Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[econgator]

But seriously? French Literature? No real idea, no way of getting it, would never have come up with the right answer.

That was a damn fine comeback, Rebecca. I was right there with you on FJ with Les Miz -- 0% chance of getting it correct.

It also looked like there was an odd cut when Mark's FJ response was revealed? Was that anything -- Rebecca? Arthur? -- or was I just seeing things?

[MarkBarrett]

Hey, there's Breaking Bad again. Thank goodness, I was starting to get withdrawals since there had not been a clue about the show since Nov. 4th. Keep it up writers. My scoresheet is always grateful.

Arthur found DDs in boxes worth $2400 total and bet $2000 total. As long as he can solve the FJ! clues then it won't hurt him and it will make things more interesting than if he played J! like Roger Craig.

Rebecca: There is only one person on this board who would think betting it all on your DD may have been the dumbest thing you ever did. You got it right, so we are spared that kind of nonsense. Great job putting some doubt in the result.

With the scores the way they were and the possiblity of a tough FJ! clue I recalled Vermonter's post from early October in the Sexism thread:

Maybe my favorite part of the TOC was when the six female participants lined up for a photo at the after-party.

Instead of saying "Cheese!" they said, "Outchange!"

(Dead serious.)

I was starting to wonder if this was a disguised major spoiler. Arthur won, so now I have a clear slate for knowing tomorrow's result. If Rebecca had pulled out the game then I would have been thinking Sandie would clear out the rest of the guys.

If Arthur's Tip for Mr. Sam error and rebound had cost him the match I would not have wanted to be in his shoes to get over such a giveaway. The way it played out only made things closer and more exciting though not result changing.

One more vote for Les Miserables by me. Stealing bread/description of a pastry. They sounded related to me. If the category had been 20th Century French Literature then perhaps I could have had a stab at Proust. My precalls were all earlier in the Dumas/Hugo/Flaubert/Candide/Pangloss area.

Great solve by Arthur to lock in a place in the finals. The J! horseshoe from the BOTD continues to get the big dogs in the kennel.

[boson]

I thought the Final was pretty chestnutty and was only surprised Arthur didn't show off by writing both titles and drawing a picture of a madeleine.

I thought it was pretty much a chestnut as well, and I was surprised two missed it. I might have tried to show off writing the title in French, but it would have backfired: I would have written "...de temps perdu" when it is "...du temps perdu". Yeah, showing off at that point is probably not a great idea.

Great game to watch. Arthur is very, very impressive.

[cosmos]

How are podum positions determined for the finals? That might help me decide if the alleged spoiler actually was not one.

[MarkBarrett]

How are podum positions determined for the finals? That might help me decide if the alleged spoiler actually was not one.

Money won in the semis. I have not seen the supposed promo spoiler. If you are doing more detective work then outfits can sometimes help figure out spoilers. A person not wearing their QF or Semis outfit? Expect them to be finalists. If you are seeing two QF outfits, but the players/podiums have not been seen then it can be practice/rehearsal.

For example, if the person who won semifinal 1 won with less than the person who won semifinal 2, yet S1 winner is at the champ's position then that is not a spoiler for the finals.

[zakharov]

I feel like you have a 1/3 chance in a French Lit category by going with one of the 3 we saw tonight.

Damn hard board, damn fine performance by all 3, especially in DJ. Rebecca, congrats on your guts going for the TDD there, and what a comeback!

Looking forward to Chulia.

[periwinkle]

Oh, Rebecca, what a terrific comeback! I was cheering for you so loudly. Great gutsy move on the DD - you had to do it to give yourself a good chance of knocking out Arthur, and you nearly did that. Well played, especially since you were having difficulty buzzing in against Arthur and Mark at the start.

Arthur had some definite weaknesses in literature in the regular season, so I thought he might miss it. I precalled Victor Hugo, Dumas father and son (except I never remember which wrote which book), Camus, Sartre's No Exit, and Colette (all I know about her is the name and Gigi). I got FJ! from the madeleine, quicker than I might've gotten most of the ones I precalled. But most French literature would've left me shaking my head.

Recently read Bacall's autobiography (very enjoyable) and was bummed she was a TS, though "Applause" isn't very well known among non-theater folks and the "whistle" TOM apparently wasn't that clear.

[Category 13]

I noticed a still of Julia with her hands over her mouth, which may have not yet happened in this playoff. (Since she didn't win her QF game) I don't recall if she had that surprised look last night when she pulled off the win, but she had to know that she had the correct response, so it's not like she would be gob smacked.....I wondered if it could have been a spoiler to the second finals game.

I realize the photo could have possibly been pulled from the archives of her original run though. But I'm thinking the web designers for the tournament might be too lazy to dig something up from months ago, when they have a catalog of fresh pics for this tourney.

