Thursday, January 28, 2016 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Game Recap for Show #7224, 2016-01-28

CONTESTANTS
Mara Apostol, a criminal defense attorney from Miami, Florida
Phyllis Kidd, a retired teacher from Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Fred Vaughn, an Internet operations technician from Mineral Point, Wisconsin (whose 4-day cash winnings total $65,700)

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Thank you, Johnny. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Our returning champion, Fred Vaughn. Having a good time so far?

Fred: [Whispers] Yeah.

Alex: Yeah. Phyllis and Mara, it could happen to you as well, but you've got to beat him to replace him as champ. Good luck to the three of you. Let's go to work in the Jeopardy! Round. As you know, there's one Daily Double coming up in one of these categories...

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
COIF MEDICINE (5/5)
PRESIDENTIAL SURNAMES ON FILM (4/5)
"O" IN LITERATURE (4/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
MATH TERMS (5/5)
5-LETTER VERBS (3/5)
CHICAGO HISTORY (5/5) (Jimmy: From the Great Fire to the great buildings, we learn about it from the Chicago History Museum.)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Mara: 12 R, 1 W
Fred: 8 R (including 1 rebound), 1 W
Phyllis: 6 R (including 1 rebound), 1 W (including 1 DD)

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 3
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $2,200



SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
Fred: $2,000
Phyllis: $2,000
Mara: $400

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS



Alex: Mara Apostol is a criminal defense attorney from Miami, Florida, who had a unique way of celebrating her 32nd birthday. And I hope you don't mind us telling our television viewers how old you are.

Mara: Uh, absolutely. So I was turning 32 back then. Uh, and, uh...

Alex: Oh.

Mara: At the time I lived in D.C., and my boyfriend Idris, who's here today, was living in Newark. So we met in Baltimore, which was halfway between. And we decided to turn it into a sort of a scavenger hunt of our own, and we took photos of me with signs that had all the numbers between 1 and 32. So retired jerseys by the or--where the Orioles play and things like that.

Alex: Oh! Oh, great. You put it in a scrapbook, I hope.

Mara: Online, but yes.

Alex: Oh, online. See, I don't know about online scrapbooks. I know about the--the paper stuff.




Alex: Phyllis Kidd is a retired teacher from Illinois who is pretty sure, maybe not positive, that you were named after a special... not person.

Phyllis: No. My mother's cat.

Alex: Really?

[Laughter]

Phyllis: My family--my parents moved about three days before I was born. And in the process, Phil the cat ran away. If I had been a boy, I was gonna be Philip. Now I figure it's a connect the dots thing. My mother denied it up until the last few years of her life. And so now I'm not sure if it's really true or if I convinced her.

Alex: Did they--did they ever get the cat back?

Phyllis: No. Never got the cat.

Alex: Oh, boo, hiss.




Alex: All right, Fred Vaughn is our champion. He's a good Jeopardy! player. And he is also a pretty good dancer. Not only a good dancer, but one good enough to have people stand around and watch. Why?

Fred: Uh, because I just don't know any better than to not do it. I mean, even when I'm at--even when I'm at work, if I'm standing, it's like... usually it's just, like, a yoga pose or something like that.

Alex: Really?

JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Phyllis found the Daily Double on the 15th clue. Fred had $2,000, Phyllis had $2,600, and Mara was at $400. Phyllis wagered $2,000.

"O" IN LITERATURE $800: This tale includes the line "Fish, you are going to have to die anyway. Do you have to kill me too?"
(Mara: What is Omoo?)

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
PRESIDENTIAL SURNAMES ON FILM $800: 1995:
"Billy ____"

5-LETTER VERBS $400: To remove oneself from a failing aircraft

5-LETTER VERBS $1000: Also a type of vessel, it means to burst in upon

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
Mara: $7,000
Fred: $3,400
Phyllis: $1,600

[Archivists]

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
MURPHY! (4/5)
AS I LEAVE & BREATHE (4/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
YOU OLD SON OF A GUN MAKER (2/4)
WHERE YOU BEEN? (5/5)
LONG TIME (3/5)
NO C (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double) (Alex: And in that last category, each correct response will be one word of a pair. But it'll be the word that is--does not begin with the letter "C", okay? Common pairs.)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Fred: 10 R (including 1 rebound and 1 DD), 3 W
Phyllis: 7 R, 2 W
Mara: 6 R, 2 W (including 1 DD)

Clues revealed: 29
Triple Stumpers: 5
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $5,600



FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Fred snagged the next Daily Double on the 19th clue. Fred had $12,600, Phyllis had $4,400, and Mara was at $11,000. Fred wagered $3,000.

