Friday, December 27, 2019 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

[talkingaway]

Curious now if Alex pronounced the book club the pun-way, as "Indie-spensable" - I imagine he did. Business Insider tailed Alex during a taping day for a video, and they showed him marking up his clue sheet with various diacritical marks and lines for emphasis - I noticed he underlines "THIS" in a lot of clues as an aid to the contestants.

I've gradually come to accept the fact that many J! categories aren't explained very well - sometimes by accident, and sometimes on purpose. Or, maybe sometimes I just don't "get" them until 2 or 3 clues go by. For example, the FIGURES OF SPEECHES category - it took me two clues to realize, "Hey, they're asking for numbers." The category looked like a pun category, but it took me a beat to find it.

But I agree that a better explanation for the category would have been something like, "Each clue refers to two words, one ending in -ted, and one with the -ted removed. We want the one without the -ted." Actually, those type of categories, they commonly ask for both words, but they smartly got rid of the redundancy in this category, which theoretically should speed up play because of the shorter response required.

[goongas]

I've gradually come to accept the fact that many J! categories aren't explained very well - sometimes by accident, and sometimes on purpose. Or, maybe sometimes I just don't "get" them until 2 or 3 clues go by. For example, the FIGURES OF SPEECHES category - it took me two clues to realize, "Hey, they're asking for numbers." The category looked like a pun category, but it took me a beat to find it.

I understood from Alex's explanation that they wanted you to excise TED from the end of the word. Alex and the writers/producers are not fans of people you don't go in order from top to down on a category. (If I ever get on, I will bounce around). They are not going to do you a favor and spend a long time to explain how one of their eccentric categories work. The best advice for those is probably try the top clue first to see how it works. These word play categories tend to not have daily doubles in them I don't think too often, so there is no real advantage to hunt for a daily double in them by taking clues out of order in them.

[Steppenwolf]

"One of Powell's Indiespensable Book Club selections was George Saunders' "Lincoln" in this purgatory-like state"
According to the powells.com website, that is indeed how they spell the name of their book club.

Thanks for pointing that out... I’m afraid I need to do more research before posting!

[Vowela]

For FJ! I went with acrylic painting. I totally misunderstood what the clue was asking for.

[Linear Gnome]

For FJ! I went with acrylic painting. I totally misunderstood what the clue was asking for.

That's the same response I gave!

[TheTabbyWhisperer]

For FJ! I went with acrylic painting. I totally misunderstood what the clue was asking for.

i was thinking along those lines too. I was thinking of Impressionist as a style of painting, not a type.

[opusthepenguin]

I thought there were two rather sloppy mistakes on today’s show. First, they had the misspelling ‘INDIESPENSABLE’ in one of the clues. Then in the -TED category, Alex said the correct answer would not have the letters T, E, D. The first answer turned up was ‘ten’, from ‘tented’. Alex’s explanation needed to be worded a little more precisely.

Definitely. I ended up getting that first one right, but I had to adjust my understanding of the rules in real time in order to get there--not something I'd care to attempt under the lights. Having got the first one, I went on to run the category.

I also ran PROVERBS and BIBLE "D"ICTIONARY. Dinah was a predictable TS in that one. Tough clue with no TOM. No allusions to the kitchen or the shore or Alice's cat. Nothin'. There's a TOM's Dinah joke in here somewhere, but I'm not finding it.

[TenPoundHammer]

I also ran PROVERBS and BIBLE "D"ICTIONARY. Dinah was a predictable TS in that one. Tough clue with no TOM. No allusions to the kitchen or the shore or Alice's cat. Nothin'. There's a TOM's Dinah joke in here somewhere, but I'm not finding it.

I thought Darius and Dinah were particularly obscure picks in general.

I mean, I had no idea that Hootie & the Blowfish appeared anywhere in the Bible.

[billiej]

For FJ! I went with acrylic painting. I totally misunderstood what the clue was asking for.

i was thinking along those lines too. I was thinking of Impressionist as a style of painting, not a type.

Glad my brain wasn't the only one going down this path. "Type" had me thinking oil? acrylic? water?.....toward the end of the think music my fiance said "modern" but by then it was too late for me to switch gears to a style. Even so, I probably wouldn't have said the correct response anyway because I thought it was earlier.

[Foretopman]

Davis Cup = tennis seemed obscure for the top box.

It's not, but on a personal level, I keep mixing it up with Ryder (golf)...

Anyone have a Davis/Ryder mnemonic I could steal?...

I struggled with this for years, until I remembered that when I was first trying to learn to play tennis I was using a Davis brand racket (racquet?). Probably won't help anybody but me.

[gnash]

This was one of those FJs where the likelihood of answering it correctly is a U-shaped function of knowledge. On the right end, obviously, if you know the fact in the clue, you'll get it right. On the left end, with no knowledge of art, if you see something about French painting around the turn of the 20th century, you'll probably think of Impressionism, and perhaps of nothing else, and have a good chance of getting it right. But for us in the intermediate group, there are too many choices, there are reasons not to choose Impressionism, and the wording of the clue wasn't helpful. I thought of Impressionism and dismissed it on two grounds. First, 1901 seemed late for the first Impressionist painting to be displayed in a museum - the style had been around for three decades and even styles it spawned were mature or even getting out of fashion by then. Second, the writers chose the word "type" over "style", which I took as a hint that it refers to a broader characterization. Thus, I tried "abstract".

[opusthepenguin]

Here's how the clue struck me:

Why ask about a FRENCH museum buying this type of painting unless there's something unusual about that fact? That thought plus the 1901 suggests that timing is an issue and France was late to the table. Why would that be noteworthy? Is there some rivalry in play? An English style of painting, maybe, that France was slow to recognize? Can't think of anything. It would be ironic if we're talking about a FRENCH style of painting that France itself had refused to acknowledge. Impressionism. The clue points to it with big arrows and a spotlight. Impressionism had been around for 3+ decades by the time France admitted they had a treasure rather than an embarrassment. Impressionism is the Eiffel Tower of the painting world.

In other words, Impressionism having been around for a long time by 1901 isn't a bug. It's THE WHOLE FREAKIN' FEATURE!

I'm a big fan of this FJ and I think almost everyone here had the information they needed to get it right.

[TenPoundHammer]

Impressionism. The clue points to it with big arrows and a spotlight

I've seen black holes less opaque than this clue. Literally not a single word of your "reasoning" made even the tiniest bit of sense.

[opusthepenguin]

Impressionism. The clue points to it with big arrows and a spotlight

I've seen black holes less opaque than this clue. Literally not a single word of your "reasoning" made even the tiniest bit of sense.

That's why you're the guy who puts the "almost" in "almost everyone".

[Volante]

Impressionism. The clue points to it with big arrows and a spotlight

I've seen black holes less opaque than this clue. Literally not a single word of your "reasoning" made even the tiniest bit of sense.

That's why you're the guy who puts the "almost" in "almost everyone".

FWIW, you described exactly how I landed on the response. So I ask again, -get out of my head!- There's no herring in there already!

[opusthepenguin]

So I ask again, -get out of my head!- There's no herring in there already!

Everybody says that. Not everybody tells the truth.