Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

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bomtr
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by bomtr »

Werther was an insidious trap, one both my wife and I found ourselves in. Caramel=Werther. Hershey=well, not caramel so much. Would have helped if clue mentioned eponymous product was something different, i.e. not caramel. Doesn't give it away, but takes tempting Werther out. Would any among us know Werther was neither a last name nor U.S.?

Anyway, sorry you found yourself in the same snare, Jessica. You played a great game; you deserved a second.
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by Bamaman »

Werther was my first thought and the wife said the same thing. Then the clue seemed to hint it was something other than caramel. I shouted out Hewrshey at the last second, but wouldn't have had time to write it down.
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econgator
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by econgator »

bomtr wrote:Would any among us know Werther was neither a last name nor U.S.?
I had a suspicion that it wasn't American (but I would have guessed UK, not Germany), but would have bet lots of money it was a last name.
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by Peggles »

I was at HersheyWorld this past June and took a trolly tour during which the guide told us the history of old Milton the (failed) caramel maker and later successful chocolatier.

I liked this FJ! :D
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by seaborgium »

I had Hershey from the start and never went anywhere else. Werther didn't cross my mind, but I would have been pretty sure it was European (thanks to having seen wrappers that said "Werthers Echte," and to the Goethe association attached to the name). That the candy mentioned in the clue was a caramel didn't bother me too much, and I figured Hershey had just moved on from one sticky thing to another.
trainman wrote:Anyone else say Brach, as I did? At least we've got all the candy manufacturers represented.
My dad did.
dhkendall wrote:His "impression" actually steered me wrong on Reagan. I could have sworn he was doing Nixon and thought "that sounds a few years too late for Nixon's presidency, but I'll go with that based on Alex's voice".
I thought it sounded like Nixon enough to completely ignore the text of the clue and go for it.
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by John Boy »

dhkendall wrote:
jeff6286 wrote:
Has Ken ever said what kept him alert through approximately 30 taping days? (After all, being a Mormon, things like coffee and energy drinks are right out ... )
Now there's something I did not know. Man, I knew about no booze, required missionary work, and some other stuff. If none of that could prevent me from becoming a Mormon, the "no coffee" part would pretty much make me the antichrist.

wow....
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nserven
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by nserven »

Werther came to mind first for me as well, but it bothered me because it sounded vaguely foreign, and why would it be another caramel product? Hershey made more sense. Almost panicked a bit when Russell Stover came up.
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by John Boy »

I thought the J round was uncommonly simple today, and the DJ round just kicked my butt. Night and day.

Random thoughts:

1) I agree, if there is one thing anyone should know about the W.H. Harrison presidency, well, heck, there is only the one thing, isn't there?

2) re the "Reagan impression:" if you hear about a president touting a space-based system to defend the U.S. against incoming missiles, don't you pretty much HAVE to make the connection to SDI/"Star Wars," and Reagan? I don't care if Alex read the clue doing his best impression of Gabby Hayes, the substance of the clue made it (I thought) un-missable.

3) Yeah, there were lots of potential traps in FJ. I still don't know what made me guess Hershey, since I thought his eponymous chocolate treats were even older than this clue indicated. But Hershey is what I luckily came up with.

Too bad to see Justin go after a splendid run. He also seemed to be genuinely likeable guy, even if his youthful looks made him look more like a rising high school junior and not and M.D. father of two. I did not expect to see him in the next ToC, however, as I thought that was to be made up of last year's champions. I'll never understand why they don't have a regularly scheduled ToC instead of seeming to have one whenever they think it's time.
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by Bamaman »

I got Reagan from the context of the clue, thought it was a bad impression.

They used to have the TOC every November. The first one was for just Season I, which had exactly 15 five time champs. After that, they drew champs from TOC to TOC. Not sure how or why they got off kilter. I miss it being a regular event instead of them just springing it on you. It was something to look forward to and plan on.
seaborgium
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by seaborgium »

Bamaman wrote: They used to have the TOC every November. The first one was for just Season I, which had exactly 15 five time champs. After that, they drew champs from TOC to TOC. Not sure how or why they got off kilter. I miss it being a regular event instead of them just springing it on you. It was something to look forward to and plan on.
They didn't switch the qualifying period from "within the previous season" to "since the last ToC" quite that soon; Roger Storm and Dave Traini both had their runs in the third season before the 1986 ToC and definitely would have qualified for it, but played in the 1987 ToC. And all three 1990 ToC finalists won their fifth games before the 1989 ToC. There are a few more examples; from what I can tell given the limited information J! Archive has, it looks like the 1995 ToC was the first not to have players strictly from the previous season.
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jbillygirl
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by jbillygirl »

