Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by opusthepenguin »

ArthurChu wrote:Maggie specifically asked me to try to be a little more personable and charming this time around now that I'm already a "superchampion" so that I can try to charm America. It's the same reason we did that godawful thing where they put me on the spot to "do a voice".
I liked the voice thing. Especially the way the first half played into and the second half undercut the whole Arthur Chu, Supervillain meme that didn't even exist yet.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Golf »

Turd Ferguson wrote:On an unrelated note, I don't really agree with what seems to be the sentiment here that the way to beat Arthur is to "beat him at his own game". Generally speaking, in sports if you get your opponent to play "your game", you're already ahead. In preparing for my taping, I had a "gameplan" and I told myself not to adjust the plan no matter who I came up against. What some might see as being a "lamb for the slaughter", I would see as sticking with a plan, and not being intimidated by an opponent. (Of course for me that was moot when I got picked to play in the first game of the taping day)
Yeah, you don't try to "beat him at his own game". You simply draw up a strategically perfect game plan, and then stick to it like clockwork. Thing is, the strategically perfect game plan is pretty much what Arthur has been doing. So in essence, the best way to beat him is to play like him, but only because he's close to theoretically perfect.

Playing top to bottom is poor strategy to begin with, even against others playing the same way. But against a DD hunter, you get hurt worse. So yeah, it is like a "lamb to the slaughter", even though the little lamb thinks he is doing the right thing the entire time. At some point during the bloodletting the lamb will realize he screwed the pooch.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Linear Gnome »

FWIW, I heard the "d" both times.

I think it's gotten to the point in Arthur's run where I'm just as interested in the information management as in the outcome of the games. Today was the first game in which I found Arthur annoying, but the backstory has me back on Team Arthur. It's kind of brilliant, actually. Whether he has spent these last few months planning his "spin" in detail, or whether he's reacting to the mix of vaguely remembering the blur of the experience with watching it play out, I'm really enjoying his input. Thanks, Arthur!

I remember hearing that Elbridge Gerry pronounced his name with a hard "G", but I don't have the Mary-marry-merry merger so I don't pronounce it to sound like Gary (which is what the captions said).

Got FJ and my share of Lach Trash today.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Turd Ferguson »

Golf wrote:
Turd Ferguson wrote:On an unrelated note, I don't really agree with what seems to be the sentiment here that the way to beat Arthur is to "beat him at his own game". Generally speaking, in sports if you get your opponent to play "your game", you're already ahead. In preparing for my taping, I had a "gameplan" and I told myself not to adjust the plan no matter who I came up against. What some might see as being a "lamb for the slaughter", I would see as sticking with a plan, and not being intimidated by an opponent. (Of course for me that was moot when I got picked to play in the first game of the taping day)
Yeah, you don't try to "beat him at his own game". You simply draw up a strategically perfect game plan, and then stick to it like clockwork. Thing is, the strategically perfect game plan is pretty much what Arthur has been doing. So in essence, the best way to beat him is to play like him, but only because he's close to theoretically perfect.
Well, there are two different things that he's doing - searching for DDs, and jumping around the board. If the whole point in jumping around the board is to disorient his opponents because he thinks it gives him an advantage, odds are his opponents would be better off not jumping around. I'm going to assume that by "playing like him", you're not suggesting that the best way to beat him is to jump around the board. So, it's not really about playing like him.

I will assume that the heart of the criticism of how his "lamb" opponents are playing is that they're not searching for DDs. FWIW, my strategy was to search for DDs, but only in categories I liked. I didn't really see the value of getting a DD (especially in DJ) that I wasn't overly confident in. If my opponents were going to get $2K DDs correct, then maybe they just deserved to win more than I did. My impression was that the get rate for DDs at that level was not significantly, if at all, above .500, so I figured a big DD was just as likely to hurt my opponent as it would be to help them.