NO C $2000: Mythological character now left alone in the constellation Gemini

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Mara who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 22nd clue. Fred had $14,000, Phyllis had $4,400, and Mara was at $11,400. Mara wagered $3,000.

AS I LEAVE & BREATHE $1600: The left lung has superior & inferior these parts; the right lung has those & a middle one too
(Alex: Mara?)
(Mara: What's a cava?)

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
LONG TIME $800: In 1669 the city of Heraklion on Crete fell to Ottoman forces after a 21-year one of these

MURPHY! $1600: Wake up! Cillian Murphy played Robert Fischer in this 2010 Christopher Nolan film
(Fred: What is Memento?)
(Mara: What is Red Eye?)

LONG TIME $2000: It's longer than a period or era; the Phanerozoic one started 541 million years ago & is still going on
(Fred: What's an epoch?)
...
(Alex: And with less than a minute to go, Phyllis, you pick the next clue.)

YOU OLD SON OF A GUN MAKER $400: Gaston J. Glock, son of the company founder, markets accessories like these hearing protectors
(Fred: Uh, what are headphones?)
(Phyllis: What are earplugs?)

YOU OLD SON OF A GUN MAKER $800: His child was Marcellus; his brainchild was the Tommy gun

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
Fred: $11,600
Mara: $10,400
Phyllis: $8,400

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
BRITISH MUSICAL THEATRE

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Four-fifths for first place.
Fred: Wager $9,201 to cover Mara.
Mara: You're faced with a legitimate choice in strategy. You can either choose to cover Phyllis, hoping that you give the correct response and Fred doesn't, in which case you'll want to wager $6,401 to cover Phyllis's doubled score, but no more than $8,000 if you want to top Fred on a Triple Stumper; or bet up to $1,999 and win if both Fred and Phyllis miss Final.
Phyllis: You ought to try wagering between $2,001 and $4,400. This will top a $0 wager by Mara while still beating Fred and Mara on the Triple Stumper (should Fred wager to cover Mara's doubled score and Mara wager to cover your doubled score).

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
A critic said, "I doubt if there is a single joke in" this 1885 work "that fits the Japanese. But all the jokes... fit the English"

FINAL SCORES
Phyllis: $8,400 + $3,201 = $11,601 (What is The Mikado?) (3rd place)
Mara: $10,400 + $6,401 = $16,801 (What is "the Mikado") (New champion: $16,801)
Fred: $11,600 + $5,000 = $16,600 (What is the Mikado??) (2nd place)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $7,800

GAME DYNAMICS


CORYAT SCORES
Mara: $13,400, 18 R, 3 W (including 1 DD)
Fred: $10,600, 18 R (including 1 DD), 4 W
Phyllis: $10,400, 13 R, 3 W (including 1 DD)
Combined Coryat: $34,400

BATTING AVERAGES
Mara: 19/59 = .322
Fred: 19/59 = .322
Phyllis: 14/59 = .237
Team: 52/63 = .825

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
CHICAGO HISTORY $200: (Kelly of the Clue Crew reports from the Chicago History Museum.) The museum houses many relics that survived the Great Fire of 1871, including a cowbell that was allegedly worn by this woman's cow, who was once blamed for kicking over a lantern & starting the fire
(Mara: Who is Mrs. Murphy?)

CHICAGO HISTORY $400: (Jimmy of the Clue Crew reports from the Chicago History Museum.) During Prohibition, which saw a rise in criminal activity, copper stills & buckets like these were used at home to make illegal high-proof whiskey known by this lunar name

MATH TERMS $400: We'll meet again, don't know where, but do know this diagram used in math

CHICAGO HISTORY $600: (Jimmy of the Clue Crew reports from the Chicago History Museum.) Made of wood & originally pulled by a steam locomotive, the car here, which transported passengers from the loop to the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 is the last one remaining of Chicago's first fleet of railcars to be called by this nickname

CHICAGO HISTORY $800: (Jimmy of the Clue Crew reports from the Chicago History Museum.) In 1911, you could actually buy the motorbuggy, the Model P, for $495, by mail order through the catalog of this Chicago merchant
(Fred: What is Montgomery Ward?)

"O" IN LITERATURE $1000: Herman Melville wrote this "Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas"
(Alex: Now is the time for that. You were just one clue ahead of yourself.)
(Mara: Just one early. [Laughs])

CHICAGO HISTORY $1000: (Jimmy of the Clue Crew reports from the Chicago History Museum.) In 1924, in the crime of the century, Chicago teen Bobby Franks was brutally murdered; these glasses found near the body were traced back to this man, who soon confessed, as did accomplice Richard Loeb
(Alex: [*], with less than a minute to go now in this round.)

WHERE YOU BEEN? $1200: I've been mourning the 2,000-year-old Baalshamin Temple at Palmyra in this country, destroyed by militants in 2015

LONG TIME $400: Lin Wang, an Asian one of these animals who carried supplies in World War II, lived until 2003 when he was 86
(Phyllis: What's a mule?)

NO C $400: It's a food that little Miss Muffet was eating on her tuffet
(Alex: Yes, not curds.)

NO C $800: In a trademarked phrase, Thomas' English muffins tells you about these in their products
(Alex: [*], not crannies.)

NO C $1200: Partner in the title of Elgar's March in D major, Opus 39, Number 1
(Alex: [*], yes, not circumstance.)

NO C $1600: On French water faucets, you have this word in the native tongue
(Alex: [*], yes, not chaud.)

YOU OLD SON OF A GUN MAKER $1600: Uzi Gal designed a gun & had a son after emigrating in 1936 to what's now this country
[The end-of-round signal sounds.]

CORRECT RESPONSES
The Old Man and the Sea
Madison
eject
barge
Pollux
lobes
a siege
Inception
an eon
earmuffs
John T. Thompson
The Mikado
Mrs. O'Leary
moonshine
a Venn diagram
the "El"
Sears
Omoo
(Nathan) Leopold
Syria
an elephant
whey
nooks
pomp
froide
Israel

[theFJguy]

British Musical Theatre

A critic said "I doubt if there is a single joke in" this 1885 work "that fits the Japanese. But all the jokes... fit the English"

Spoiler

What is The Mikado?

Phyllis Kidd: $8,400+$3,201=$11,601

Mara Apostol: $10,400+6,401=now a 1-day champion with $16,801

Fred Vaughn: $11,600+$5,000=$16,600

[Bamaman]

Live by bad wagering, die by bad wagering. Didn't even cover third.

Instaget FJ for me, which surprised me given the category.

Congrats to Mara and her boardie boyfriend on the win.

[mahatma]

FREEDDDDDD! (sung to the tune of 'KHAANNNNNN!')

[econgator]

Live by bad wagering, die by bad wagering. Didn't even cover third.

Instaget FJ for me, which surprised me given the category.

Congrats to Mara and her boardie boyfriend on the win.

Yeah, that wasn't the best wager.

Also instaget, but what else could it be?


"One dark night, when we were all in bed, Mrs' O'leary left the lantern in the shed. And as the cow kicked it over, she winked her eye and said, 'There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight!'"

[Golf]

LOL at the complementary angle clue after last night's online test. Will there be another math question in tonight's? Will it be from today's clues? Something to do with pi perhaps?

Loeb's partner and the third of sine and cosine were bottom row clues? Wow.

Nice FJ wagers by the challengers, (although after seeing Fred's wagers this week, I'm wondering if either of them thought of betting it all. Normally I'd laugh at this, but seeing as how he's shown a propensity of such...) I have no idea what to say about Fred's wagering throughout his run. One of these days I'm gonna ask Keith if I can do a guest spot on his site.

[OSXpert]

I figured it was Gilbert and Sullivan, but I don't know their oeuvre that well, so I said HMS Pinafore.

Ran the math category and Chicago category, but since I'm a math teacher originally from Chicago, that's not too surprising.

[econgator]

LOL at the complementary angle clue after last night's online test.

Yeah, especially as this one made sense.

[Abraxas]

Congrats to Mara on her win; I thought Fred would wager more than he did in FJ. I had 44 correct responses including these triple stumpers: eject, barge, siege, and eon. I got FJ before Alex finished reading the clue.

