Tuesday, December 13, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Game Recap for Show #6267, 2011-12-13

CONTESTANTS
Boomie Aglietti, a writer for TV and stage from Los Angeles, California
Gina Bernal, a romance novel editor from Cambridge, Massachusetts
Chuck Rezac, a cattle ranch hand from Emmett, Kansas (whose 1-day cash winnings total $25,200)

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Thanks, Johnny. A Gina, a Boomie, and a ranch hand. Good luck to all three of you. Let's go to work in the Jeopardy! Round. The dollar figures pop in first, and now we will reveal the categories, starting with...

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
PRIME MINISTERS (5/5)
TITLE ANIMALS OF KIDS' BOOKS (4/5)
"BLIND" LEADING THE BLIND (5/5)
LONG LIVE THE COMPANY (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
WORLD OF WONDERS (5/5)
GETTING DEFENSIVE (5/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Boomie: 13 R, 2 W
Gina: 9 R (including 3 rebounds), 0 W
Chuck: 7 R (including 1 DD), 1 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 1
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $800



SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
Gina: $2,800
Boomie: $2,200
Chuck: $200

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS



Alex: Boomie Aglietti once worked at a restaurant in Paris, and he used to trick American tourists. What did you do?

Boomie: Well, I was working as a garçon in a little café, and we would get a lot of English-speaking clients, uh, specifically young women who had maybe just graduated college or high school, on a summer trip. So when they came in speaking English, I figured as part of their experience, they wanted a French waiter. So I would give a little French accent, and, uh, you know, leave them all the richer, I would say.

Alex: [French accent] Bonjour, mademoiselle. Yes, that's in francs, not dollars.

Boomie: Exactly.

Alex: Good.




Alex: Gina Bernal, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, had a job that I think most young women would envy you about. Tell us.

Gina: Well, I work with romance novel, and I used to run a romance novel mail-order book club. And once a month, we would pick a centerfold, called the heartthrob of the month, which was basically a playful wink and nudge at the cover art that the genre is known for.

Alex: Why did you guys never pick me? I sent in a lot of photos.

Gina: Maybe if you brought back the mustache...

[Laughter]




Alex: Chuck Rezac--ranch cattle--you have assisted, on a number of occasions, with birthing calves, and in particular, once with twins?

Chuck: They were identical twins, but usually when I tell the story, I lead with that, and then follow up with that they weighed about 65 pounds apiece.

Alex: Uh-huh. And how soon before they stand and nurse?

Chuck: About 20 minutes--

Alex: 20 minutes?

Chuck: --or faster.

Alex: Isn't that amazing? Boy, the animal world.

Chuck: Yeah.

JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Chuck found the Daily Double on the 19th clue. Chuck had $1,600, Gina had $3,200, and Boomie was at $2,200. Chuck made it a True Daily Double, wagering $1,600.

LONG LIVE THE COMPANY $1000: This company started in 1833 selling mollusk exoskeletons; it switched to selling oil for lamps in the 1890s

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
TITLE ANIMALS OF KIDS' BOOKS $800: Dr. Seuss tweaks the alphabet book tradition:
"On Beyond ____"

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
Boomie: $6,400
Gina: $5,200
Chuck: $4,000

[Archivists]

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
MARS NEEDS CONTESTANTS (4/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
MOVIE STAR FILMOGRAPHIES (5/5)
CAPES (4/5)
THERE'S A WORD FOR THAT (4/5)
CHAMBER MUSIC (2/5)
GETTING DEFENSIVE (3/3, including 1 correct Daily Double)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Boomie: 16 R (including 2 DDs), 1 W
Gina: 4 R (including 1 rebound), 2 W
Chuck: 2 R, 3 W

Clues revealed: 28
Triple Stumpers: 6
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $6,800



FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Boomie snagged the next Daily Double on the 14th clue. Chuck had $3,200, Gina had $7,200, and Boomie was at $13,200. Boomie wagered $1,600.