If I showed up and found that the returning champion had won 25 games with a ridiculous money total, I'd guess that he or she was probably going to be a good bet to be significantly better than .500 on even tough DDs, so I would try to find and neutralize the tough DDs, a la David Madden. But, the whole "lambs to the slaughter" thing started when Arthur's win and money total was much less "exceptional".
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by harrumph »

On the Richard Preston Hot Zone clue - last week at a local land preservation group I filmed a panel discussion, one of the panelists seemed more interesting than the others and I went up to talk to him after it ended. He was scientifically minded, and the conversation touched on some elements of human anatomical evolution that I had just read a book about, and I recapped some of the points from the book. Then someone came up with a book for him to autograph, and I saw that it was Richard Preston.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by JeopRDFan »

Steppenwolf wrote:A bit nit-picky, but I'm pretty sure Alex added a 'g' onto the end of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan"
Yup, I noticed that as well. Missed FJ. I did get 'Spike Lee' and should have also with 'Wish You Were Here', but time ran out for me.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Rex Kramer »

Jeez, I'm getting crotchety as I lose my brain elasticity. Between Brad's "streptococcus" and Arthur's "Freedman's Bureau", a gazillion people who have apparently never watched Jeopardy! before in their lives have suddenly crawled out of the woodwork to complain. Alex asks contestants to repeat things all the time, and as long as he hasn't ruled them wrong already, they've always been allowed to change or refine their pronunciation the second time. There was absolutely nothing remarkable about either incident. I know that here on these Boards, some people are just curious and trying to figure out if Arthur changed is pronunciation (FWIW, it sounded right the first time to me), and that's perfectly normal fanatic completism, which I get. But the folks in the cyberverse crying foul are just weird. It would be like going to a baseball game, seeing someone take four balls, and then accusing him of getting an unfair break as he trots towards first base, because he didn't actually hit the ball.

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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Bamaman »

I only listened once but I'm pretty sure I heard a d the first time. I was making it a point to listen for it because I was fairly sure it was Freedman's , but wasn't 100%.

A Freeman's Beareau is where Morgan keeps his clothes.

I agree it will be big DD bets that cause Arthur's downfall. Or else another player runs a sports category along with a DD in there. The guy on the end tonight seemed to know sports, but unfortunately for him, didn't get much of a chance to put it to use.
Last edited by Bamaman on Thu Sep 15, 2022 5:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by OldSchoolChamp »

jpr281 wrote:After Arthur correctly said Gerry ("Jerry"), Alex corrected his pronunciation (it's said like "Gary").
Sorry, but “Jerry” is not “correctly said.” Though, as Arthur pointed out, the derived political term has come to be commonly pronounced with a soft “G” (and consequently I do think that pronunciation should be accepted as a correct response), the man actually pronounced his name with a hard “G.” And it isn’t “said like ‘Gary,’” either. “Gary” rhymes with “marry” and “Gerry” rhymes with “merry,” and where I come from, those don’t rhyme with each other.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by skullturf »

OldSchoolChamp wrote:And it isn’t “said like ‘Gary,’” either. “Gary” rhymes with “marry” and “Gerry” rhymes with “merry,” and where I come from, those don’t rhyme with each other.
They rhyme for the majority of Americans.
http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dia ... /q_15.html
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by OldSchoolChamp »

Rex Kramer wrote:Alex asks contestants to repeat things all the time, and as long as he hasn't ruled them wrong already, they've always been allowed to change or refine their pronunciation the second time. There was absolutely nothing remarkable about [the] incident....[T]he folks in the cyberverse crying foul are just weird. It would be like going to a baseball game, seeing someone take four balls, and then accusing him of getting an unfair break as he trots towards first base, because he didn't actually hit the ball.
Bill, I don’t quite get your analogy here. Contestants who give an (indistinct but) wrong response are not allowed to go back and correct it the second time. I speak from experience: In my TOC semifinal back in ’94, I rang in on a clue about the author of The Owl and the Pussycat and said “Edmund Lear.” Apparently I must not have articulated clearly, because Alex asked me to repeat it. I realized my mistake and said (correctly) “Edward Lear” the second time. This brought an immediate shout from the judges’ table and they stopped tape for what seemed at least an hour and a half while they went back and reviewed my original response. I wanted to just speak up, admit my mistake, and get on with the game, but of course I just stood there and let things run their course. And of course they eventually ruled against me. That dollar swing ended up costing me my runaway, and I went on to lose the game in FJ. If they had allowed me to “change or refine my pronunciation the second time,” I would have advanced to the final and that might have been me up on the stage last week instead of Rachael.

Mind you, I’m not arguing against Arthur here: like you, I thought I heard him say it right (“freedmen”) the first time. But if he had said “freemen” instead, he would not (or should not) have been allowed to correct it on repetition. That would be like calling the batter back after the fourth ball and giving the pitcher another chance to try to hit the strike zone.


