The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

[dhkendall]

WLT [...] Pepys [...] in the top box?

Samuel Pepys is a famous diarist, he chronicled his life in London in the 1660s. Besides Ann Frank (who did not live in the 1660s or in London) can you name another famous diarist? That's why he was top box. (And I think you do know about Pepys, for one there's no way on earth you got the spelling of his name right (instead of "Peeps") without knowing about him. And "being a diarist in 1660s London" is literally all there is to know about him, as he's not famous for anything else.)

The problem is that I knew only "diarist", and not his place or time.

Again, that's why he's top row, he's the only famous diarist out there.

(Again, discounting Ann Frank, but I think even you know she wasn't in 1660s London). If it's top row, and you know only one of them, blurt it out. That's why they're top row. (And don't ask "well, what if it was someone I don't know?" If it's someone you don't know, then they're obviously harder than top row.)

[TenPoundHammer]

Again, that's why he's top row, he's the only famous diarist out there.

(Again, discounting Ann Frank, but I think even you know she wasn't in 1660s London). If it's top row, and you know only one of them, blurt it out. That's why they're top row. (And don't ask "well, what if it was someone I don't know?" If it's someone you don't know, then they're obviously harder than top row.)

The problem here is that I thought "diary" was just noise that was completely immaterial to getting the clue. Given that I know jack squat about British history, I was fully expecting it to be something way, WAY beyond my recognition.

Also, there are lots and lots and LOTS of things I've outright NHO that make it into the top box. Glenfiddich on 10/5 being one. Why the hell should I know that?!

[BigDaddyMatty]

Also, there are lots and lots and LOTS of things I've outright NHO that make it into the top box. Glenfiddich on 10/5 being one. Why the hell should I know that?!

By observing the world around you. I've never had a drink in my life. But between doing pub trivia and watching games at sports bars, I've seen Glenfiddich bottles several times.

[Volante]

Also, there are lots and lots and LOTS of things I've outright NHO that make it into the top box. Glenfiddich on 10/5 being one. Why the hell should I know that?!

By observing the world around you. I've never had a drink in my life. But between doing pub trivia and watching games at sports bars, I've seen Glenfiddich bottles several times.

TPH has established that the world around him is a minimum 2-3 hour drive in any direction though, so that's no help...

[dhkendall]

Also, there are lots and lots and LOTS of things I've outright NHO that make it into the top box. Glenfiddich on 10/5 being one. Why the hell should I know that?!

By observing the world around you. I've never had a drink in my life. But between doing pub trivia and watching games at sports bars, I've seen Glenfiddich bottles several times.

TPH has established that the world around him is a minimum 2-3 hour drive in any direction though, so that's no help...

Same goes here. I've talked about how the largest city of any size (read: to hold J! auditions in) is an 8 hour drive away (top THAT, TPH!) and I never once used the "it's not near here so I can't be expected to know it" excuse (at least not as much as he has). I'm sure if we did the work we could find J! contestants in equally remote locations.

No excuse, TPH.

[Bamaman]

I misread the diary clue and thought they wanted the king and said Charles II.

[TLEberle]

1. Stop expecting every clue to hold your hand and lead you to the answer. Sometimes you have to know things to get the right answer.

I love this so much--the point of testing your knowledge is literally "testing what you know," and if you don't know things your batting average is going to be anemic. The only way to increase it is to know more stuff.

5. Challenge yourself. Read a book, or an article about something outside of your comfort zone. You'll probably find yourself learning stuff. This is how I get a lot of science clues right despite being a filthy history major who got B's and C's in high school science classes.

I don't know if JBoard already has something like this, but I'd love for there to be (and I would happily contribute to) a curated list of "here's a list of foundational materials for various subjects" because I'm rubbish on Entertainment and Arts&Literature, so I'm always looking for things to fill the gaps rather than bemoaning that "aw, that clue was hard so I declare shenanigans."