MARS NEEDS CONTESTANTS $1200: In 2003 the United States launched two Martian rovers--Opportunity & this, whose work is seen here

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Boomie who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 25th clue. Chuck had $400, Gina had $8,400, and Boomie was at $22,800. Boomie wagered $800.

GETTING DEFENSIVE $2000: One form of justification for a bad act is having had these, proverbially the asphalt on the way to hell
[Boomie responds just as the time's-up signal sounds]
(Alex: Less than a minute to go now, Boomie.)

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
CAPES $800: In 1623 this Massachusetts cape was named for the then-queen of England
(Gina: Who is Cape Mary?)
(Chuck: What is Cape Elizabeth?)

CHAMBER MUSIC $400: Though pianists like Rubinstein might protest, Brahms' 2-player opus 78 is known as this instrument's sonata
(Gina: What is piano?)

CHAMBER MUSIC $800: Bela Bartok wrote a trio called "Rhapsody" for this woodwind whose sound opens "Rhapsody In Blue"

THERE'S A WORD FOR THAT $2000: In math you get a difference by subtracting the subtrahend from this number
(Chuck: What's the "subrahend"?)

CHAMBER MUSIC $2000: (Kelly of the Clue Crew stands on stage as a string quartet plays the piece described in the clue at the Julliard School in New York.) Opus 33 No. 2 by Haydn, who created the modern string quartet, tricks you with multiple endings; he couldn't resist a good one of these, the nickname of the piece
(Chuck: What's "Surprise"?)

MARS NEEDS CONTESTANTS $800: On Dec. 2, 1971 this country landed its Mars 3 on the planet's surface; sadly, a planetwide dust storm killed it after 20 seconds

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
Boomie: $25,600 (lock game)
Gina: $8,400
Chuck: $2,000

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
20th CENTURY LITERATURE

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Lock for first place; lock for second place.
Boomie: Wager between $0 (venusian) and $8,799 (martian), and enjoy your victory.
Gina: Wager between $0 (venusian) and $4,399 (martian), and enjoy 2nd place.
Chuck: You've no hope of catching up... unless Gina does something stupid. So risk $1,999.

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
A 50th anniversary edition of this fictionalized biography featured the painting seen here on its cover

FINAL SCORES
Chuck: $2,000 - $1,937 = $63 (What Portrait of the Vincent? Artist as a y) (2nd place: $2,000)
Gina: $8,400 - $8,400 = $0 (What is Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?) (3rd place: $1,000)
Boomie: $25,600 + $8,799 = $34,399 (What is The A Lust for Life?) (New champion: $34,399)
[Alex could not read Chuck's answer; Chuck state it would have been Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.]
(Alex: [Revealing Boomie's response] [*] by Irving Stone, the biography of Vincent van Gogh.)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $7,600

GAME DYNAMICS


CORYAT SCORES
Boomie: $26,400, 29 R (including 2 DDs), 3 W
Gina: $8,400, 13 R, 2 W
Chuck: $1,400, 9 R (including 1 DD), 4 W
Combined Coryat: $36,200

BATTING AVERAGES
Boomie: 30/60 = .500
Gina: 13/58 = .224
Chuck: 9/59 = .153
Team: 52/63 = .825

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
TITLE ANIMALS OF KIDS' BOOKS $1000: Arnold Lobel:
"Days with ____ and ____"
(2 different amphibians)
(Chuck: What are newts and frogs?)

PRIME MINISTERS $400: This country's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki helped draft its new Constitution
(Boomie: What is Afghanistan?)

PRIME MINISTERS $800: Hassanal Bolkiah is the Minister of Finance & Defense, Prime Minister & Sultan of this country
(Boomie: What is Oman?)

