Tuesday, November 7, 2017 Game Recap and Discussion [SPOILERS]

[dhkendall]

As an obsessive map/atlas nerd in my childhood, "What is Lesotho?" in FJ! was an insta-get for me, since it is not only landlocked, but is also an enclave, and is further south than Swaziland.

Also an obsessive map nerd since I was a kid - I remember the atlases in my school library all had my name and no other all over the sign-out card (those that weren't in the reference section of course). I bet 35 years later they still probably only have my name on them because what dork signs out atlases? (Well, I doubt they'd keep atlases that are over 40 years old ... ) My prize possession, sitting just a few feet from me, is an atlas from, by what I can tell of the maps and the footnotes denoting breaking changes, early September 1939 . Still absolutely adore maps.

As to FJ, I got it instantly, then second guessed myself. "Wait, I know Swaziland is a kingdom, maybe it's - " but then I realized "nah, Swaziland is also bordered by Mozambique, so it isn't landlocked. Lesotho it is!" Thankfully, confusing "landlocked" and "enclaved" in the heat of the moment helped me.

Am I the only one who blurted out "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" on that one clue, deliberately omitting the superfluous "What is?'?

That's something I've always wondered, and might ask at my next audition (or in the Green Room if I forget), what is the rule if the response is also a question? It comes up not that infrequently, and they seem to be inconsistent on what the rule is (for example, in the SPANISH INQUISITION category in this game (with the famous "Who pays for the wall?" response), both responses not preceded by "what is", and responses that are (after an off-screen non-verbal stare-down prompting from Alex when the plain version is given) are accepted. Does anyone know if there is a rule about responses that are questions in their own right?

[This Is Kirk!]

The clue about the injuries by helicopter of Dr. Romano on ER was familiar to any lLama.

That particular clue makes me think one of the Jeopardy! writers may be a Llama.

I got FJ and it came down to a decision between whether Swaziland or Lesotho was farther south. I assumed all three players would have one of these two countries.

I wish we could hear from Tim and Lilly about how their guesses for southernmost came to be 2 countries in Asia, one of them in the Himalayas. Maybe they misread the clue?

I'll bet they went down the wrong path and just couldn't extricate themselves. That 30 seconds can go by awfully fast! My mind went to Australia first and kind of worked out from there. When I realized there were no landlocked countries anywhere near there I went to South America and Africa.

[seaborgium]

Am I the only one who blurted out "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" on that one clue, deliberately omitting the superfluous "What is?'?

That's something I've always wondered, and might ask at my next audition (or in the Green Room if I forget), what is the rule if the response is also a question? It comes up not that infrequently, and they seem to be inconsistent on what the rule is (for example, in the SPANISH INQUISITION category in this game (with the famous "Who pays for the wall?" response), both responses not preceded by "what is", and responses that are (after an off-screen non-verbal stare-down prompting from Alex when the plain version is given) are accepted. Does anyone know if there is a rule about responses that are questions in their own right?

The rule is no more than "responses must be phrased in the form of a question." That means if you give a title that's already a question in itself (or could be construed as a question by its phrasing, like Who Framed Roger Rabbit), you're good and they can't neg you if it's the correct title.

I got FJ. Somehow "kingdom" and "southernmost" made me think of Tonga first, but of course an island nation isn't landlocked. I was able to jump to Africa, which I know has three kingdoms: Morocco, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Between the latter two, I just had to trust that my mental image of Lesotho being submerged in South Africa with Swaziland bubbling to the surface was good enough to put Lesotho farther south. (If you consider SA's northern border with Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe to be its surface, you'll find Swaziland nowhere near the surface. But it worked!)

[davey]

Am I the only one who blurted out "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" on that one clue, deliberately omitting the superfluous "What is?'?

That's something I've always wondered, and might ask at my next audition (or in the Green Room if I forget), what is the rule if the response is also a question? It comes up not that infrequently, and they seem to be inconsistent on what the rule is (for example, in the SPANISH INQUISITION category in this game (with the famous "Who pays for the wall?" response), both responses not preceded by "what is", and responses that are (after an off-screen non-verbal stare-down prompting from Alex when the plain version is given) are accepted. Does anyone know if there is a rule about responses that are questions in their own right?

?Do you have an example of the latter? I would think it's a case of Alex momentarily letting the rule elude him, as the contestants always seem to do. I may not know landlocked countries - and thank goodness for that tonight! - but I know this rule...

[Cat Hammarskjold]

Thanks to the Only Connect Facebook group for listing 4 countries wholly below the tropic of Capricorn this week (Uruguay, New Zealand, Swaziland, Lesotho from what I recall). I guessed luckily to get Lesotho over Swaziland.