Thanks, everyone, for the support and post-game encouragement. I have finally settled on an appropriate avatar. I don't know the protocol around here, but if I wanted to post a recap of my show experience (I'd try to keep it short), would I do it here or in a separate thread?
KellyJ!
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by KellyJ! »

seaborgium wrote:
Bamaman wrote: They used to have the TOC every November. The first one was for just Season I, which had exactly 15 five time champs. After that, they drew champs from TOC to TOC. Not sure how or why they got off kilter. I miss it being a regular event instead of them just springing it on you. It was something to look forward to and plan on.
They didn't switch the qualifying period from "within the previous season" to "since the last ToC" quite that soon; Roger Storm and Dave Traini both had their runs in the third season before the 1986 ToC and definitely would have qualified for it, but played in the 1987 ToC. And all three 1990 ToC finalists won their fifth games before the 1989 ToC. There are a few more examples; from what I can tell given the limited information J! Archive has, it looks like the 1995 ToC was the first not to have players strictly from the previous season.
The 1994 ToC was the first whose qualification period went right up to the start of the tournament. (Oldschoolchamp aka Steve Chernicoff can attest to that fact, although since his run overlapped Seasons 10 and 11 I don't know if he would've been eligible for that fall's ToC had the rule not changed.)
Last edited by KellyJ! on Sat Sep 24, 2011 1:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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StevenH
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by StevenH »

jbillygirl wrote:Thanks, everyone, for the support and post-game encouragement. I have finally settled on an appropriate avatar. I don't know the protocol around here, but if I wanted to post a recap of my show experience (I'd try to keep it short), would I do it here or in a separate thread?
It is probably best to talk about it in this thread.
Suze
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by Suze »

I don't know, I think that's something worth starting a new thread for, for Jessica's story and the future ones. I'd have liked to read everyone's stories and not scattered paragraphs in various threads. It's kind of like how we have the Introductions thread, all that info contained to one area for easy access.
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debramc
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by debramc »

I said Brach's, I think mainly because they were the first caramels I remember seeing. (Not eating, though - still not much of a caramel fan unless it's a really good caramel sauce on ice cream.) Remember when they had the Brach's bins of candies at the grocery store and you put them in the bag yourself? Part of me is thinking they weren't even individually wrapped but that is a little hard to imagine even 40 years ago... Anybody know how long Werther's have been available in the US? I don't remember ever hearing of them until I lived in Germany (in '86-'87), where they were heavily advertised as well as readily available, but then they seemed to be here shortly after I came home. Like I said, not a big caramel fan, so maybe I just overlooked them.

And on William Henry Harrison, if this game had been 3 years ago I would've have been a little less surprised at Amit's miss (though, like everyone else said, it is a pretty famous story and the only notable thing about his presidency). However, after Obama's inauguration, I would think everyone on the planet would know the story. I didn't even watch the inauguration very closely (I missed the actual swearing-in part) but it was on TV the whole day and because it was so very cold that day in DC, everyone kept repeating the story of WHH, ad nauseam.

Congrats jbillygirl on a very respectable performance! My goal whenever I get on is to just not look like an idiot, and you well exceeded that standard!
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by seaborgium »

KellyJ! wrote:
seaborgium wrote:
Bamaman wrote: They used to have the TOC every November. The first one was for just Season I, which had exactly 15 five time champs. After that, they drew champs from TOC to TOC. Not sure how or why they got off kilter. I miss it being a regular event instead of them just springing it on you. It was something to look forward to and plan on.
They didn't switch the qualifying period from "within the previous season" to "since the last ToC" quite that soon; Roger Storm and Dave Traini both had their runs in the third season before the 1986 ToC and definitely would have qualified for it, but played in the 1987 ToC. And all three 1990 ToC finalists won their fifth games before the 1989 ToC. There are a few more examples; from what I can tell given the limited information J! Archive has, it looks like the 1995 ToC was the first not to have players strictly from the previous season.
The 1994 ToC was the first whose qualification period went right up to the start of the tournament. (Oldschoolchamp aka Steve Chernicoff can attest to that fact, although since his run overlapped Seasons 10 and 11 I don't know if he would've been eligible for that fall's ToC had the rule not changed.)
Darn, and I could have figured that out had I checked the Archive beyond the season listings; Bill Pitassy's player page shows that he was a season 11 champ, and his UToC player page says that it was in October 1994, just before the ToC. Thanks for the info.

