The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

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BigDaddyMatty
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by BigDaddyMatty »

seaborgium wrote: Tue May 15, 2018 11:39 pm
TenPoundHammer wrote: Tue May 15, 2018 10:42 pm
seaborgium wrote: Tue May 15, 2018 10:33 pm
TenPoundHammer wrote: Tue May 15, 2018 7:27 pm No guess on FJ! Even when he spotted the other 5, I had no idea that Arabic was the missing one. And I wouldn't remotely consider Arabic "cursive".
And what do you think "cursive" means?
The etymology of the word seems to come from a Latin word for "running". What does that have to do with Arabic?
You didn't answer my question.
Not only that, it's a particularly galling non-answer. Your comment suggests that you looked up the definition of "cursive," skipped over the actual definition, and focused myopically on the etymology. So how about going back and actually reading the definition?

The reason you "wouldn't remotely consider Arabic 'cursive'" is because you don't understand what the word "cursive" means. You therefore didn't have the requisite knowledge base to solve this FJ! That's fine. It happens to all of us. Read about what you didn't know, do your best to commit this new knowledge to memory, and come back and try again tomorrow.
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by Bamaman »

I got it right, but I also considered Chinese. It is hard to picture a language that uses symbols and decide if that would be considered cursive.

But my cursive writing in English looks like Chinese, so I’m not the best judge. :lol:
TenPoundHammer

Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by TenPoundHammer »

BigDaddyMatty wrote: Wed May 16, 2018 3:04 am Not only that, it's a particularly galling non-answer. Your comment suggests that you looked up the definition of "cursive," skipped over the actual definition, and focused myopically on the etymology. So how about going back and actually reading the definition?
That etymology does give the idea of it meaning letters that are connected. I know what Arabic looks like but never really processed it as being "connected" in the same way English cursive is.
Read about what you didn't know, do your best to commit this new knowledge to memory, and come back and try again tomorrow.
And then have it leak back out of my head again tomorrow.

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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by tiwonge »

When I took a class on Arabic, the first thing we did was learn the alphabet. Each letter has four forms--its unconnected form, what it looks like when it is the first letter of the word, what it looks like as the last letter of the word, and what it looks like connected on both sides. (For some letters, some of these forms are the same, because they don't connect to the next letter.) But the reason we had to learn all the forms immediately is because Arabic is only written as connected letters. Unlike in, say, English, we can't just learn what A/a looks like, and then recognize that letter in words. The unconnected letter will not show up in writing.
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by RoJo »

This popped up on Jeopardy! World Tour last night:
JWT Question
JWT Question
cursive.png (180.7 KiB) Viewed 4608 times
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by MarkBarrett »

A strip of land between two oceans. If you can't do that then yes, you have no chance.

This regular clue had extra help with the category name: #4980, aired 2006-04-14 "I" MEAN IT $400: It's a narrow strip of land, with water on both sides, that connects 2 larger bodies of land
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by TenPoundHammer »

MarkBarrett wrote: Thu May 24, 2018 9:52 pm A strip of land between two oceans. If you can't do that then yes, you have no chance.
I know what an isthmus is. However, I didn't process the clue as meaning "strip of land between two oceans". I thought it meant "strip of land" as in something like the Gaza Strip. And I couldn't picture a place in Mexico where an ocean-to-ocean link could've occurred. The correct response made no sense to me, because if it's referring to Panama, then there's kinda the rest of Central America in the way first.
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by MarkBarrett »

TenPoundHammer wrote: Thu May 24, 2018 10:00 pm
MarkBarrett wrote: Thu May 24, 2018 9:52 pm A strip of land between two oceans. If you can't do that then yes, you have no chance.
I know what an isthmus is. However, I didn't process the clue as meaning "strip of land between two oceans". I thought it meant "strip of land" as in something like the Gaza Strip. And I couldn't picture a place in Mexico where an ocean-to-ocean link could've occurred. The correct response made no sense to me, because if it's referring to Panama, then there's kinda the rest of Central America in the way first.
Fair enough as the Thursday thread is showing different ways the clue led board members astray.

It has nothing to do with Panama. This shows the area: https://www.britannica.com/media/full/379167/61468
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by BigDaddyMatty »

TenPoundHammer wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 7:30 pm I thought that The Miracle Worker was initially a book, so I spent the entire 30 seconds figuring that I had no idea who wrote that. "Cigar" seemed entirely irrelevant so I tuned it out as background noise, and thus had no guess.
It is rare to have irrelevant information in a FJ! clue. This has been mentioned several times in this thread.
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by TenPoundHammer »

BigDaddyMatty wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 8:08 pm
TenPoundHammer wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 7:30 pm I thought that The Miracle Worker was initially a book, so I spent the entire 30 seconds figuring that I had no idea who wrote that. "Cigar" seemed entirely irrelevant so I tuned it out as background noise, and thus had no guess.
It is rare to have irrelevant information in a FJ! clue. This has been mentioned several times in this thread.
Then why have I found so many clues to the contrary?
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by 1stlvlthinker »

