Tuesday, June 26, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Game Recap for Show #6407, 2012-06-26

CONTESTANTS
Jim Abbott, a property appraiser from St. Augustine, Florida
Jon Shoup, a graduate student of political science from Charlottesville, Virginia
Margaret Swanson, a graduate student of architecture from Somerville, Massachusetts (whose 3-day cash winnings total $48,000)

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Thank you, Johnny. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Our champion, Margaret, has mo. She has momentum. She has confidence. Started out small, but has moved up very handsomely. Jon and Jim, the two "J"s, are here to challenge. Let's see how that works out. Good luck. Here we go. Let's find out what the categories are, shall we? Good subject, followed by...

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
HEALTH & NUTRITION (4/4)
SPEECH! (4/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
WHAT'S DOT? (5/5)
B.P. (5/5)
LAST NAME'S THE SAME (5/5)
THE SCREAM ACTORS GUILD (5/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Jon: 13 R, 4 W (including 1 DD)
Jim: 9 R (including 4 rebounds), 2 W
Margaret: 6 R (including 2 rebounds), 1 W

Clues revealed: 29
Triple Stumpers: 0
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $0



JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Jon found the Daily Double on the 7th clue. Margaret had no money, Jon had $1,600, and Jim was at $400. Jon wagered $1,000.

SPEECH! $1000: In 1862 he told the Prussian Diet, "The great questions of the time" will be decided by "iron and blood"
(Jon: Who is Wilhelm?)

SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
Margaret: $2,000
Jim: $1,800
Jon: $600

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS



Alex: Jim Abbot is now a property appraiser from Florida, but he was once a-an animal control trapper.

Jim: That is correct, Alex.

Alex: And that led to some weird experiences, I understand.

Jim: It did, I have a few stories, but the best was, uh, the time I was trapping a family of raccoons in a gentleman's house, and while I was up there, my foot slipped off the ceiling joist, went right through the ceiling, into the guy's living room. He's standing right there as I'm holding myself up.

Alex: And what about the raccoons? What are they doing at this moment?

Jim: They were probably snickering, but I eventually caught 'em.

Alex: You caught 'em all?

Jim: I did, yeah.

Alex: And released them in the wild?

Jim: Always did, yes.

Alex: Okay, good.




Alex: Jon Shoup is from Charlottesville, Virginia.

Jon: That's right.

Alex: Beautiful, beautiful city.

Jon: Absolutely.

Alex: Now... on our shows...

Jon: Mm-hmm.

Alex: Sometimes they end in tears...

Jon: Yeah.

Alex: With children...

Jon: Yeah.

Alex: But you were once involved in an annual Jeopardy! tournament that always ended in tears.

Jon: Tears or screams or shouting or something. It was a family Jeopardy! tournament we had every year on Memorial Day, and we would play on the old Nintendo version of Jeopardy! and we were in teams, you know, dad, mom, and the kids, and, you know, the losing team always ended up either crying or screaming foul, and the winners were not very gracious winners.

Alex: Well, w-was there a penalty if you lost? I mean, did you have to do extra chores?

Jon: There were just--no, there were very little prizes. I think the limit on prizes was, like, a $5 gift, so the stakes weren't very high, but in my family, bragging rights is really all that matters.

Alex: $5...

Jon: Yeah.

Alex: That's what we used to award our champions in year one.




Alex: Uh, Margaret Swanson is our current champion. She's won $48,000, so we've obviously upped the ante from $5 to many thousands. Now you spent some time in a beautiful city called Prague, interning for a very famous person, I understand.

Margaret: Yes, I got to intern at Prague Castle, answering mail for president Vaclav Havel.

Alex: Wait a minute. Were you answering mail in the Czech language, or--

Margaret: No, because most people don't speak Czech, so most of the mail that comes in is in English, so there were people writing in, saying that they thought Vaclav Havel was very cool, or else they wanted to ask him for money, and they had no idea that a 20-year-old college student was answering their mail for them.

Alex: Fun time for you?

Margaret: It was nice.

Alex: Yeah, beautiful city to spend time in.

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
Jon: $4,200
Margaret: $3,800
Jim: $3,000

[Archivists]

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
SITCOM EPISODES (5/5)
ANTONYMS OF BIBLE BOOKS (5/5)
SCULPTURE (3/4)
OTHER RED, WHITE & BLUE FLAGS (3/5) (Alex: And there are a lot of them in the world.)
JOHN STEINBECK (2/4, including 1 missed Daily Double)
TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Jon: 10 R (including 1 DD), 1 W
Jim: 7 R (including 2 rebounds), 2 W
Margaret: 6 R (including 1 rebound), 3 W (including 1 DD)

Clues revealed: 28
Triple Stumpers: 4
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $7,200



FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Jon snagged the next Daily Double on the 17th clue. Margaret had $5,400, Jon had $9,800, and Jim was at $3,000. Jon wagered $2,200.

TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY $1200: Prince Charles traveled to Aberystwyth, where he learned this language to prep for a 1969 investiture
(Alex: [*] is right; he is the Prince of Wales.)

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Margaret who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 27th clue. Margaret had $8,200, Jon had $15,200, and Jim was at $6,600. Margaret wagered $2,000.

JOHN STEINBECK $1600: "Jody put out his bruised hand again, and..." this title animal "let his nose be rubbed"
(Margaret: Um, what is the mouse, from "Of Mice and Men"?)

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
OTHER RED, WHITE & BLUE FLAGS $1600: Red replaced orange in this country's flag, but an orange streamer is flown with the flag on state holidays

OTHER RED, WHITE & BLUE FLAGS $2000: Britannica says the white disc on this landlocked Asian nation's flag, seen here, honors the Japanese
(Jim: What's Mongolia?)
(Jon: What is Bhutan?)

SCULPTURE $1600: (Kelly of the Clue Crew demonstrates the clue in the lab.) Sculpture is sometimes divided into 4 primary methods: carving, modeling, welding, & this, from the Old French for "bring together", in which existing objects are combined

JOHN STEINBECK $2000: John Steinbeck named one of the families in this novel after Captain Trask, a friend of his father
[The end-of-round signal sounds.]

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
Jon: $15,200 (lock game)
Jim: $6,600
Margaret: $6,200

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
HISTORIC U.S. CITIES

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Lock for first place; three-quarters for second place.
Jon: Wager between $0 (venusian) and $1,999 (martian), and enjoy your victory.
Jim: Wager $5,801 to cover Margaret.
Margaret: Risk between $401 and $5,400, covering Jim's $0 bet.

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
A 1905 treaty named for this U.S. city ended a foreign war 7,000 miles away & was actually signed at Kittery, Maine

FINAL SCORES
Margaret: $6,200 - $5,800 = $400 (What is Portland?) (3rd place: $1,000)
Jim: $6,600 + $5,801 = $12,401 (What is Portsmouth?) (2nd place: $2,000)
Jon: $15,200 - $1,021 = $14,179 (What is Burlington?) (New champion: $14,179)
(Alex: 1905, the Russo-Japanese War, negotiated--the peace treaty negotiated by President Roosevelt.)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $7,200

GAME DYNAMICS


CORYAT SCORES
Jon: $15,200, 23 R (including 1 DD), 5 W (including 1 DD)
Margaret: $8,200, 12 R, 4 W (including 1 DD)
Jim: $6,600, 16 R, 4 W
Combined Coryat: $30,000

BATTING AVERAGES
Jon: 23/60 = .383
Jim: 17/58 = .293
Margaret: 12/59 = .203
Team: 52/63 = .825

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
SPEECH! $400: In a 1936 farewell address, he said he couldn't discharge his duties as king "without the help & support of the woman I love"
(Jon: Who is George VI?)
...
(Alex: [*], his older brother who abdicated, yes.)

THE SCREAM ACTORS GUILD $200: This actor was a "Thriller" in films like "House of Wax" & "The Fly"

THE SCREAM ACTORS GUILD $600: To be Frank, he's the actor seen here in one of his greatest roles
(Jon: Who is Lugosi?)
...
(Alex: [*] as Frank n shtine.) [laughter]

THE SCREAM ACTORS GUILD $800: This actress was a howl as little Regan in "The Exorcist"
(Jim: [Whispers] Oh. [Sighs])
(Alex: Oh, it's not coming to you.)

THE SCREAM ACTORS GUILD $1000: The senior frightener seen here, he showed many faces in his career
(Jon: Who is Lugosi?)
...
(Alex: Poor Jon, he's been up, he's been down, he's been up, he's been down...)
(Jon: Yoyo.)

LAST NAME'S THE SAME $600: Alex,
Michelle,
Chi Chi
[Jim pronounces it rod-ree-gwez]
(Alex [speaking with a Spanish accent]: [rod-ree-ghez], but you can call it rod-ree-gwez if you like, but we are not going to be happy with you.)

LAST NAME'S THE SAME $1000: Bo,
Jesse,
Glenda
(Jim: What is James?)

WHAT'S DOT? $800: In Morse code the letter S is represented by this many dots
(Alex: With less than a minute to go.)

WHAT'S DOT? $1000: The dots you see over lower case i's and j's are called these, sometimes paired with jot

HEALTH & NUTRITION $200: Broccoli & cauliflower are good sources of folacin, a vitamin of this letter group
(Margaret: What is K?)

