Monday, December 31, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Placeholder for J! Round

[Archivists]

Placeholder for DJ! Round

[jeff6286]

Composers' Birthplaces
The town where he was born in 1811 is now in far eastern Austria; when he was born there it belonged to another country.

Spoiler

Who is Franz Liszt? (Paula spelled it "Lizt", but received credit.) Sarah said Mozart; Ana said Richard Wagner.

Paula Menasche: $11,000+$6,500=$17,500...now a 2-day champion with $34,700
Ana Peso: $10,400-$5,000=$5,400
Sarah Shemkus: $8,600-$3,000=$5,600

[Linear Gnome]

I liked this FJ--it could be figured out with not-too-deep knowledge of two topics. I'm not a geography expert, but I know that Austria is east (or, at least, not west) of Germany, and thinking of Austria-Hungary led me to the correct modern-day country. I started with Bartok, but I knew he was too recent and worked my way back to Liszt.

I liked all three players.

Happy New Year to all!

[SkeeBallRaif]

Agreed, great clue. Followed the same line as Linear Gnome, but more slowly, bc I ended up on Bartok before I had the chance to jump to Liszt.

[TenPoundHammer]

Got 1/5 in Olympians (Spitz), which is one more than I expected to get right.

Let me guess, Inventors for $1000 had Hammond in it and I didn't see it. I said guitar.

Ventura was my only get in 1990s. No clue whatsoever on any of the answers in Reading — why should I know who Marco Rubio is?

Was there an awkward edit at the end of the J! round? "Hotel for $600." [Beep beep beep beep] Seemed really abrupt.

I was actually tempted to give "Crossing the T" as a joke answer on WWII for $1600, and was surprised when it was right.

0/5 on Writers on Film and WWII, but I ran Latin Mammals. Numbers was my only get in In Between, thanks to me getting Roy G. Biv and the primary colors mixed up some how. ("Wait, there isn't anything between yellow and blue!")

Bubba's reading pace wasn't… too bad, but he tended… to pause in… odd… spots.

Didn't even guess on FJ! If I had guessed, I wouldn't have come within a million miles of Lizst, since I've only barely heard of him, and had no idea where he was from.

[xxaaaxx]

So, they routinely run out of time and leave clues on the board for no readily apparent reason, but they finish the round even with the Clinton video category w/o so much as a LTaM warning, despite Bubba reading the clues as if he were being paid by the hour!? I'm not happy J!...not happy at all.


In Austria now? Used to be "elsewhere"? Sounds like Hungary -> Liszt, done.

[econgator]

No clue whatsoever on any of the answers in Reading — why should I know who Marco Rubio is?

If you aren't into politics -- or a Floridian -- you likely will never have heard of him.

I'm going to bet that I wasn't the only one who read the category as President Clinton's Harem.

No guess on FJ, as I knew it was way too late for Mozart and Austria-Hungary just never entered my mind.

[Roadgeek Adam]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:David_dinkins.jpg

Well, considering I lived in NYC during his administration and edit Wikipedia, I'd recognize this photo. Caught my attention because I believe they just used this.

[Austin Powers]

First of all, Happy New Year.

I found this board strange in spots, so I think the contestants actually acquitted themselves pretty well.

FJ was one of those delightful gets where you are unsure to the end. My thought process. Eastern Austria... ok that seems Czech, but Dvorak is the only plausible Czech and 1811 is too early. Chopin? Poland isn't right. But that historical suggestion connection... led me to Hungary, where it had to be Liszt. I ruled out Wagner for that reason, too, and stuck with Liszt. Yay!

I was expecting a category on Bill Clinton's harem.

[jeff6286]

Paula Menasche: $11,000+$6,500=$17,500
Ana Peso: $10,400-$5,000=$5,400
Sarah Shemkus: $8,600-$3,000=$5,600

The wagers were interesting, as 1st didn't cover 2nd, and 2nd didn't cover 3rd. At first glance, it looked like all 3 ladies just picked a medium-range round number and went with it, but looking closer, maybe they deserve a bit more credit than that.

Sarah, in 3rd place, could have bet up to $5,000 and won on a triple stumper if both leaders made the MSB. But if she didn't like the category, she could have bet as little as $2,401, just to ensure that she wins over a $0 bet by either opponent, so maybe she just picked $3,000 as a number safely over $2,400 and knew that it would still give her a great chance to win on a TS, and as it turned out, she would have on a TS.

Paula needed to bet $9,801 to cover an all-in from 2nd, but that would have left her with just $1,199, and she surely knew that she would lose if she bet that much and was wrong. So maybe she figured that 2nd was unlikely to go all in, and would probably just bet to cover 3rd, so as long as she bet to have a bit more than the minimum required to cover 3rd she would have a chance. So she bets to reach $17,500, $300 more than twice 2nd, which still leaves her with $4,500 if she is wrong, giving her at least some chance to win.