PRIME MINISTERS $1000: At the funeral seen here, one of the mourners was this future prime minister, paying respects to his mother

WORLD OF WONDERS $400: The versatile building seen here is the Monte Carlo this and Opera House

GETTING DEFENSIVE $400: Featherweight Willie Pep was so brilliant on defense, he once won a round by deliberately not doing this
(Alex: Yeah, never landed a punch.)

CHAMBER MUSIC $1200: (Kelly of the Clue Crew stands in a practice room with a string quartet at the Juilliard School in New York.) In a tragic moment in Smetana's quartet titled "From My Life" a high note depicts the ringing that preceded this affliction, a terror for composers

MOVIE STAR FILMOGRAPHIES $800: "Proof of Life" &
"3:10 to Yuma"
(Boomie: Who is Bale?)

MARS NEEDS CONTESTANTS $2000: This tallest volcano on Mars rises about 16 miles above the plains, majestic enough for Greek gods
[The end-of-round signal sounds.]

CORRECT RESPONSES
Shell
Zebra
Spirit
good intentions
Cape Ann
violin
clarinet
the minuend
"The Joke"
Russia
Lust for Life
Frog & Toad
Iraq
Brunei
Rajiv Gandhi
Casino
punching
deafness
Russell Crowe
Olympus Mons

[econgator]

Kinda surprised that wasn't a triple-get. I had Lust for Life immediately upon seeing the picture (although I will admit that I didn't know it was a novel before it was a movie).

Congrats to Boomie on a dominating performance, not that I expected any less.

[messyjesse]

I am the exact opposite. I was shocked anyone got it. I have never heard of that book before.

Happy to say that I swept the Mars and Wonders categories though. "Gibraltar" seemed a bit easy for a bottom-row clue. Actually now that I think about it, I did fairly well on the bottom-row clues today. Should've kept a Coryat--it's typically negging those bottom clues that wrecks my score.

It took 20 years, but reading the Frog and Toad books in kindergarten FINALLY paid off.

[Suze]

Instaget on FJ for me. I'm not surprised that not everyone got it right, but I was a bit surprised by the incorrect answer given. Just way off.

Great game. Here's hoping for a long run for Boomie.

[DBear]

Rough boards today, but I did get 'minuend' trash. No chance on FJ.

TPTB: If you're going to call a category "World of Wonders", shouldn't they, you know, actually be about the Wonders of the World?

[econgator]

TPTB: If you're going to call a category "World of Wonders", shouldn't they, you know, actually be about the Wonders of the World?

World of Wonders != Wonders of the World. I thought the cat was just fine.

[goforthetie]

Kinda surprised that wasn't a triple-get. I had Lust for Life immediately upon seeing the picture (although I will admit that I didn't know it was a novel before it was a movie).

I didn't know it was a movie OR a novel before it was an Iggy Pop song.

[jpahk]

fun! boomie looked a bit nervous to begin with (taking a couple rough negs in prime ministers) but really got his act together. i picked up quite a bit of lach trash, but i think it was just some good boards for me. and "i may be smart, but i'm not stupid" is a pretty great line from boomie—as someone who was often on the receiving end of alex trying to provoke a DD overwager, i can certainly relate.

great game, and keep it up, boomie!

[AcadamiaNut]

Acadamia Nut here; haven't had time to read comments yet, as I'm prepping for a viewing party on the West Coast, but will be back later...

[dhkendall]

On the one hand - I'm glad I wasn't playing this game because I would have been up against Boomie the Buzz Saw.

On the other hand, I was disappointed I wasn't playing this game because then I couldn't have used my something-to-put-down-because-I-haven't-a-frigging-clue answer "What is 'Vincent van Gone'". (Surprised that most of you had a biography I hadn't even heard of as an instaget, but then, knowing this crowd, I shouldn't be surprised.)

[mahoneyk]

Why hasn't anyone mentioned the numb-skullean FJ wager?

[Fishercat]

Lust For Life is a great song by the band "Girls" as well.