HEALTH & NUTRITION $800: (Dr. Oz gives the clue.) Consuming lots of empty calories in forms such as soda leads directly to belly flab because this organ just keeps converting the sugar to fat
[The end-of-round signal sounds.]

ANTONYMS OF BIBLE BOOKS $400: "Conclusion"
(Jim: What is, um... Revelation?)
...
(Alex: Yes. antonyms of Bible books, the opposite.)

OTHER RED, WHITE & BLUE FLAGS $400: The red in this country's flag represents its volcanoes

OTHER RED, WHITE & BLUE FLAGS $800: Samoa's flag includes stars that represent this constellation
(Margaret: What is the Northern Cross?)

SCULPTURE $800: This 4-letter term means a figure composed of the head, neck, shoulders & part of the torso
[Jon's voice cracks as he gives the response; he repeats himself after clearing his throat and lightly hitting his chest with his fist; audience laughs.]

ANTONYMS OF BIBLE BOOKS $800: "Concealment"
(Margaret: What is Revelations?)
...
(Alex: [*]. No "S".)

ANTONYMS OF BIBLE BOOKS $2000: "Joyful Utterances"
[Margaret enunciates the "S" carefully, Alex asks her to say it again, and she repeats carefully.]

CORRECT RESPONSES
Otto von Bismarck
Welsh
The Red Pony
the Netherlands
Laos
assembly
East of Eden
Portsmouth
Edward VIII
Vincent Price
Boris Karloff
(Linda) Blair
Lon Chaney, Sr.
Rodriguez
Jackson
three
a tittle
B
the liver
Genesis
Iceland
the Southern Cross
a bust
Revelation
Lamentations

[jeff6286]

Historic U.S. Cities
A 1905 treaty named for this U.S. city ended a foreign war 7,000 miles away & was actually signed at Kittery, Maine.

Spoiler

What is Portsmouth? Margaret said Portland; Jon said Burlington.

Jon Shoup: $15,200-$1,021=$14,079...now a 1-day champion with $14,079
Jim Abbott: $6,600+$5,801=$12,401
Margaret Swanson: $6,200-$5,800=$400

[TenPoundHammer]

0/5 in Scream. Misread $400 so I didn't realize they were asking for the film; also, had a total brain fart and didn't pick up on "To be frank" -> Frankenstein -> Karloff in time for it to get to my mouth. Also knew Linda Blair, but blanked on it.

Health for $200 seemed undervalued. I don't see how that could've been B versus any of the other letter vitamins.

Iceland has volcanoes?

Last Commoners/I Kings cost me the run in Bible.

0/5 on Sitcom Episodes as well. Family Guy is the only one of the five that I've seen even a clip of. And I would rather rub a cheese grater across my eyes than watch any Seth MacFarlane show again.

Is it well known that Charley was a poodle? That seemed like it could be literally any kind of dog.

Portsmouth? Huh? The 1905 war of what, now?

[zakharov]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who had no idea on FJ. I don't want to feel like a total moron.

Margaret, great run. It was lots of fun watching you. As for our new champ, seems like a good time for grad students in sweaters...

[Bamaman]

This must be Teddy Roosevelt week in FJ.

[legendneverdies]

Portsmouth? Huh? The 1905 war of what, now?

Russo-Japanese war, as per Alex. Teddy R. won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end that war.

[legendneverdies]

Portsmouth? Huh? The 1905 war of what, now?

Russo-Japanese war, as per Alex. Teddy R. won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end that war.

The other NPP presidential winners are WIlson, Carter, and Barackywacky.

[Fishercat]

The benefits of being from New Hampshire and studying Russian and Japanese history. It's probably the fastest I've ever gotten a FJ.

Sitcom was a straight run, so I was happy with that. Glad Community was gotten.

The final DD wager was an interesting choice. It did put Margaret out of contention, but it's really hard to bet on the round ending right after an FJ to justify an ultra-low bet on that DD.

[StevenH]

The boards are getting wonky again. I hate the "last name's the same" categories for the same reason why I hate the common bond categories: there is bound to be more than one acceptable response for every clue. I also wasn't a fan of that Bible category, if you can even call it that.

I did like the FJ clue. It was an instant get, but it's definitely a "you know it or you don't" kind of clue that might be better for the ToC.

[NoName84]

Health for $200 seemed undervalued. I don't see how that could've been B versus any of the other letter vitamins.

B is the only group of vitamins they would ask about.

Iceland has volcanoes?

Here's a primer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Iceland

Is it well known that Charley was a poodle? That seemed like it could be literally any kind of dog.

