Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

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Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Archivists »

Game Recap for Show #6255, 2011-11-25

CONTESTANTS
James Ruchala, an ethnomusicologist from Ararat, North Carolina
Kendra Anspaugh, a community college instructor from New Orleans, Louisiana
Ann Thurlow, an aspiring novelist and retired salesperson from Mendham, New Jersey (whose 1-day cash winnings total $26,805)

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Thank you, Johnny. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome aboard. On yesterday's program we have--we had a perfect example of how just one category can turn a game around for a contestant. That contestant in this case was Ann. Kendra and James, welcome aboard. Good luck. Signaling buttons in hand, please, as we go to work in the Jeopardy! Round. And here are the categories. We start off with...

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
PHILATELY PHUN (5/5)
PORTMANTEAU WORDS (5/5)
WHAT THE DICKENS? (5/5)
POTENT POTABLES (5/5)
IT'S NOT THE MIAMI HEAT (5/5)
IT'S THE HUMILITY (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
James: 13 R (including 1 rebound and 1 DD), 1 W
Kendra: 9 R, 0 W
Ann: 8 R (including 1 rebound), 1 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 0
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $0



SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
James: $3,400
Ann: $1,800
Kendra: $1,800

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS



Alex: James Ruchala is an ethnomusicologist who last year taught what subject to, uh, grade school students?

James: Well, I participated in a program called the Junior Appalachian Musicians, which teaches, uh, old-time Appalachian music and dance in public schools.

Alex: Okay. Kids obviously like it, right?

James: Yes, they do.

Alex: Okay.




Alex: Kendra Anspaugh from New Orleans...

Kendra: Yes.

Alex: For a while in her college days had something on her desk which I imagine scared--or at least made some of her, uh, floor mates wonder about her. What was that?

Kendra: I-I had a human skull on my desk.

Alex: Of course.

Kendra: Mm-hmm.

Alex: All students...

Kendra: My boyfriend at the time--his father had been a physician, and he brought it to me on a--from a trip home, and thought it would be kind of a conversation piece for my desk.

Alex: It belongs to someone, doesn't it?

Kendra: Well, that really wasn't a concern.

[Laughter]

Alex: [Exhales] Kids! Who can tell what's wrong with these kids today?




Alex: Ann.

Ann: Yes.

Alex: Ann Thurlow from New Jersey.

Ann: Yes.

Alex: You took a long, long train ride in order to visit what part of Utah?

Ann: Uh, the national parks in southern Utah. But the train ride was as much a part of the planned journey as the parks. It wasn't as pretty for a lot of it, when we slept through. But it's scheduled to be a 26-hour train ride. But they've always said the California Zephyr--always allow a few extra hours because they are always, uh, have to wait for any freight trains to go through--commercial trains have preference.

Alex: Yes, of course.

Ann: And Nebraska was flooded at the time we did it, so...

Alex: Two things that could go wrong did go wrong.

Ann: Yeah.

JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
James found the Daily Double on the 25th clue. Ann had $2,600, Kendra had $4,400, and James was at $6,200. James wagered $2,000.

IT'S THE HUMILITY $1000: In 2011 this politician said he didn't deserve the honor of having the Wilmington, Del. train station named after him

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
James: $8,400
Kendra: $6,600
Ann: $3,200
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

Post by Archivists »

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
THE LONELY ISLAND (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
SONG OF THE SOUTH (5/5)
HALOGENS (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
GRHYME TYME (4/5)
TRUTH SEEKERS (5/5)
RAILROADING 101 (4/5) (Alex: All aboard for some [*] clues.)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Kendra: 15 R (including 1 rebound and 2 DDs), 4 W
James: 9 R (including 5 rebounds), 0 W
Ann: 4 R (including 1 rebound), 5 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 2
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $2,400



FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Kendra snagged the next Daily Double on the 8th clue. Ann had $3,600, Kendra had $8,200, and James was at $11,200. Kendra wagered $5,000.

THE LONELY ISLAND $1200: The name given to these islands when they were annexed by the U.S. in 1867 reflected their position between America & Asia
(Alex: [*], yes. Not even a momentary pause for you there.)

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Kendra who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 18th clue. Ann had $2,000, Kendra had $18,000, and James was at $14,800. Kendra wagered $10,000.

HALOGENS $1600: All isotopes of astatine, the heaviest halogen, are this, which is why they have half-lives

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
RAILROADING 101 $800: (Alex delivers the clue from atop a water tank.) Because water is crucial to a steam locomotive, the train would have to stop about every 100 miles or so to take on water from a tank through this device, which has the same name as a bird

GRHYME TYME $1600: The principal splotch that fell on your pristine pants
(Ann: What is, uh... smudge--)

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
Kendra: $34,800
James: $17,600
Ann: $1,600

PREFINAL REMARKS
Alex: Welcome back. Thanks to the wonderful people at the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, I got a chance to cross off one item from my bucket list--shoveling coal on a steam locomotive. Thanks, guys. All right. The Final Jeopardy! category today is MODERN AMERICAN NOVELS, and here is the clue...

