Friday, December 16, 2016 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[CailinGaoilge]

Even more in awe. A great game by all three players, but Cindy shone.

Her inspirational run is being picked up by the media now; most of them are mainly recycling J!'s press release, but this one is more substantial and touching. Though none of the media coverage seems to have picked up on the fact that Cindy could well have earned herself a TOC berth tonight that she didn't live to claim

[WooWho?]

Kicking myself on FJ!. Had Belize at first, put down El Salvador next, then scratched out Belize and put Honduras instead. Dangit. Oh well, I ran Foreign Currencies in DJ!, so I'll be consoled with that.

After yesterday, I thought Cindy was just about exhausted...but boy am I glad to be proved wrong! Go, Cindy, go!

[This Is Kirk!]

I wonder if Alex was told about her condition ahead of time. I read somewhere that she got in touch with somebody on Jeopardy's staff and asked if she could move up her taping day, if she qualified, so somebody must have known. The reason I wonder is that I was surprised during the contestant interviews that he called her frail. (He may not have used that exact word, but that was definitely the gist of it.)

He did use that precise word, which I thought was in poor taste regardless of whether or not he knew of her condition (more since he did, of course).

I feel like it's just Alex being Alex. Not a great word choice, but he inserts his foot in his mouth slightly from time to time. He seems to be treating her just like any other contestant, and I think that's what he should have done. Purely speculating, but I doubt Cindy would have wanted to be coddled.

[opusthepenguin]

Here's the video. Give it a ten minutes to show up:

https://vimeo.com/196049373

[IronNeck]

Congratulations to Cindy for getting another one! Would definitely be awesome if her results qualified her for the ToC.

Alex always makes me laugh when he informs the contestants that a Triple Stumper is "before your time". In this case, it was with "Bobby Riggs", a clue that I, and probably most sports fans, got instantly. At 29, I think I'm younger than any of the three contestants today, too.

Got LT of 1960s, Bobby Riggs, Ayn Rand, Destry Rides Again, three-peat, and William Lloyd Garrison.

Had a very good game overall, but sadly, missed FJ. Went with Belize and Guatemala instead. Yuck. Like others, impressed that all three players got it.

Erin was a very solid contestant who, quite unfortunately, had the worst luck with Daily Doubles that I've seen in a long time. I was hopeful that she'd win if Cindy couldn't build upon her three-peat.

At what point did this "worst luck" factor in, exactly? Erin had EXCELLENT luck in getting all 3 DDs despite not hunting for them. That's an enormous advantage usually enough for a victory by itself.

That she got all 3 DDs wrong is not a failure of "luck" but of knowledge. All 3 DDs were reasonable and/or come up on the show constantly. In fact, I'm confident that the other two contestants knew all 3 of them cold.

[This Is Kirk!]

That she got all 3 DDs wrong is not a failure of "luck" but of knowledge. All 3 DDs were reasonable and come up on the show constantly. In fact, I'm confident that the other two contestants knew all 3 of them cold.

I can say that I didn't know the Kwanzaa one and didn't think it'd been around that long. In retrospect it seems like it would have been something that would have been created in the '60s "Black Power" movement, but I didn't really hear much about until at least the late '80s. I probably would have guessed the '80s.

[IronNeck]

That she got all 3 DDs wrong is not a failure of "luck" but of knowledge. All 3 DDs were reasonable and come up on the show constantly. In fact, I'm confident that the other two contestants knew all 3 of them cold.

I can say that I didn't know the Kwanzaa one and didn't think it'd been around that long. In retrospect it seems like it would have been something that would have been created in the '60s "Black Power" movement, but I didn't really hear much about until at least the late '80s.

Fair enough. And I can probably see other trivia minds much better than me (not just yourself) going 2/3, either because of Kwanzaa or not following sports. But going 0/3 isn't "bad luck", it's lack of knowledge.

[This Is Kirk!]

That she got all 3 DDs wrong is not a failure of "luck" but of knowledge. All 3 DDs were reasonable and come up on the show constantly. In fact, I'm confident that the other two contestants knew all 3 of them cold.

I can say that I didn't know the Kwanzaa one and didn't think it'd been around that long. In retrospect it seems like it would have been something that would have been created in the '60s "Black Power" movement, but I didn't really hear much about until at least the late '80s.

Fair enough. And I can probably see other trivia minds much better than me (not just yourself) going 2/3, either because of Kwanzaa or not following sports. But going 0/3 isn't "bad luck", it's lack of knowledge.

Agreed. She really needed to pull out at least one of those.

[BigDaddyMatty]

Coryat: $41,400
50 R/2 W
DD: 3/3
FJ:
LT: empower, 1960s (DD), Bobby Riggs, asbestos, Ayn Rand (DD), one-sided, three-peat (DD)

Cindy is an absolute titan. Regardless of the outcome of Monday's game, she is a superchamp.

Erin was a very solid contestant who, quite unfortunately, had the worst luck with Daily Doubles that I've seen in a long time. I was hopeful that she'd win if Cindy couldn't build upon her three-peat.

I see what you did there.

One-sided doesn't really strike me as a "contest" term. I can understand the stand and stare.

"Contest" in this context refers to a competition, e.g. a sporting event. "One-sided" is a common way to describe a football game, fight, etc.

[Blue Lion]

Even more in awe. A great game by all three players, but Cindy shone. (

Cindy is not only a four-time winner, but she had to defeat formidable opponents to win those games. This week of Jeopardy ranks as my all-time favorite.

[harrumph]

Thank you Cindy for giving us the pleasure of watching you.

They really ought to show her games again during the summer repeats.

[Johnblue]

I ran the DJ board until the 1st two clues in Numbers and then I got the rest.easy FJ evidently. I got it fairly quickly myself. It's a pleasure to watch Cindy win.

[IronNeck]

I've seen posts here about board members behind on watching and catching up. A trip, sickness, work schedule...I get how those things happen. 10 weeks worth of shows? There is no better preparation for doing well on the show than watching faithfully. It should be a habit and not a chore.

This is an interesting point and one that I've been mulling over for a few hours. I was thinking if there was a scenario where cramming that many shows in a very short space of time would be beneficial.

The only scenario that I can come up with is someone consistently hitting $35k+ Coryats that wants to prepare for the rigors of possibly playing 5 games a day when they get on the show. Clearly, based on his play, this doesn't apply to Michael.

Other than that, I don't see the point of this, either.

[boson]

I wonder if Alex was told about her condition ahead of time.

He knew. This is the latest story about her, today in the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/us/ci ... death.html

Thanks for the link.
So the NYT is now embedding tweets in their online stories like some blog? Ok..

But, they quote Heelsrule! (and another less prolific boardie or two). Take a screenshot and update your CV!

[georgespelvin]

I wonder if Alex was told about her condition ahead of time. I read somewhere that she got in touch with somebody on Jeopardy's staff and asked if she could move up her taping day, if she qualified, so somebody must have known. The reason I wonder is that I was surprised during the contestant interviews that he called her frail. (He may not have used that exact word, but that was definitely the gist of it.)

He did use that precise word, which I thought was in poor taste regardless of whether or not he knew of her condition (more since he did, of course).

I feel like it's just Alex being Alex. Not a great word choice, but he inserts his foot in his mouth slightly from time to time. He seems to be treating her just like any other contestant, and I think that's what he should have done. Purely speculating, but I doubt Cindy would have wanted to be coddled.

I agree. I winced at Alex's use of the words "delicate and frail", but he was using them for contrast to introduce Cindy's story of having played rugby in college. Of course, if Cindy used to be rugged looking before her illness, that comment would be in truly poor taste. However, Cindy included this as a story that could be used on the air, and obviously (from the on-air exchange) was not built for rugby in college. Also purely speculating, but I also doubt that Cindy would have wanted to be treated differently than any other contestant.

Although Cindy isn't like just any other contestant. She had a score of 15,400 going into Final Jeopardy without the benefit of a Daily Double. How often does that happen? While I don't think that Cindy's opponents were quite as tough as Thursday's, they were still quite good.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why I got so upset, but I yelled "oh come on!" at the TV when William Lloyd Garrison was a Triple Stumper. William Lloyd Garrison="The Liberator" would seem to be a basic fact in American history to know for the show. Then again, American history is my best subject (as I have been reminded from my Learned League experience).

[Stanislaus Jacob]

It is not the phrasing I personally would have used, but I think Erin had "bad luck" in the sense that she obviously knew a lot, but not the three clues that TPTB had semi-randomly selected as Daily Doubles. That makes her different from the players we have occasionally who, although they obviously knew enough to pass the test, just do very poorly overall once on the show.

[IronNeck]

It is not the phrasing I personally would have used, but I think Erin had "bad luck" in the sense that she obviously knew a lot, but not the three clues that TPTB had semi-randomly selected as Daily Doubles.

Erin finished 2nd in the Coryats with $12,600, slightly ahead of 3rd place, who had $11,200. In other words, if you take out those 3 DDs, she still loses to Cindy. Her Coryat and performance is very much in line with an average-strength Jeopardy contestant.

Sure, the average 2nd/3rd place Jeopardy contestant "knows a lot", but at that point it becomes a meaningless descriptor one can assign to the vast majority of people on the show.

[MarkBarrett]

Another benefit of Cindy's extended run is the work of a certain archivist to input her games in a timely manner. It's very rare (at least this season) to have 4/5 games for the week in by the ensuing Saturday morning.

[Austin Powers]

Is she in the TOC? I am too lazy to look.

If so, I feel regardless of the category, the answer should be her name. In fact I would just tell first podium you're picking Cindys for $200 and be done with it.

I don't think you can just do the empty podium - though given some of the champs this year it would be an improvement.

But she needs some kind of acknowledgment.

[John Boy]

I was also impressed to see this FJ a triple-get. I once had an entire year class (8th grade) in Western Hemisphere geography. He looooovvvveeeed South America and we studied it all year long. I guess the teacher assumed we knew about North America and said basically nothing about it. Central America similarly got short schrift, and it has been a weak spot for me ever since. On this one I went with Belize and Honduras. Oh well.

LT on empower, Maccabee, Bobby Riggs (being of a certain age helps once again), Calamity Jane (ditto) and Destry Rides Again (double ditto).

Yes, it really must be an odd, bittersweet experience for Cindy's loved ones to watch these games. Sigh.