This was well played game overall - all three with deep gets. I bet the spiciest memelord burrito is better than the beer.

I fixed my 4(!) 2000$ negs from yesterday and was pushing 40000 Coryat. If only that last category wasn't opera (say both Tim and Lilly).

Interestingly enough, I had posted that connection in the group because in a yet-to-be-aired Complete the List game

Spoiler

where I played extremely poorly throughout, I at one point guessed Uruguay as a top producer of coffee when trying to think of tropical countries in the last go around.

[rouquinne]

As an obsessive map/atlas nerd in my childhood, "What is Lesotho?" in FJ! was an insta-get for me, since it is not only landlocked, but is also an enclave, and is further south than Swaziland.

Also an obsessive map nerd since I was a kid

"raises hand"

Obsessive map nerds of the world unite!



When I was 13, my grandfather gave me a GIANT National Geographic atlas of the world - and I looked at that thing until it fell apart!

[sims]

Didn't keep track of coryat last night because when I watch with family I don't do that.
Didn't know FJ... well, I knew it was "that country that's inside South Africa" but I kept thinking Namibia for some reason... Geography is not my strong point. Got all DDs.

Lach Trash: Purple, Donny, Mozart

[John Boy]

I wasn't sure Lesotho was a kingdom but couldn't think what other African countries were so I went with it.

My first thought was also Lesotho, and I also was unsure whether it was a kingdom, so I talked myself out of it.

What else? How about something else in the region? OK, Namibia (or to all you Trump fans, Nambia). Which was also correct, except for, well, you know, a few hundred miles of Atlantic coastline. And probably not a kingdom either...not gonna look it up.

Hate talking myself out of a correct FJ.

LT: (Astrozenica) is the PURPLE pill (with all those damned TV ads, they still missed!?); maul (hammer) and yes, I had to sink the Bismarck. $4K in LT didn't get me nearly out of 4th place at the 4th podium. Good solid games by all three, and also glad to see they played the odds that their fine scores would hold up and advance them to the next round. My guess is they're right and we'll see all three next week.'

[AndyTheQuizzer]

LT: (Astrozenica) is the PURPLE pill (with all those damned TV ads, they still missed!?);

they didn't miss. they STAYed CLAM. there is a difference.

[squarekara]

Am I the only one who blurted out "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" on that one clue, deliberately omitting the superfluous "What is?'?

That's something I've always wondered, and might ask at my next audition (or in the Green Room if I forget), what is the rule if the response is also a question? It comes up not that infrequently, and they seem to be inconsistent on what the rule is (for example, in the SPANISH INQUISITION category in this game (with the famous "Who pays for the wall?" response), both responses not preceded by "what is", and responses that are (after an off-screen non-verbal stare-down prompting from Alex when the plain version is given) are accepted. Does anyone know if there is a rule about responses that are questions in their own right?

The rule is no more than "responses must be phrased in the form of a question." That means if you give a title that's already a question in itself (or could be construed as a question by its phrasing, like Who Framed Roger Rabbit), you're good and they can't neg you if it's the correct title.

In the game that aired 11/3/17 a category called for question-within-the-question responses, and players had to remember the extra "What is. . .?" Keep in mind that there are actual correct answers to questions such as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" No spoilers here, but a particular character's name would have to be the given clue in order for the title of the book/play/movie to function as a correct response. It seems too diabolical for the writers to go down this path, but it could happen. If something comes up like this, whether it's "Where's the beef?" or "Quo vadis, Domine?" I'd definitely add that "What is. . .?" Now, what about forgetting to put a question mark on FJ?

[dhkendall]

Am I the only one who blurted out "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" on that one clue, deliberately omitting the superfluous "What is?'?

That's something I've always wondered, and might ask at my next audition (or in the Green Room if I forget), what is the rule if the response is also a question? It comes up not that infrequently, and they seem to be inconsistent on what the rule is (for example, in the SPANISH INQUISITION category in this game (with the famous "Who pays for the wall?" response), both responses not preceded by "what is", and responses that are (after an off-screen non-verbal stare-down prompting from Alex when the plain version is given) are accepted. Does anyone know if there is a rule about responses that are questions in their own right?

The rule is no more than "responses must be phrased in the form of a question." That means if you give a title that's already a question in itself (or could be construed as a question by its phrasing, like Who Framed Roger Rabbit), you're good and they can't neg you if it's the correct title.

In the game that aired 11/3/17 a category called for question-within-the-question responses, and players had to remember the extra "What is. . .?" Keep in mind that there are actual correct answers to questions such as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" No spoilers here, but a particular character's name would have to be the given clue in order for the title of the book/play/movie to function as a correct response. It seems too diabolical for the writers to go down this path, but it could happen. If something comes up like this, whether it's "Where's the beef?" or "Quo vadis, Domine?" I'd definitely add that "What is. . .?" Now, what about forgetting to put a question mark on FJ?

