
Montgomery
virus
Ivan the Terrible
a tunng fork
James Gandolfini
Saint Petersburg
the New York Philharmonic

[theFJguy]

Milestones in US History

This president began a State of the Union address by congratulating the historic 100th congress.

Spoiler

Who is Ronald Reagan? Ashley said Carter.

Charlene Lee: $4,400+$4,300=$8,700

Ashley Wilson: $7,400-$7,400=$0

Terry McElehnnon: $8,400+$6,401=now a 1-day champion with $14,801

[Bamaman]

From Friday's thread.....

I just wonder whether she learned from her bad wager on Tuesday, or if she'll bet everything again if she finds herself in another close second entering FJ.

I guess we have our answer.

Not the best game we've ever had. I started rooting against them when it took three tries to get Montgomery as the first CSA capital. (How is that missed so often?) and then nobody knew Joe Louis was the Brown Bomber. Then neither board was cleared and we didn't have any long winded categories.

FJ took a bit of math, but not difficult. Washington and the 1st Congress took office in 1789, so the 100th would debut in 1987.

[xxaaaxx]

Whoopi Fermi...it's too damn early in the season for this kind of nonsense, J! writers.

Not quite instaget but FJ only took...how long does it take to mentally add 1789+198? That long.

[econgator]

I had "posh" for "chic" and I'm counting it.

Total brainfart on FJ. Went with Clinton.

[Golf]

That celebrity category was not good at all, writers have been trying too hard lately to make cutesy categories instead of the standard meat and potatoes Jeopardy is famous for.

Author of Babbitt a bottom clue? And then a TS? Oof. Kind of thought surrealism was offered up on a silver platter as well.

Not sure these contestants understood that giving an incorrect response was not a good thing. STAY CLAM!

In the endgame with Ashley in the lead, she kept picking clues that would lose her the lead. Conversely, Terry kept picking clues that wouldn't give him the lead.

Pretty interesting FJ I thought, had to remember when the constitution was enacted, know there's a new congress every two years, add 200, and then know who the president was in that year. All easy pickins, but good nonetheless.

[Golf]

I had "posh" for "chic" and I'm counting it.

Considering the category was same first and last letter, I don't think this is a correct answer. I will award you a participation trophy however.

[econgator]

I had "posh" for "chic" and I'm counting it.

Considering the category was same first and last letter.......?????

I thought it was 4-letter words. Guess I should actually look at category names.

[Abraxas]

Congrats to Terry on his win. I had 44 correct responses including these triple stumpers: Blue Book, inverse element, surrealism, Brown Bomber, David Copperfield, Sinclair Lewis, Yuban, and violin. I also got the missed DD of Lincoln, and I got FJ.

[Golf]

I had "posh" for "chic" and I'm counting it.

Considering the category was same first and last letter.......?????

I thought it was 4-letter words. Guess I should actually look at category names.

4-letter words that have the same first and last letter.

[mfc248]

30 R / 4 W / $23,200.

Lach Trash: Brown Bomber, inverse, surrealism.

Had Reagan initially on FJ, then overthought on the year of that particular SotU, convinced myself it was 1989, switched to George H. W. Bush. Flubbing a gettable one like that feels worse than one where I'm clueless.

[nightreign]

Did anyone else think this Final was talking about the First Continental Congress and say Gerald Ford?

(Really, I'm just trying to console myself for missing an American history question.)

LT: Brown Bomber, inverse, and both missed Daily Doubles

Also, I'm going to be pedantic here a moment and say that the writers used "premiere" when they should have used "premier" and that absolute value is a number's distance from zero, not simply the positive value of a number.

[BennyBXB]

And my year of tracking Jeopardy scores starts with a shoddy game and a dumb miss on Final. Was stuck between Ford and Reagan, and couldn't connect Reagan to the bicentennial so I spit out Ford under the buzzer. Overall, 18 right and 1 wrong for a $14k Coryat.