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
MODERN AMERICAN NOVELS

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Crush for first place.
Kendra: Wager $401 to cover James, but no more than $31,599 so as not to fall behind Ann's doubled score.
James: You have the hope of surpassing Kendra if you come up with the correct response. Bet at least $17,201 to force Kendra to wager to win; but if you're intent on holding on to second place, wager no more than $14,399 to protect your second place position from being usurped by Ann.
Ann: Unfortunately, your score is less than the difference between the scores of the first and second place players, so unless they both blunder, you're competing for second place and have no hopes of first. Wager as much as you desire, but remember, you'll have better chances of advancing to second place if you have a larger sum left over on a Triple Stumper.

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
The title of this 1981 Pulitzer Prize winner comes from a Jonathan Swift line about how lesser minds unite to oppose genius

FINAL SCORES
Ann: $1,600 + $0 = $1,600 (What is a Confederacy of Dunces) (3rd place: $1,000)
James: $17,600 + $400 = $18,000 (What is A A Confederacy of Dunces) (2nd place: $2,000)
Kendra: $34,800 - $500 = $34,300 (What is ?) (New champion: $34,300)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $2,400

GAME DYNAMICS
Image

CORYAT SCORES
Kendra: $22,600, 24 R (including 2 DDs), 4 W
James: $16,600, 22 R (including 1 DD), 1 W
Ann: $1,600, 12 R, 6 W
Combined Coryat: $40,800

BATTING AVERAGES
Kendra: 24/60 = .400
James: 23/59 = .390
Ann: 13/58 = .224
Team: 60/63 = .952

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
WHAT THE DICKENS? $200: "Enormous Anticipations"
(James: What is Great--Anticipation--)
(Alex: No.)
(James: What is [*]?)
(Alex: No, sorry.)
...
(Alex: I ruled against you before you changed your response, James, sorry about that.)

WHAT THE DICKENS? $600: "Holiday Song"
(Ann: What is Christmas... Story?)

THE LONELY ISLAND $400: This island--some 1,200 miles from the west coast of Africa--was used for Napoleon's final exile because of its remoteness
(Ann: What is, um, Elba?)

SONG OF THE SOUTH $2000: Stevie Ray Vaughan:
"____ Flood"
(Kendra: What is Mississippi?)

RAILROADING 101 $400: (Alex delivers the clue sitting alongside some railroad tracks.) It can be narrow or standard, but in railroading, this term always refers to the distance between the rails of the track; standard is 56-1/2 inches

RAILROADING 101 $1200: (Alex delivers the clue in front of a train engine.) If you don't have a rail loop line, the best way to get the engine to reverse direction is on one of these; fortunately, Frostburg has one
(Ann: What is a roundhouse?)

RAILROADING 101 $1600: (Alex delivers the clue riding a train on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.) Around 1900, locomotives got so big, no fireman could keep up with this job, so a mechanical feeder was used, but I prefer to do it the old-fashioned way

HALOGENS $1200: It combines with other elements more readily than any other element & reduces tooth decay
(Ann: What is fluoride?)

TRUTH SEEKERS $800: This "meaty" 17th c. English thinker's "Essays, Civil and Moral" begins with his essay "Of Truth"
(Kendra: Uh, who is John Locke?)
...
(Alex: [*]--the meaty part--yes.)

TRUTH SEEKERS $1200: In his "Genealogy of Morals", this 19th c. German philosopher wrote that "The will to truth requires a critique"
(Kendra: Who is Hegel?)
(Ann: Who is Kant?)

GRHYME TYME $400: Unsightly mark on internet "Report"er Matt
(Kendra: Who is Drudge?)
(Alex: Need more than that.)
(Kendra: Who is, uh, grudge?)
(Alex: No.)

GRHYME TYME $800: Wet ground for Wynonna or Ashley
(James: Mud Judd, or [*]--what is [*]?)
(Alex: [Laughs] Boy, you worked that one to death, but we'll give it to you. Go again.)