(Also, Steve bridged a summer hiatus? That would mean it happened five years in a row that a future ToC player did so, from 1994 to 1998, not just '95-'98 as I said in another thread.)
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OldSchoolChamp
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by OldSchoolChamp »

KellyJ! wrote:
seaborgium wrote:
Bamaman wrote: They used to have the TOC every November. The first one was for just Season I, which had exactly 15 five time champs. After that, they drew champs from TOC to TOC. Not sure how or why they got off kilter. I miss it being a regular event instead of them just springing it on you. It was something to look forward to and plan on.
They didn't switch the qualifying period from "within the previous season" to "since the last ToC" quite that soon; Roger Storm and Dave Traini both had their runs in the third season before the 1986 ToC and definitely would have qualified for it, but played in the 1987 ToC. And all three 1990 ToC finalists won their fifth games before the 1989 ToC. There are a few more examples; from what I can tell given the limited information J! Archive has, it looks like the 1995 ToC was the first not to have players strictly from the previous season.
The 1994 ToC was the first whose qualification period went right up to the start of the tournament. (Oldschoolchamp aka Steve Chernicoff can attest to that fact, although since his run overlapped Seasons 10 and 11 I don't know if he would've been eligible for that fall's ToC had the rule not changed.)
Was going to post this myself, but Kelly (ETA: and Stefan, a.k.a., Seaborgium, while I was typing this) beat me to the buzzer. I won the last two games of Season 10 (1993–4) and then the first three of Season 11 (1994–5). Previously that would have meant waiting over a year for the TOC of November 1995, but Alex announced at the start of my fifth game that they were changing the rules to extend TOC eligibility to all players up to the actual start of the tournament, making me eligible for the 1994 tournament instead.

One odd result of this was that I had never seen some of my TOC opponents before meeting them in the tournament. I remember walking into the coffee shop of the Beverly Hilton (where all of the TOC contestants were housed) for dinner the night before the taping and hearing someone call my name, but when I looked around I didn’t see anyone I recognized. It turned out to be Bill Pitassy, a five-time winner from earlier in Season 11 whose games had not yet aired by the time of the tournament taping; he recognized me from my appearances on the show, but I had never laid eyes on him.

I believe it was Ken Jennings and his epic 74-game winning streak that was responsible for ending the regular November scheduling of the TOC; he had done such a good job of demolishing all opposition that there simply weren’t enough champions available to fill out the tournament field. I do agree that it would be nice to see the tournament returned to a regular, predictable schedule.


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OldSchoolChamp
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by OldSchoolChamp »

SkoolRN wrote:Isn't it just a little unfair that Alex did his JFK and Reagan impersonations when reading the inaugural quote clues?
Am I the only one who’s fed up with Alex’s bad character impressions and foreign accents (Russian, Japanese, “Brittish,” etc.)? He used to play it straight; it’s only in recent years that he’s started doing these, about the same time they started watering down the clue difficulty and cutesing up the category titles under the Harry Friedman regime. I’m sure they think this makes the show more appealing to a broader audience, but I, for one, liked it better in the old days. Just call me...


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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by OldSchoolChamp »

dhkendall wrote:I defy anyone on the board to name one other thing Harrison was (famously) known for during his presidency (note "dying", "being the first to die in office", "serving for 30 days", "shortest presidency" and the like are all tangentially related to the above).
Well, he didn’t last long enough to do anything else memorable, now, did he?
 
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Andromus
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Re: Friday, September 23, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion(SPOIL

Post by Andromus »

FJ hit close to home for me. I live only a few miles from Lancaster, where Milton Hershey founded the company that made those caramels.

I also had a rare opportunity. I sat down to watch Friday's game with my dad, only to realize that Thursday's game was being shown again by mistake. As my dad hadn't seen Thursday's game, it would have been kind of fun to run through the entire game without him realizing what was going on. (I didn't think about it until after I had told him it was a repeat, unfortunately.) Luckily, we have a second Jeopardy affiliate that aired Friday's game.
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