Charles Le Chien was supposed to be a hint.

[TenPoundHammer]

Charles Le Chien was supposed to be a hint.

Wow, that totally didn't register as a TOM to me.

[goforthetie]

Iceland has volcanoes?

Here's a primer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Iceland

or, more in the news, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_erupt ... %C3%B6kull
Surely even TPH heard about that one.

[Paucle]

Sorry to see Margaret go, especially when she seemed to just be getting into it! I think she would've been lots of fun for awhile.
Missing that DD absolutely killed.

Iceland has volcanoes?

Yeah, but I can see how it might slip your notice. After all, Eyjafjallajökull only caused problems for all of Europe as well as most of the North Atlantic. No problems on this side of the pond.

The benefits of being from New Hampshire and studying Russian and Japanese history. It's probably the fastest I've ever gotten a FJ.

Was actually thinking of you when I saw that pop up!

[TenPoundHammer]

Iceland has volcanoes?

Here's a primer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Iceland

or, more in the news, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_erupt ... %C3%B6kull
Surely even TPH heard about that one.

Oh yeah, duh. I knew that.

See, I know this crap. I just have trouble pulling it out in time.

[legendneverdies]

and tomorrow there'll be a Nora Ephron clue, seeing that she kicked the bucket today.

[mswanson]

Nooooooo, SHOOOOOUUUPPPP!!!!!!!!!!

Well, nuts. Looks like my luck finally ran out—understandable since it certainly had to sprint pretty hard to get me started those first few games. But as I said then, if my little streak had to end that day, I'm glad at least it ended with Jon, who is a real stand-up guy. He was the other holdover from day one's taping; I hadn't realized just how much being the returning champion keeps you from getting to know the new batch of contestants, since instead of hanging around in the audience together, you're up on stage the whole time. Oh well, I'm sure Jim was nice, too (though, darn it, I'm not sure he would've gotten Revelation if I hadn't screwed it up first!! He seemed to be struggling a little with the "antonym" part of that category...)

Jon was lightning fast on the buzzer. I just couldn't beat him 90% of the time, and I got a little sloppy in the chase. I might be most upset at him for robbing me of my chance to answer the Community clue, though.

Moment of the games that still occasionally wakes me up at night: "What is the mouse? ...From Of Mice and Men?" You know, the mouse? I'm sure you've heard of him, he's very famous. "What is the mouse?" "What is the mouse?" "WHAT IS THE MOUSE????" The saddest part about that is I've read The Red Pony. Apparently didn't make much of an impact... ("What is the mooooouuuuuse?")

FJ: Well, I was half right!! Jon had the runaway, so at least there's no regret there—though I have no idea what I was going for with my $5800 wager. Um?

Ah, well. Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar, he eats you. I realize I have no legitimate grounds for complaint, but oh how I wish I could've hung in there just a little bit longer so I'd have a real shot at TOC! Which is insane because coming into the whole thing, my greatest, craziest wish was to win a game. To have won three is absolutely a gift, and I feel (again) incredibly lucky just to have had the chance to play four games on the big stage. That was worth far more than any of the prize money... though I have a number of student loan officers who might take issue with that statement.

Thanks so much to everyone here for letting me share my thoughts with you over the past days! It's been wonderful, and I definitely appreciate all the kinds words. Hopefully, I'll be able to think of something worthwhile to say about future games somewhere down the line so we don't have to say goodbye forever.

Now... just how many 3- to 5-game winners do you think I could (non-fatally) poison before anyone got suspicious? I'm thinking maybe, like, 5???

[alietr]

Very sorry to see Margaret go. She was a fun one.

I stayed in Aberystwyth when I was in Wales, so that was an easy one.

For FJ, I know where Kittery is, so I thought of Portland, but had never heard of a Treaty of Portland. So I went to the next closest city, and somewhere vaguely among rarely used brain cells thought there might be a Treaty of Portsmouth (and even worse, I was thinking of the Spanish-American War instead of the Russo-Japanese War. Oops). I'll take it.

If this is Teddy Roosevelt week, does that mean he'll finally win the Presidents' Race at the Nationals game? (For those actually interested in what I'm talking about: http://blog.letteddywin.com/)

[TenPoundHammer]

I stayed in Aberystwyth when I was in Wales, so that was an easy one.

I figured Wales entirely because every Welsh word I've ever seen looks like someone forgot to buy a vowel.

[alamble]

I stayed in Aberystwyth when I was in Wales, so that was an easy one.

I figured Wales entirely because every Welsh word I've ever seen looks like someone forgot to buy a vowel.

More pertinently, the ceremony in question was Charles' investiture as Prince of Wales.