[reddpen]

Hell yeah, Boomie! Great to see you up there taking command of the game and not taking Alex's bait, though you're gonna take some grief for an only $800 wager. Will have to hear more French waiter stories elsewhere. Looks like we had similar thought processes on FJ, though you redirected more quickly. I wrote out all of The Agony and the Ecstasy while picturing Kirk Douglas and hearing Ziggy doing "Lust for Life" in my head, finally scribbled that too and then scratched the former as time expired. Was pretty sure Agony was Michelangelo--glad to have chosen wisely, and especially glad you did too.

Terrific opening round. Now shatter the restraints and go all Harrison Bergeron on 'em.

[Budphrey]

And if Alex is correct, we now know how to pronounce "Aglietti." Well done!

Started grooving to bump-bump-boooom, ba-dump-bump-badoobadooba before the picture even came up onscreen.

[debramc]

I learned of the book only recently - there was a story in a magazine (maybe National Geographic? Smithsonian? Newspaper book review?) within the last few months. (Previously I'd heard of the movie Lust for Life but had no clue what it was about.) Very interesting article.

[Mark B]

Hell yeah, Boomie! Great to see you up there taking command of the game and not taking Alex's bait, though you're gonna take some grief for an only $800 wager. Will have to hear more French waiter stories elsewhere. Looks like we had similar thought processes on FJ, though you redirected more quickly. I wrote out all of The Agony and the Ecstasy while picturing Kirk Douglas and hearing Ziggy doing "Lust for Life" in my head, finally scribbled that too and then scratched the former as time expired. Was pretty sure Agony was Michelangelo--glad to have chosen wisely, and especially glad you did too.

Terrific opening round. Now shatter the restraints and go all Harrison Bergeron on 'em.

Thought briefly about Agony too, but was pretty quick to remember which was which.

My feeling? Boomie hasn't even hit his stride yet. First game jitters, and his opponents didn't know enough to be afraid. Let's see how things progress once he's settled in!

[BigDaddyJ]

Rough boards today, but I did get 'minuend' trash. No chance on FJ.

Ditto to all of the above. Yes, minuend was a nice bit of trash. Also, I was surprised clarinet was a TS on the second clue in Chamber Music.

Gina's FJ wager didn't make much sense to me. Obviously, Boomie had her locked out of first, but she also had Chuck locked out of second. Why risk the lock when there is nothing to possibly be gained by it (assuming Boomie doesn't pull a Clavin)? She basically threw out $1,000 of real money.

Congrats to Boomie on the win, and looking forward to more!

[MarkBarrett]

Boomie had "The A" crossed off on his FJ response. Reddpen had the full "The Agony and the Ecstasy " before switching. I was in between with "Agony &" before crossing off for the correct response. Chuck Heston = Michelangelo = Agony was my reassurance to switch the right way after getting off track momentarily.

Boomie looked like someone who was not playing his first game of J! It was as if he had plenty of game experience under his belt the way he moved around the board, scooped up clues and got the hang of the timing. We'll have to see if the lowball wagers continue on the DDs or if tonight's game dictated the strategy. I enjoyed seeing the bottom clues in Getting Defensive (The sports one) scored on with confidence.

Gina threw $1000 away. Was she going to hit the trifecta of getting the FJ clue right, Boomie getting it wrong and Boomie betting all the way down for the tie? The number of times that will work cannot justify handing Chuck another grand unless she's set financially and she really wanted to add to Chuck's total.

Sometimes with a new champ it seems like they hit the perfect board and had the game of their life. I did not get that feeling from Boomie. It seemed like he was still feeling his way around the game surroundings and that he has the capability to do more.

[Woof]

Way to go, Acad! You don't disappoint, though I fully expect to see a buzzer monster of the epic proportions once you get your timing down. I'm another who started off on The Agony and the Ecstasy before realizing that: a) It's van Gogh, not Michelangelo and b) I'm seeing Kirk Douglas's mug in the self-portrait. I'm also surprised that clarinet was a TS. Can't wait to see tomorrow's game!