[seaborgium]

1. Stop expecting every clue to hold your hand and lead you to the answer. Sometimes you have to know things to get the right answer.

I love this so much--the point of testing your knowledge is literally "testing what you know," and if you don't know things your batting average is going to be anemic. The only way to increase it is to know more stuff.

5. Challenge yourself. Read a book, or an article about something outside of your comfort zone. You'll probably find yourself learning stuff. This is how I get a lot of science clues right despite being a filthy history major who got B's and C's in high school science classes.

I don't know if JBoard already has something like this, but I'd love for there to be (and I would happily contribute to) a curated list of "here's a list of foundational materials for various subjects" because I'm rubbish on Entertainment and Arts&Literature, so I'm always looking for things to fill the gaps rather than bemoaning that "aw, that clue was hard so I declare shenanigans."

Search for threads with "Pavlovs" in the subject line.

[goatman]

TPH... I said it b4, here again: GO to this page, read a bit evry day and you will soon get closer to J-nirvana. It's a starting point!
http://www.gameshowtrivia.tv/

[opusthepenguin]

WLT [...] Pepys [...] in the top box?

Samuel Pepys is a famous diarist, he chronicled his life in London in the 1660s. Besides Ann Frank (who did not live in the 1660s or in London) can you name another famous diarist?

Anaïs Nin.

Also, Anne Frank, not Ann Frank.

[MarkBarrett]

Leipzig = Germany and it definitely has more appearances in the J! Archive than just 2.

The ping pong matches about top row clues is still causing over-posting in the daily threads. When someone responds to the WLT, accept it and move on. Use the Archive search function (properly) and see how things are repeated.

[bpmod]

Better yet, quit with the #%*%&! WLTs. Do some of your own research. Nobody here (and even fewer people at Jeopardy!) owes you an explanation as to why a piece of trivia is appropriate for wherever it is.

Brian

[TenPoundHammer]

I still don't understand that coin flip clue either. Explain?

[OSXpert]

I still don't understand that coin flip clue either. Explain?

"When talking about probability, what is the most common example given for a situation with 2 equally possible outcomes?"

Look no further than this message board, where people constantly talk about having to flip a coin on a clue that they think has 2 equally likely responses.

[TenPoundHammer]

That sounds a lot simpler, but this stuff about Bernoulli and all the other babble completely obfuscated that. What was the exact wording?

[OSXpert]

That sounds a lot simpler, but this stuff about Bernoulli and all the other babble completely obfuscated that. What was the exact wording?

A Bernoulli trial. Since this was a math category, they had to tie the clue to math somehow. I agree that it was probably easier if you ignored the Bernoulli part.

[opusthepenguin]

That sounds a lot simpler, but this stuff about Bernoulli and all the other babble completely obfuscated that. What was the exact wording?

A Bernoulli trial. Since this was a math category, they had to tie the clue to math somehow. I agree that it was probably easier if you ignored the Bernoulli part.

Yeah, I was trying to picture something that involved moving air creating a pocket of lower pressure. The clue ended up sounding like gibberish. I couldn't figure out what they were getting at.

[Bamaman]

Better yet, quit with the #%*%&! WLTs. Do some of your own research. Nobody here (and even fewer people at Jeopardy!) owes you an explanation as to why a piece of trivia is appropriate for wherever it is.

Brian

This. A thousand times this. While we all have clues where we have no idea how to figure them out, these are getting tiresome on an everyday basis from him.

Wednesday it was "WLT Elizabeth I?". I don't have the answer handy, but I think it gave us the year she died and said she had no children.

Of course, you say we shouldn't have to know the year famous people died. No, other than Julius Caesar, I couldn't tell you the exact day of death for many people who lived a long time ago. But knowing the approximate years of someone's lifespan is very helpful on the show. She was succeeded by James I, who gave us the King James Bible and started English exploration in the New World. Those events happened in the early 1600s, so it should be easy to deduce she died around 1600.