[dnbguy]

Watched Jeopardy live for the first time in a while today. Today was also the first time I ever livetweeted it.

Whoopi Fermi... yikes. Went 3 for 3 on daily doubles, although I very nearly said Omaha instead of Lincoln. I blame the flu.

Thought process for final: today was the first day of the second year of the 114th congress. Subtract 28 years to get 1988, president in 1988 = Reagan. I almost screwed up the math and put George H. W. Bush. Again, I blame the flu.

During the commercial break before final, there was a commercial for some drug where a guy was grilling one asparagus. Just one. Why?

[opusthepenguin]

Whoopi Fermi... yikes.

Yep. Relying on the knowledge-based portion of the clue, I said, "Who is... Whoopi ... FAIR-mee? ... I don't get it."

[jeff6286]

That celebrity category was not good at all, writers have been trying too hard lately to make cutesy categories instead of the standard meat and potatoes Jeopardy is famous for.

Author of Babbitt a bottom clue? And then a TS? Oof. Kind of thought surrealism was offered up on a silver platter as well.

Not sure these contestants understood that giving an incorrect response was not a good thing. STAY CLAM!

In the endgame with Ashley in the lead, she kept picking clues that would lose her the lead. Conversely, Terry kept picking clues that wouldn't give him the lead.

Pretty interesting FJ I thought, had to remember when the constitution was enacted, know there's a new congress every two years, add 200, and then know who the president was in that year. All easy pickins, but good nonetheless.

Feels like you're missing the last step, which is recognizing that adding 200 years from the first Congress gives you the 101st Congress, which is one too many, so you have to go back from 1989 to 1987. It also could be a help to realize that a new President, as Bush was in 1989, has his first State of the Union delayed a bit, since he didn't take office until January 20, it would seem odd to "welcome" the new Congress when they've already been in office a month before Bush is giving the speech. Maybe this reasoning is false, since he could simply be welcoming them to the speech, not welcoming them to Congress, I'm not sure.

I just learned that until 1989, a newly elected President usually didn't give a State of the Union, instead, a President that has been voted out of office still gave one in the weeks before January 20. It looks like the SOTU moved from December to January under FDR, and since then, Truman, Eisenhower, LBJ, Ford, and Carter all gave a speech in January after their replacement was elected. Eisenhower and Kennedy both gave a speech shortly after their inauguration as well, so 1953 and 1961 both had two SOTU addresses, one in Jan and one in Feb. Starting with Regan/Bush in 1989, the outgoing President no longer gives a SOTU speech, as it is delayed from Jan to Feb when the new President gives it. A trivia question that will probably never be asked: the only two Presidents to give more than 8 State of the Union addresses: FDR (12) and Eisenhower (9). (at least based on this list)

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Portal:S ... Presidents

[sarisson]

Did anyone else think this Final was talking about the First Continental Congress and say Gerald Ford?

Exactly what I did after ruling out the correct response.

absolute value is a number's distance from zero, not simply the positive value of a number.

I clammed on that clue for that reason. (The math clues on Jeopardy aren't written by math majors.) For complex numbers, too, absolute value is sqrt(real part squared plus imaginary part squared).
"Inverse" should not have been a triple stumper. Did those contestants take the rhombus to the studio? I thought the clue on Yugos was funny in light of the comparisons to cars on this board. Another dismal combined Coryat.

[skullturf]

I'm a professional mathematician. This time around, I happened to go 5 for 5 in the math category, but that doesn't happen every time. Generally speaking, I agree that sometimes we can tell that the clue writers are not math majors. Sometimes, their use of math terminology will be just a little bit "off", and I will have a reaction along the lines of "I see what they're going for there, but I was momentarily confused because that's not the way I would phrase it."

[Bamaman]

Add me to those who hopes we never again see the If they married again. Maybe since the players didn't do well, they'll get the hint.