TenPoundHammer wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 9:55 pm
BigDaddyMatty wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 8:08 pm
TenPoundHammer wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 7:30 pm I thought that The Miracle Worker was initially a book, so I spent the entire 30 seconds figuring that I had no idea who wrote that. "Cigar" seemed entirely irrelevant so I tuned it out as background noise, and thus had no guess.
It is rare to have irrelevant information in a FJ! clue. This has been mentioned several times in this thread.
Then why have I found so many clues to the contrary?
citation please
Now swimming in the J! pool.
TenPoundHammer

Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by TenPoundHammer »

1stlvlthinker wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 9:57 pm
TenPoundHammer wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 9:55 pm
BigDaddyMatty wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 8:08 pm
TenPoundHammer wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 7:30 pm I thought that The Miracle Worker was initially a book, so I spent the entire 30 seconds figuring that I had no idea who wrote that. "Cigar" seemed entirely irrelevant so I tuned it out as background noise, and thus had no guess.
It is rare to have irrelevant information in a FJ! clue. This has been mentioned several times in this thread.
Then why have I found so many clues to the contrary?
citation please
"Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Helen Keller blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah miracle worker blah blah blah and oh yeah we said cigar too."
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by Ironhorse »

TenPoundHammer wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 10:49 pm

"Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Helen Keller blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah miracle worker blah blah blah and oh yeah we said cigar too."
Keller is not irrelevant. Her mention establishes an approximate timeframe for when the author would have lived.
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by 1stlvlthinker »

TenPoundHammer wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 10:49 pm
1stlvlthinker wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 9:57 pm
TenPoundHammer wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 9:55 pm
BigDaddyMatty wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 8:08 pm
TenPoundHammer wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 7:30 pm I thought that The Miracle Worker was initially a book, so I spent the entire 30 seconds figuring that I had no idea who wrote that. "Cigar" seemed entirely irrelevant so I tuned it out as background noise, and thus had no guess.
It is rare to have irrelevant information in a FJ! clue. This has been mentioned several times in this thread.
Then why have I found so many clues to the contrary?
citation please
"Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Helen Keller blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah miracle worker blah blah blah and oh yeah we said cigar too."
You thinking things are irrelevant doesn't make it so.
Now swimming in the J! pool.
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by BigDaddyMatty »

Ironhorse wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 11:05 pm
TenPoundHammer wrote: Mon May 28, 2018 10:49 pm

"Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Helen Keller blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah miracle worker blah blah blah and oh yeah we said cigar too."
Keller is not irrelevant. Her mention establishes an approximate timeframe for when the author would have lived.
This is what I took from it. Keller is an American who lived from 1880-1968 (I didn't know the exact years, but I had a general idea), so, given that the category was 19th Century Authors, it was going to be an American author who was alive near the end of the 1800s.

It turns out, though, that there's more. Per Keller's Wikipedia page, "Keller entered The Cambridge School for Young Ladies before gaining admittance, in 1900, to Radcliffe College, Harvard University where she lived in Briggs Hall, South House. Her admirer, Mark Twain, had introduced her to Standard Oil magnate Henry Huttleston Rogers, who, with his wife Abbie, paid for her education."
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by seaborgium »

I'm curious whether you got Atacama this time around; you've had a mixed history with the desert.
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by MarkBarrett »

Retorts $800 - It's a political retort about the chief of police perhaps being more powerful than the mayor. Whether the truth or not, whether funny or not, it's a retort. He was asked a question and he had a line for the comeback.

Jim Parsons plays a funny and annoying character very well. The appeal is he is a TV character and not a roomie, friend, spouse or relative. Not everyone will like him or the show and that's fine. It's 2018 with plenty of other viewing choices. If you do watch an episode of BBT just remember that man just made perhaps $900,000 or $1,000,000 for the work. Multiply that times 24 eps in a season and he is doing just fine.
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by TenPoundHammer »

seaborgium wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 1:50 am I'm curious whether you got Atacama this time around; you've had a mixed history with the desert.
I don't remember an Atacama clue at all today. Which category was it in?
MarkBarrett wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 7:48 pm Jim Parsons plays a funny and annoying character very well. The appeal is he is a TV character and not a roomie, friend, spouse or relative. Not everyone will like him or the show and that's fine. It's 2018 with plenty of other viewing choices. If you do watch an episode of BBT just remember that man just made perhaps $900,000 or $1,000,000 for the work. Multiply that times 24 eps in a season and he is doing just fine.
So being headache inducingly obnoxious is the key to stardom? Where do I sign up?
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Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by seaborgium »

TenPoundHammer wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 8:23 pm
seaborgium wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 1:50 am I'm curious whether you got Atacama this time around; you've had a mixed history with the desert.
I don't remember an Atacama clue at all today. Which category was it in?
WORLD GEOGRAPHY, $2,000: South America's most arid region is this desert in northern Chile
TenPoundHammer

Re: The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

Post by TenPoundHammer »

seaborgium wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 8:52 pm
TenPoundHammer wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 8:23 pm
seaborgium wrote: Tue May 29, 2018 1:50 am I'm curious whether you got Atacama this time around; you've had a mixed history with the desert.
I don't remember an Atacama clue at all today. Which category was it in?
WORLD GEOGRAPHY, $2,000: South America's most arid region is this desert in northern Chile
Oh, on 5/28, not today, duh. Still don't remember that clue even coming up. o.o
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