RAILROADING 101 $2000: (Alex delivers the clue from aboard a train on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.) The engine is working a little harder now because we're going up a 2.8% one of these; you call it a slope or an incline; railroaders call it this

CORRECT RESPONSES
Joe Biden
the Midway Islands
radioactive
a crane
the main stain
A Confederacy of Dunces (by John Kennedy Toole)
Great Expectations
A Christmas Carol
St. Helena
Texas
gauge
a turntable
stoking
fluorine
Francis Bacon
(Friedrich) Nietzsche
a Drudge smudge
Judd mud
a grade
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by thenextofken »

James, if you're reading this, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?????????????? If you had bet it all, or even most of it, you would've won. I can understand that maybe you didn't feel comfortable with the category, but you had nothing to lose by betting big. You played a great game and got victimized by Kendra's gutsy wagers, but why play the game if you're not playing to win?

Kendra: In a way I'm glad you ended up winning. It would've been a shame if you'd lost after those absolutely gutsy wagers in the DJ round. Retroactive good luck next week.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by xxaaaxx »

WTF??
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by econgator »

xxaaaxx wrote:WTF??
That about sums it up.

Not a prayer on FJ.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Roadgeek Adam »

$400?...ummm...never mind.

Kendra looks like she's a damn good player, lets hope she can keep it going for a few days, and not get Weekend Syndrome.

Tends to help when railroading is a specialty. I swept that with no issue at all.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by DWS »

Props to Kendra for making strong DD wagers that helped her build up a big lead. One or two less negs and she would have had a lock game heading into FJ. However, James gave her the lock with his inexplicable FJ wager.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by billy pilgrim »

INCONTHEIVABLE!
She caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by legendneverdies »

Alex even said that it wasn't quite a runaway. If Alex had negged James in time for non-phrasing on the Judd Mud clue in Grhyme Tyme, it would have been a lock. But yeah, two days in a row for people going big on DDs in DJ!, not quite Roger Craig like, but far more aggressive than we've seen lately.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by StevenH »

I am thinking that maybe James did the math wrong and thought that Kendra had a lock and he was playing for second place. I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

I liked Kendra's DD wagers. Props to her. I would have been tempted to wager five figures on the Halogens DD, as well.

This was a FANTASTIC board. Philosophy, islands, the elements, and NBA!? I'll take that all day long.

FJ was an instant get, but only because of the year. Without the year I doubt I would have pulled it.

I cannot rave enough about how much I liked this board. It was probably too easy to be used in the ToC but if the difficulty had just been a notch or two higher it would have been the perfect ToC board.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by alietr »

Oh. My. God.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by alietr »

I've always been meaning to do the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad (I occasionally ride my bike on a closer-in portion that's been turned into a trail, and it's quite pretty). I doubt, however, that they would allow me to do any stoking.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by legendneverdies »

StevenH wrote:I am thinking that maybe James did the math wrong and thought that Kendra had a lock and he was playing for second place. I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
ALex said it wasn't a runaway just before the FJ! category reveal, otherwise it may be more forgivable.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by DBear »

Damn, was FJ really that easy? Could not think of it to save my life... and there goes a 5/5 week.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by marpocky »

There are certainly situations where wagering is difficult. This was not one of them.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by StevenH »

legendneverdies wrote:
StevenH wrote:I am thinking that maybe James did the math wrong and thought that Kendra had a lock and he was playing for second place. I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
ALex said it wasn't a runaway just before the FJ! category reveal, otherwise it may be more forgivable.
I missed that. Well, it is possible that he thought since Kendra wagered so large on DDs that...

Okay, it was just a bad wager.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by vellore »

StevenH wrote:This was a FANTASTIC board. Philosophy, islands, the elements, and NBA!? I'll take that all day long.

FJ .
Agreed. Probably the only NBA we'll get this year. And the only time the Raptors will rank higher than the Lakers and Celtics.

Especially liked the Dickens category in the J round, as it relied less on knowledge of the author than on wit with synonyms.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by legendneverdies »

vellore wrote: Especially liked the Dickens category in the J round, as it relied less on knowledge of the author than on wit with synonyms.

Sort of like the maingame puzzles on both SHoot for the Stars(1977 NBC game show) and Double Talk(1986 ABC game show)
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by mam418 »

Holy cow!! I've been on that railroad! My brother went to college in Frostburg, and during one visit - maybe graduation? - we took the dinner train on the WMSR. So cool! I cheered when Alex mentioned Frostburg. Got FJ with about 2 seconds left to go. On the show, I wouldn't have had time to write it - but I may still give it to myself in the poll. Loved the Dickens category, and the portmanteau words.

And I precalled, right after FJ, much consternation on the boards. WTF was he thinking!! He's got to have been kicking himself ever since. I know I kicked myself over my second game for months, but at least I wagered properly... to know that if you bet properly you would have won... that's a killer.
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Re: Friday, November 25, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by mennoknight »

A girl from New Orleans misses that final? Yelling at the tv tonight.
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