For the 11/4/16 show (I assume that's the one you were referring to), 4 of the 5 were accepted without the extra "what is". For example, $600:

Clue: "¿Cuantos años tienes?"
Rachel: "How old are you?"
Alex: "Correct"

However, $800:

Clue: "¿Hablas aleman?"
Rachel: What is, "Do you speak French?"
Alex: "No. Donna."
Donna: "Do you speak German? What is 'do you speak German?'"
Alex: Thank you.

The "thank you" tells me that he was waiting for the proper phrasing. However, for the famous $1000 clue:

Clue: "¿Quien paga por el muro?"
Donna: "Who pays for the ... wall?"
Alex: "Right."
Donna: [Laughs] "Really?"
Rachel: "Oh!"
[Laughter]
Donna: "What is, 'who pays for the wall?'"

She was ruled right well before she rephrased it properly. And, as I pointed out, the first three weren't done in the quirky Jeopardy! phrasing but were accepted because they were properly formed questions.

Caveat 1: This was the J! round. However, aside from maybe something off-camera on $800, there was no prompting to phrase Jeopardy-style
Caveat 2: Exact wordings are done from a combination of j-archive and my memory of watching it last week on Daytime J!

[squarekara]

Regarding the previous post by dhkendall: No, I was actually referring to an episode that aired 11/3. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember Monica Ashar gave the response of "Is it I?" then immediately caught herself and said 'What is "Is it I?"' (I didn't see the 11/4 show.)

[BigDaddyMatty]

Coryat: $26,000
39 R/3 W
DD: 3/3
FJ:
LT: sugar maple, purple

I, too, have Cat Hammarskjold's Only Connect FB post to thank for getting me to the right response on FJ! I knew Swaziland was a kingdom, but I trusted my mental map just enough to stick with Lesotho.

I'm not sure Jason would have been able to live with himself had he been beaten to the punch on the trio of pro wrestlers. He might be all-time biggest wrestling fan among J! champions.

Judges: tundrapplication for icecapplication? It is a region that can be polar and is primarily frozen.

[This Is Kirk!]

Judges: tundrapplication for icecapplication? It is a region that can be polar and is primarily frozen.

That's what my wife said, too. I'd give it to you.

[cinemaniax7]

Glad to see I wasn't the only person to guess Swaziland.

[Elijah Baley]

Glad to see I wasn't the only person to guess Swaziland.

It sounds like most folks thought of Swaziland or Lesotho but not both. Because yeah, had I thought of both, I would have probably picked the wrong one.

[zerobandwidth]

Judges: tundrapplication for icecapplication? It is a region that can be polar and is primarily frozen.

An interesting alternative subject to too much Judges' Whim™.

A "tundra" is typically characterized as a land area in which the subsoil is frozen but the surface thaws and freezes annually, supporting vegetation during the warm seasons. Since the clue refers to "a planet's", and not only Earth's, polar regions, the judges could argue that the response needs to apply to any planet with polar ice (Mars, for example) which might or might not grow cyclicly or support life. On the other hand, we've seen scoring corrections in season 34 which gave away much more lenient judgments than this one. I would have leaned toward accepting "tundrapplication" mostly because it forms a single word, unlike "ice capplication".

Overall I found the "Overlaps" category to be a fun and interesting variant of the usual "Before and After" theme. But then, wordplay is my wheelhouse, so I'm biased.

[WJMorris3]

MYANMAR
HAS SADLY MEANT
WORST ANSWER
OF THE
TOURNAMENT
BURMA SHAME

[CasketRomance]

MYANMAR
HAS SADLY MEANT
WORST ANSWER
OF THE
TOURNAMENT
BURMA SHAME

i think it is a worse answer than the answer given by the woman a few weeks ago when she said colorado rockies for the team that marcus allen played...geography is an academic category, so not sure why people on jeopardy struggle so much with it

[opusthepenguin]

Glad to see I wasn't the only person to guess Swaziland.

It sounds like most folks thought of Swaziland or Lesotho but not both. Because yeah, had I thought of both, I would have probably picked the wrong one.

I think I'm seeing just as many posts by people who chose between the two, whether correctly or incorrectly. You can add me to that list on the correct side. I wasn't sure Lesotho was a kingdom and more sure Swaziland was. But on the map in my head, Lesotho was slightly further south. The map in my head isn't always right, but I felt this time it probably was, so I went with it.



NOTE: This is not a picture of the map in my head. On that map, Lesotho was further west.