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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by OldSchoolChamp »

skullturf wrote:
OldSchoolChamp wrote:And it isn’t “said like ‘Gary,’” either. “Gary” rhymes with “marry” and “Gerry” rhymes with “merry,” and where I come from, those don’t rhyme with each other.
They rhyme for the majority of Americans.
http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dia ... /q_15.html
The majority of Americans also spell possessive “its” with an apostrophe.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by John Boy »

xxaaaxx wrote:Meh. I'm trying very hard to be respectful of anyone smart enough to pass the test and make it on the show...but these last few games haven't been very interesting to watch. Missed DDs, bad/careless negs, stand-and-stares galore, and somehow no one has made him pay for his mistakes. 11 games worth of him hunting down DDs and draining the board of high value clues, and when the challengers get control, sometimes for a few clues at a time, even when down multiple thousands with time running out, they still take them top-to-bottom. They're barely putting up a fight.

/rant

Instaget FJ.
Correct in every particular, IMO. A sterner challenge in this game could easily have ended Arthur's run. Arthur appeared to make wild guesses on two consecutive $1K clues, which kept letting his opponents stay close. And the "Gerry" debate stunned me.

Just FWIW, the most famous cave in America, the only one most Americans could name, Carlsbad Caverns, is a $2,000 clue? Seriously? What are the writers thinking?
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by jpr281 »

OldSchoolChamp wrote:
jpr281 wrote:After Arthur correctly said Gerry ("Jerry"), Alex corrected his pronunciation (it's said like "Gary").
Sorry, but “Jerry” is not “correctly said.”
I apologize if I wasn't clear on my use of "correctly said." I meant to say that Arthur was ruled correct for pronouncing it "Jerry."
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by opusthepenguin »

Bamaman wrote:I only listened once but I'm pretty sure I heard a d the first time. I was making it a point to listen for it because I was fairly sure it was Feedman's, but wasn't 100%.

A Freeman's Beareau is where Morgan keeps his clothes.
Morgan "Grizzly" Freeman?
Bamaman wrote:I agree it will be big DD bets that cause Arthur's downfall. Or else another player runs a sports category along with a DD in there. The guy on the end tonight seemed to know sports, but unfortunately for him, didn't get much of a chance to put it to use.
I wonder if there's a case to be made for smaller DD bets in Arthur's situation. Can he produce lock games more reliably without big DD money? If so, wagering "conservatively" might not be a euphemism for wagering foolishly.

If he makes it to the end of the week and remains champ, he'll have had a break that will have had alloweden him to reflect on these sorts of questions. But perhaps crucially, he won't have had the opportunity to watch his games and review them point by point and crunch some numbers.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by This Is Kirk! »

OldSchoolChamp wrote:
skullturf wrote:They rhyme for the majority of Americans.
http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dia ... /q_15.html
The majority of Americans also spell possessive “its” with an apostrophe.
I hope you're kidding with this example. Your example is clearly wrong whereas pronunciation of "merry" and "marry" is dependent on dialect.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by skullturf »

Also, a source is needed. I'm not convinced that it's actually true that a majority of Americans spell "its" with an apostrophe.

And in any case, pronunciation is different from spelling.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by periwinkle »

opusthepenguin wrote:
ArthurChu wrote:Maggie specifically asked me to try to be a little more personable and charming this time around now that I'm already a "superchampion" so that I can try to charm America. It's the same reason we did that godawful thing where they put me on the spot to "do a voice".
I liked the voice thing. Especially the way the first half played into and the second half undercut the whole Arthur Chu, Supervillain meme that didn't even exist yet.
I enjoyed it too. It made me think I'd like to see a cartoon or movie where you were doing the voices.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by TenPoundHammer »

skullturf wrote:Also, a source is needed. I'm not convinced that it's actually true that a majority of Americans spell "its" with an apostrophe.
I see "it's" for "its" everywhere. I've even seen people do it on Wikipedia, where copy editors usually catch grammar PDQ.

Also, getting back to the game, I loved the Yooper clue.
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Re: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by econgator »

skullturf wrote:
OldSchoolChamp wrote:And it isn’t “said like ‘Gary,’” either. “Gary” rhymes with “marry” and “Gerry” rhymes with “merry,” and where I come from, those don’t rhyme with each other.
They rhyme for the majority of Americans.
http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dia ... /q_15.html
They're wrong. :D
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