[Bamaman]

Count me as another one hanging out at the bakery with Rebecca still waiting for Valjean to show up.

I was glad she did the right thing and went all in on the DD, even though I suspect Norse mythology isn't her wheelhouse. Nice job by Mark to sneak back into contention as well.

[sarah0114]

I noticed a still of Julia with her hands over her mouth, which may have not yet happened in this playoff. (Since she didn't win her QF game) I don't recall if she had that surprised look last night when she pulled off the win, but she had to know that she had the correct response, so it's not like she would be gob smacked.....I wondered if it could have been a spoiler to the second finals game.

If someone's being super expressive, it's usually from one of the staged reaction shots like the ones used in the TOC header image. We were a lot more reserved during regular gameplay.

[zakharov]

Courtesy of SB Nation...pretty sure this is a scientific diagram.

[This Is Kirk!]

Very entertaining game with both Rebecca and Mark making late charges. I definitely want to congratulate Rebecca on a great game. Very nice get on that TDD! Count me among the Arthur fans. The guy plays to win and that should be what matters.

I said "Chocolat" for FJ. Well, turns out it's not French Lit, but it least it's set in France.

[MTGcollegestudent]

Well...with the battle of the titans (Julia and Arthur) under way, two days from now, we're about to find out who will rise to the top and see who will clash down.

The only problem is if it might turn to the re-run of the Ken, Brad, and Roger Battle of the Decades incident.

Being Brad representing Julia, Arthur representing Ken, and whoever wins tomorrow representing Roger?

It's a debacle because with Arthur and Julia surviving their games, it's only a matter of time to see if the third will actually try to take the titans down.

[seaborgium]

I do not think some of those words mean what you think they mean.

[Ceruleanveritas]

Very entertaining game with both Rebecca and Mark making late charges. I definitely want to congratulate Rebecca on a great game. Very nice get on that TDD! Count me among the Arthur fans. The guy plays to win and that should be what matters.

I said "Chocolat" for FJ. Well, turns out it's not French Lit, but it least it's set in France.

You know, the same thought of "Chocolat" actually came to my head, but I figured it probably wasn't French Literature. I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one with that thought though.

My first thought was actually Madame Bovary, but I figured that probably wasn't it and finally happened to say Remembrance of Things Past, but that was almost a complete guess(I haven't the faintest clue what it's actually about), except Proust works do seem to show up a lot on Jeopardy!

I also fully agree with everything you've said.

Nice comebacks by both Mark and especially Rebecca, they both played very good games, making it interesting in the end.

As for Arthur, like you say, he plays to win and that's all that should matter. It's not a popularity contest or beauty pageant, and there is no award for Miss Congeniality.

I can understand why some people don't particularly care for the way he plays though, his board hopping can definitely make things more challenging.

It should be a very interesting Final as Julia likes to go straight down the board while Arthur jumps all around. The other thing is that I remember Julia being very cautious and conservative when wagering on DDs(hopefully it won't cost her in the Finals) while Arthur was generally very aggressive. He did have a big lead in today's game though and I can understand why he wagered very cautiously, to protect his lead. We'll see what happens in the Finals, it should be a great match. I really do like Julia Collins, but I think I have to give the slightest advantage to Arthur Chu.

But of course Wednesday comes first and Ben was a very good player as well, let's see if he makes it to the final.

[harrumph]

Isn't "scallop" considered pavlovian for Remembrance Of Things Past?

[Tigershark]

As a theater nerd, Patti Lupone as a TS made very sad. I did appreciate that the next clue selected after that one was about Mandy Patinkin.

[TomKBaltimoreBoy]

I was not around during Arthur's regular-season play on J! earlier this year, so my experience at watching him play is limited to last week and today's game. I must say that he is not fun to watch. His hit rate is pretty high, to be sure, but there is just something off-putting about him, like he doesn't seem to realize that other people even exist. I am not happy about how he talks over AT to make his category selections; there was another champ recently who also did that.

Don't worry; you are from the minority on that one. I personally think he's a boss.

Minority here anyways, I'd say the general populace is at least 50/50, if not more towards Chu-hate (if Facebook and Twitter have anything to do with it.) But here, where the true fans are, is the only place that matters.

I would suspect most of the Chu-hate these days on social media is coming from folks who deeply resent his activity in showing their posturing on "Ethics in game journalism".

[TomKBaltimoreBoy]

As a theater nerd, Patti Lupone as a TS made very sad. I did appreciate that the next clue selected after that one was about Mandy Patinkin.

Damn, another time I wish for a "like" button on comments.

[Robert K S]

As a theater nerd, Patti Lupone as a TS made very sad.

If you'd asked me who LuPone was before last night's game I'd probably have guessed she was a '70s disco diva.