She was known as the Virgin Queen. I have no idea if she was truly a virgin, but the nickname would imply she never had kids.


I know you can't keep up with the British monarchs. But they come up a lot on the show. As a group, they are probably second to U.S. Presidents as a set of world leaders it would be prudent to memorize before going on the show.

I don't follow current popular music and if a category on that comes up I put my pen down. But my lack of success in that category is my fault, not that of the show when I do not know who had the top pop vocal in 2015.

[Elijah Baley]

Better yet, quit with the #%*%&! WLTs. Do some of your own research. Nobody here (and even fewer people at Jeopardy!) owes you an explanation as to why a piece of trivia is appropriate for wherever it is.

Brian

This. A thousand times this. While we all have clues where we have no idea how to figure them out, these are getting tiresome on an everyday basis from him.

Wednesday it was "WLT Elizabeth I?". I don't have the answer handy, but I think it gave us the year she died and said she had no children.

Of course, you say we shouldn't have to know the year famous people died. No, other than Julius Caesar, I couldn't tell you the exact day of death for many people who lived a long time ago. But knowing the approximate years of someone's lifespan is very helpful on the show. She was succeeded by James I, who gave us the King James Bible and started English exploration in the New World. Those events happened in the early 1600s, so it should be easy to deduce she died around 1600.

She was known as the Virgin Queen. I have no idea if she was truly a virgin, but the nickname would imply she never had kids.


I know you can't keep up with the British monarchs. But they come up a lot on the show. As a group, they are probably second to U.S. Presidents as a set of world leaders it would be prudent to memorize before going on the show.

I don't follow current popular music and if a category on that comes up I put my pen down. But my lack of success in that category is my fault, not that of the show when I do not know who had the top pop vocal in 2015.

Agreed.

What I don't get the belligerence in the follow up questions to WLT, such as the oft used "and why should I know that?" For someone who appears to be one of the least curious persons on the planet - and yet who apparently enjoys a show about "trivia" - it's the belligerence about why anyone should know something more than next week's hymns that I can't fathom. ("Trivia" in quotes because a lot of the stuff that appears on the show doesn't count as trivial, like knowing your own country's very recent history, for example).

Elizabeth I is a good example. Many books have been written, TPH, and even better, Hollywood has made any number of movies about her, or that reference her. Some are classics that regularly appear on TCM - a good a place as any to start on a general education because older movies often drew from historical sources (even if they sometimes took so much license as to commit historical malpractice). But, something like Shakespeare in Love is relatively contemporary (it's almost 20 years old now) and Elizabeth I is enough of a role that it won Dame Judi Dench an Oscar. Cate Blanchett almost won an Oscar for playing the same role the very same year in the aptly named Elizabeth. Helen Mirren played her in Elizabeth I just 10 years ago. And as pointed out above, British monarchs show up as much as any other category, so it's really silly to be asking why you should know about these folks, particularly since less than a dozen of them show up with any regularity. It's not like there are many clues that reference Aethelred the Unready!

[MDaunt]

Also, there are lots and lots and LOTS of things I've outright NHO that make it into the top box. Glenfiddich on 10/5 being one. Why the hell should I know that?!

By observing the world around you. I've never had a drink in my life. But between doing pub trivia and watching games at sports bars, I've seen Glenfiddich bottles several times.

TPH has established that the world around him is a minimum 2-3 hour drive in any direction though, so that's no help...

Same goes here. I've talked about how the largest city of any size (read: to hold J! auditions in) is an 8 hour drive away (top THAT, TPH!) and I never once used the "it's not near here so I can't be expected to know it" excuse (at least not as much as he has). I'm sure if we did the work we could find J! contestants in equally remote locations.

No excuse, TPH.

You're in the big city - the Metropolis of the Eastern Prairies. No excuse for you.

Here's where I grew up:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invermay,_Saskatchewan

before we moved to the sophisticated urban centre of:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkton