Thursday, March 30, 2017 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[BKavett]

I do not understand Julie's wager at all. She ran the theatre category yesterday so she was clearly knowledgeable about the topic. I expected her to wager it all.

FJ was a frickin' gimmie. All I had to do was glance at it and see "30 years" and it was obviously Les Mis. The British productions of Les Mis and Phantom are the only musicals to run 30+ years. Nothing else (except Phantom on Broadway) even comes anywhere close.

[BigDaddyMatty]

Should I know that Idaho has lots of Mormons? I went with coin flipping Illinois/Indiana since I figured it made sense for a Bible Belt state.

There are lots of reasons you could know it, but the easiest path is that Idaho is adjacent to Utah whereas the other three "I" states are all halfway across the country.

[OrangeSAM]

Should I know that Idaho has lots of Mormons? I went with coin flipping Illinois/Indiana since I figured it made sense for a Bible Belt state.

Mormons are mostly found in the West. Think Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and, yes, Idaho.

The Mormons were violently evicted from Illinois. Nauvoo in a thousand years would I answer Illinois.

[theamazingchong]

Should I know that Idaho has lots of Mormons? I went with coin flipping Illinois/Indiana since I figured it made sense for a Bible Belt state.

Mormons are mostly found in the West. Think Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and, yes, Idaho.

The Mormons were violently evicted from Illinois. Nauvoo in a thousand years would I answer Illinois.

I was thinking of Nauvoo when I went for Illinois--the bit about them getting kicked out (and Joseph Smith getting killed by an angry mob) escaped me.

Should've remembered that the other BYU campuses (outside of the main campus in Provo) are in Idaho and Hawaii.

[TenPoundHammer]

Should I know that Idaho has lots of Mormons? I went with coin flipping Illinois/Indiana since I figured it made sense for a Bible Belt state.

There are lots of reasons you could know it, but the easiest path is that Idaho is adjacent to Utah whereas the other three "I" states are all halfway across the country.

But the other three "I" states are still in the Bible Belt, where I figured it made perfect sense for an unnaturally high concentration of any given Christian religion to be, regardless of where said religion started.

[dhkendall]

Should I know that Idaho has lots of Mormons? I went with coin flipping Illinois/Indiana since I figured it made sense for a Bible Belt state.

There are lots of reasons you could know it, but the easiest path is that Idaho is adjacent to Utah whereas the other three "I" states are all halfway across the country.

But the other three "I" states are still in the Bible Belt, where I figured it made perfect sense for an unnaturally high concentration of any given Christian religion to be, regardless of where said religion started.

I would say, moreso than most other times you claim to argue your way of thinking even when we demonstrate why it was incorrect, that your thought pattern here was somewhat logical, but it falls apart when you look at it. I'm sure you know that most Mormons are located in Utah. I'm sure you also know that Utah is located outside the Bible Belt. So, if the main Mormon concentration is not located in the Bible Belt, there should be no reason to assume the rest of it is. (Protip: the Bible Belt mainly contains large concentrations of Protestants, which Mormons are generally not considered part of (some say they're a third branch of Western Christianity, or a Christian sect, some say they're a new religion altogether. But this isn't germane to my main point.)

[IronNeck]

Of course, Eric should be counting his blessings, too. Getting all 3 DDs correct and actually trailing heading into FJ is something I have never, ever seen on the show before. Archive sleuths?

I found 24 games in the Archive where that happened, the most recent being March 18, 2016.

ETA: Even rarer is getting all three DDs wrong and still leading going into FJ — I could only find 12 such occasions.

Ah, thank you! So indeed, such an instance is very rare; just under once per season.

Considering that the leader also lost while getting FJ correct, we have a unique game indeed.

[alietr]

I can only hope Eric finds a stronger pair of glasses before his next game. I can't remember anyone squinting that badly before.

I've been within a few hundred miles of Iguazu Falls four or five times and wasn't able to get there. I will someday.

The Iguana Falls was pretty funny (the video; not Eric's response).

[Foretopman]

On the Kryptos clue, I said "secret" instead of "hidden". Judges?

I don't think I know the word "toric". I was stuck on "toroidal" but knew that I couldn't get that out of "microsoft". Didn't know Les Mis is 30 years old, but nothing else made sense. I did have to toss a coin (mentally) whether to abbreviate it and risk that not being accepted or to try to spell it out and risk mangling the spelling too badly to be accepted. In the end I spelled the full name correctly.

[goatman]

Goats bleated out "HAMILTON" going down the wrong Revolutionary path... DOH, FRENCH Revolution you silly Goat!

Not too bad though, 48R & LT: Iguasu Falls, Nora Roberts. NHO: TORIC, also gave TORUS. IMHO Hamilton & TORUS could be polls!

[silverscreentest]

Officially, CIA Headquarters is called the "George Bush Center for Intelligence".

Apparently there is an athletic shoe store called Iguana Falls in a Budapest outlet mall.

Get enough drama kids in a room together and eventually they'll sing "One Day More" from Les Miserables. And it's the June Rebellion or the Paris Uprising of 1832, NOT the French Revolution.

[econgator]

On the Kryptos clue, I said "secret" instead of "hidden". Judges?

I don't think so. "Secret" is something like "mystikos".

[Elijah Baley]

FJ: Embarrassingly, I confidently stated Evita. Thought Les Miserables was much older.

Well, you're certainly feel older by the end of Les Miserables. (The "Forbidden Broadway" lyric on point is "At the end of the play, you're another year older!").

And I had a feeling there would be a few Evita guesses. It's about 10 years off as it opened in 1978, as opposed 1987 for Les Mis.

[Robert K S]

I've always felt TOM is used incorrectly a lot on this board. As the definition says it's supposed to be a measure (metric)

The definition says it's a "qualitative 'measure'" (in quotes), implying it's not a measure, and also specifically says that it's not a metric at all. The word has always been more or less synonymous with "hint", but more precisely, a peripheral hint that leads to the correct response by an analogical association. For example, if the clue read, "Ba-ba-ba, she won gold for Canada in figure skating in 1948 at the age of 19", you might be led to "Barbara Ann Scott" via the clue's allusion to the Beach Boys song. That "Ba-ba-ba", or the ability it provides to arrive at the response, is the TOM.

[Foretopman]

On the Kryptos clue, I said "secret" instead of "hidden". Judges?

I don't think so. "Secret" is something like "mystikos".

That's what I was afraid of. Thanks.

[heppm01]

With all the recent talk about questionable FJ wagers, I find myself wondering: How long do the contestants have to write their bet?

[alietr]

With all the recent talk about questionable FJ wagers, I find myself wondering: How long do the contestants have to write their bet?

You're allowed to take as long as you want. But at some point, the contestant coordinators will start hovering over you in an attempt to get you to write something down. You do get an entirely reasonable amount of time.

[This Is Kirk!]

I've always felt TOM is used incorrectly a lot on this board. As the definition says it's supposed to be a measure (metric)

The definition says it's a "qualitative 'measure'" (in quotes), implying it's not a measure, and also specifically says that it's not a metric at all. The word has always been more or less synonymous with "hint", but more precisely, a peripheral hint that leads to the correct response by an analogical association. For example, if the clue read, "Ba-ba-ba, she won gold for Canada in figure skating in 1948 at the age of 19", you might be led to "Barbara Ann Scott" via the clue's allusion to the Beach Boys song. That "Ba-ba-ba", or the ability it provides to arrive at the response, is the TOM.

I know that's how many people use it, but that's not a metric. Why not just call it a Tease Out (TO) then?

A "tease out metric" should mean how easily the clue is teased out.

[Foretopman]

I know that's how many people use it, but that's not a metric. Why not just call it a Tease Out (TO) then?

A "tease out metric" should mean how easily the clue is teased out.

Mostly because it's a back-ronym and a joke. As the glossary implies, the M is there only to make it a reference to Tom Kelso.

(I'm not as much a newbie as I appear; I used to post under a different handle on the old [Sony] board.)

[This Is Kirk!]

I know that's how many people use it, but that's not a metric. Why not just call it a Tease Out (TO) then?

A "tease out metric" should mean how easily the clue is teased out.

Mostly because it's a back-ronym and a joke. As the glossary implies, the M is there only to make it a reference to Tom Kelso.

I admit that's pretty good, but the glossary does say:

A clue for which a common-knowledge correct response may be readily analogically derived is said to have a high TOM; a clue/response pair with a very low TOM is said to be pure trivia.

To me this implies that it is intended as a metric whether or not it's really quantifiable.