[xxaaaxx]

So, clearly, he just bets random numbers. Still doesn't explain how Sonam wagered to cover his random number the other day, but at least that explains his bizarre wagers.

British musical theater + 19th c. + Japan? Why thank you J! writers! It's not even my birthday!

We'll see him again in the TOC, at the rate we're going. Hopefully he'll have read every inch of Keith's site by then.

[DefCon4]

Coryat: 40,800
48 R / 1 W
DD: (2/3) Got Old Man and the Sea and Pollux, guessed "chamber" for "lobe"
LT: Billy Madison, eject, siege.
FJ: Instaget. My grandmother would have been rolling in her grave if I didn't get that.

I missed two 1000s and no revealed 2000s. The last two days have seen a good crop of clues for those high values for me, but I bet most of them were significantly overvalued. Ran Coif Medicine, Math Terms, Chicago History, Murphy!, and Where Have You Been?, and kicked myself after "barge" (only clam in 5-letter verbs) and two of the surname questions (not quite quick enough recall).

I suppose unless he got a taping break, Fred was going to succumb to his wagering style eventually. I bet he spends some time at The Final Wager before the TOC (assuming this season proceeds as it has)!

[BobF]

I have to wonder if Fred held back on his wager due to the category. I know I might have wagered conservatively (and then kicked myself as it was an instaguess).

[MDaunt]

Ohhh...Fred...

[Bamaman]

I have to wonder if Fred held back on his wager due to the category. I know I might have wagered conservatively (and then kicked myself as it was an instaguess).

We haven't seen any theater type questions this week so I don't know. That was far from my comfort zone, but I couldn't not bet to cover. At worst, I would bet zero and force them to get it right.

[hbomb1947]

Wow.

Before the reveals were made, I was expecting to write "Congrats to Fred on his 5th win. This FJ was tailor-made to reward whoever was in the lead entering FJ." But finally one of his inexplicable or arbitrary FJ wagers does him in. It's a shame as he was good enough to go on a longer run if he had just wagered better. + 1 to the people who suggest that Fred spend some time on Keith's site assuming his 4 wins will still be good enough to get him into the TOC.

And Fred can explain for himself, but I doubt he held back due to the FJ category; he had been making similar wagers during his entire run, and he has a good knowledge base anyway. Besides, FJ category is never a good factor to base an FJ wager on, except to the extent that you have to choose between a higher or lower amount within a rational betting range.

So congrats to Mara on the win. It was funny to see the Venn diagram clue come up, given her avatar on this board; and a shame she couldn't get in on that clue. I look forward to her game against fellow boardie Chris tomorrow.

I thought the DD she missed (lung lobes) was tough, and certainly more difficult than the SARS clue in the $2,000 box below it.

Instaget FJ for me. During the commercial break I thought "I'll bet this will be something by Gilbert & Sullivan," and the first musical that came to my mind was the Mikado . . .

LT with Billy Madison; Old Man & the Sea (on the DD); eject; barge; siege; and Inception.

I had "least common multiple" for "lowest common multiple." I'm assuming that would have been accepted?

[doihavetoreally]

Congrats to boardies Mara and skullturf (sorry didn't get the name). It might be a huge swing of emotions seeing Fred's answer Mikado and then realizing that he didn't cover Mara.
I had some great misses this game - Panda for elephant is what I remember currently. Imagine a Panda carrying WW supplies..

I also got 'complementary' thanks to last nights test...was lungs/lobes DD common J fodder? I might not be paying attention over the years.

Fred was very good during the run and hopefully can overcome this crushing mistake. See you in TOC!

[OSXpert]

I had "least common multiple" for "lowest common multiple." I'm assuming that would have been accepted?

That is the preferred version, so definitely.

[Category 13]

So, clearly, he just bets random numbers........but at least that explains his bizarre wagers.

Some of us already knew this.

I have to wonder if Fred held back on his wager due to the category.

Doubtful

Fred's FJ wagering strategy can best be summerized as this:
He over bet in his first two games, then alternated between under betting and over betting in his remaining games.

Don't hang your head, Fred. We're pulling for you to make the ToC and by that time, you'll have gotten the retro tutorial for good wagering.

[DefCon4]

I had "least common multiple" for "lowest common multiple." I'm assuming that would have been accepted?

I gave myself credit for that. If anything, it's more standard than "lowest."