So while I can find some rationale for both 1st and 3rd place's wagers, I really can't find any good explanation for Ana's from second. If you're not going to bet $6,801 to cover 3rd, then why bet as much as $5,000? I would prefer that bet to be either a bit larger, or much smaller, if she didn't feel confident in the category.

[BADuBois]

A quick moving game for me but I was sure they'd run out of time halfway through Clinton's recitation of his clues.

Gave the heavy sigh that comes when you see categories that you wish were yours during the day. Swept 1990s history, swept World War II, and did well on writers and movies. Also did pretty well on Olympians and their sports, though I usually stink at sports.

Couldn't help myself; yelled at the screen when none of the ladies knew who was pope between Paul VI and John Paul II. Really?

Was rooting for Sarah since she's from Massachusetts and was at the Sheraton this past May during my audition; don't think she was in my session, though.

FJ was an Insta-wrong for me; I thought Chopin. My better half said Lizst, so there you go.

Happy New Year to all!

[Andromus]

Chopin was my guess in FJ. Never mind that Poland is to the north of Austria and is separated from Austria by what is now the Czech Republic, right?

[econgator]

Couldn't help myself; yelled at the screen when none of the ladies knew who was pope between Paul VI and John Paul II. Really?

I thought so, too, but in retrospect, it's likely they none of them were even alive when JPI was Pope for 33 days back in '78.

[MSTieScott]

This is strictly a guess:

I suspect that with as famous of a guest presenter as a United States President, the show was determined to allow all five of the Harlem clues to air. Unfortunately, the contestants saved the category for last, resulting in a long Double Jeopardy (even with that one-word mammal category).

To make up for it, my hunch is that something happened to the presentation of the first round. I wasn't listening for the "less than a minute" warning to see how it related, but there felt like a definite edit when the time's-up sound played. (The contestant is able to finish calling for a clue and then we hear the sound effect? They always either precede or interrupt the contestant's next choice.) Perhaps however many remaining clues they played were just stand-and-stares?

Clinton was also fairly pause-y in that extra bit amidst the commercials before Final Jeopardy. How did the length of that compare to the usual online test/audience ticket plugs?

[Linear Gnome]

Couldn't help myself; yelled at the screen when none of the ladies knew who was pope between Paul VI and John Paul II. Really?

I thought so, too, but in retrospect, it's likely they none of them were even alive when JPI was Pope for 33 days back in '78.

I also thought that was an easy clue. History for them, current events for me.

[Leander]

Briefly considered Liszt for FJ, but somehow though the date of birth was too early, and otherwise drew a blank.

[Spaceman Spiff]

This is strictly a guess:

I suspect that with as famous of a guest presenter as a United States President, the show was determined to allow all five of the Harlem clues to air. Unfortunately, the contestants saved the category for last, resulting in a long Double Jeopardy (even with that one-word mammal category).

To make up for it, my hunch is that something happened to the presentation of the first round. I wasn't listening for the "less than a minute" warning to see how it related, but there felt like a definite edit when the time's-up sound played. (The contestant is able to finish calling for a clue and then we hear the sound effect? They always either precede or interrupt the contestant's next choice.) Perhaps however many remaining clues they played were just stand-and-stares?

Clinton was also fairly pause-y in that extra bit amidst the commercials before Final Jeopardy. How did the length of that compare to the usual online test/audience ticket plugs?

I've noticed that whenever they have a video clue (including one in my second game, tied to a major J! sponsor, Lindbladt/National Geographic) and it gets left to the end of the board, the board miraculously gets finished.

Ran the Olympics (Dick Button did the commentary for figure skating at the Olympics forever, so that made sense even if you didn't know that he was an Olympian), as well as the "tween" category. Add me to the "JP the First, duh!" group.

And Liszt was an instaget for me, given the year. I precalled Beethoven (Bonn).

[Paucle]

Ok, no longer the country it started in, so it was probably Hungary, possibly part of Germany. Ruling out Czech, so forget Dvorak and Smetana.
What Hungarian composers do I know? Well, there's Liszt. Not much more than a guess. Confidence not high. Put that down for now, is there anything better? Mozart was earlier. Don't think it's Beethoven, he was earlier.
Liszt is really just a wild guess, maybe I'll just leave it blank.
OH WAIT.
Blanks can never be right. Wild guesses at least have a shot. Guess I'll leave it in.

Ran WW2, Olympians, and latin animals, but surprised myself by only getting 2/5 in the 3 syllable words. (Knew them all, just couldn't dredge 3 of them up. I think I'd've gotten them with a WWTBAM buzzer.)

[legendneverdies]

Couldn't help myself; yelled at the screen when none of the ladies knew who was pope between Paul VI and John Paul II. Really?

I thought so, too, but in retrospect, it's likely they none of them were even alive when JPI was Pope for 33 days back in '78.

I also thought that was an easy clue. History for them, current events for me.

And as I saw live, PJP the First's real name was worth $500K for Michael Schutterley on WWTBAM on 8/25/1999