The Official TPH Education Thread (POTENTIAL GAME DAY SPOILERS)

[ParrotRob]

Abby Wombach, Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo = Women's soccer. Mark's right, they all are top-box famous. We've won the last two World Cups, and have placed top 3 every year since it's started in 1991. Also had 5 consecutive Olympic medals (4 gold, 1 silver) until we got knocked out in 2016 in fifth place.

I wouldn't have guessed that any women's soccer names were top-box famous.

I didn't get it either. But I'm willing to acknowledge that the reason I didn't get it isn't that it's not "top box famous" but rather it's my lack of interest in soccer in general, men's OR women's. Even in the world of men's soccer, I'd be hard-pressed to pull any names other than Pele, Beckham and Ronaldo out of thin air with a gun to my head.

But that's my fault, not the writers' fault.

[talkingaway]

Precalled "Old Time Rock and Roll" in "Rock and/or Roll Songs". Can't say I've heard of Steve Winwood or the song associated with him.

Nina is wrong, and no one wants to take the coinflip on Pinta/Santa Maria?

No guess on FJ! There were lots and lots and lots and lots of famous films in 1939 and I saw literally no way to narrow this down.

Since 80s (and early 90s) pop music is kind of my thing (google the screen name), I can give you a bit of a pass on Steve Winwood's song, but Steve Winwood himself is famous for his association with Eric Clapton - they were in Traffic together. He also did the original version of "Higher Love", which has seen new life thanks to a remix by Kygo* featuring vocals lifted from Whitney Houston's remake off a Japanese version of the "I'm Your Baby Tonight" album. The song "Roll With It" isn't exactly Winwood's signature song, but it's not a super deep cut - anyone in their late 40s probably heard it on the pop radio stations back in the mid-late 80s.

The coin flip isn't exactly a coin flip. Get it right, and you net +x. Get it wrong, and one opponent nets +2x (your neg plus their correct response) for responding with the only other option, while the other opponent nets +x (not including their original incorrect response, which is already in the books.) So, while it's a coin flip to get it right, you're basically risking more than you could win.

As far as 1939, there really AREN'T that many movies that you have to know - there's a sort of decay in knowledge. When you go back that far, you're only talking about BIG, important, cultural flims. The type of films that would be on AFI's "100 years, 100 movies " list. Even then, there are some, like 1942's "Yankee Doodle Dandy", that probably have been rotated out of the canon by now, or at least appear infrequently. Sorting the list by year, and going +/- 5 years, the significant films from 1934-1943 are probably Snow White, Gone With the Wind, Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Grapes of Wrath, Citizen Kane, Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and Fantasia. But the key here is knowing that MLK was from the South - and specifically, Atlanta. Gone With the Wind takes place in Atlanta. It was basically asking "late 30s, film, Southern, possibly Atlanta".

*bonus: Any connection between Kygo and my screen name?

[davey]

As far as 1939, there really AREN'T that many movies that you have to know - there's a sort of decay in knowledge. When you go back that far, you're only talking about BIG, important, cultural flims. The type of films that would be on AFI's "100 years, 100 movies " list. Even then, there are some, like 1942's "Yankee Doodle Dandy", that probably have been rotated out of the canon by now, or at least appear infrequently. Sorting the list by year, and going +/- 5 years, the significant films from 1934-1943 are probably Snow White, Gone With the Wind, Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Grapes of Wrath, Citizen Kane, Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and Fantasia. But the key here is knowing that MLK was from the South - and specifically, Atlanta. Gone With the Wind takes place in Atlanta. It was basically asking "late 30s, film, Southern, possibly Atlanta".

Just last year there was a category devoted to 1939 films - it's considered one of the most significant years in the history of American cinema.

http://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_ ... light=1939

[alietr]

I can give you a bit of a pass on Steve Winwood's song, but Steve Winwood himself is famous for his association with Eric Clapton - they were in Traffic together.

They were in Blind Faith together; Clapton was never a member of Traffic.

[talkingaway]

I can give you a bit of a pass on Steve Winwood's song, but Steve Winwood himself is famous for his association with Eric Clapton - they were in Traffic together.

They were in Blind Faith together; Clapton was never a member of Traffic.

Oops, my bad....thanks for adding that bit to my memory bank!

[Bamaman]

Abby Wombach, Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo = Women's soccer. Mark's right, they all are top-box famous. We've won the last two World Cups, and have placed top 3 every year since it's started in 1991. Also had 5 consecutive Olympic medals (4 gold, 1 silver) until we got knocked out in 2016 in fifth place.

I wouldn't have guessed that any women's soccer names were top-box famous.

I didn't get it either. But I'm willing to acknowledge that the reason I didn't get it isn't that it's not "top box famous" but rather it's my lack of interest in soccer in general, men's OR women's. Even in the world of men's soccer, I'd be hard-pressed to pull any names other than Pele, Beckham and Ronaldo out of thin air with a gun to my head.

But that's my fault, not the writers' fault.

I still maintain that should have been third in that category out of the clues used.

The next one asked what sport Lord Stanley is associated with. The next one was who is alphabetically first in the Boxing HOF. If you polled a bunch of non-sports fans, the Stanley Cup and Muhammad Ali are going to be better known than a woman soccer player.

[TenPoundHammer]

Winwood's association with Clapton is starting to ring a bell with me now. My stepdad likes Eric Clapton so he has mentioned Winwood's name to me several times. Still couldn't name any Winwood songs off the top of my head, but I at least remember who he is now.

The coin flip isn't exactly a coin flip. Get it right, and you net +x. Get it wrong, and one opponent nets +2x (your neg plus their correct response) for responding with the only other option, while the other opponent nets +x (not including their original incorrect response, which is already in the books.) So, while it's a coin flip to get it right, you're basically risking more than you could win.

So it's more of a Monty Hall problem. Neither of them wanted to take the risk of ringing in with the wrong answer and thus giving the right answer to their opponent. Guess it makes more sense that way.

Sorting the list by year, and going +/- 5 years, the significant films from 1934-1943 are probably Snow White, Gone With the Wind, Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Grapes of Wrath, Citizen Kane, Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and Fantasia. But the key here is knowing that MLK was from the South - and specifically, Atlanta.

I had no idea where MLK was from, so I was left scrolling through the huge list of "important 1939 films" and going nowhere.

[MitchO]

Winwood's association with Clapton is starting to ring a bell with me now. My stepdad likes Eric Clapton so he has mentioned Winwood's name to me several times. Still couldn't name any Winwood songs off the top of my head, but I at least remember who he is now.

Steve Winwood is kind of an odd rock and roll famous to me. He was in a bunch of different supergroups, but it never seems like he's the focus; he was supposed to be a big name by the 80s and actually had several albums, but mostly middle of the road hits [Though I will admit both Roll With It and Higher Love were #1s ... the other songs that may ring a bell, IMO, are Valerie or Back In the High Life Again]. It just always feels to me that his name is given more cache than I think it should.

Having said all that, I knew this one immediately. 1986 is nearly dead set middle of my pop music repertoire.

[Bamaman]

Even if you don’t know where King was from, you should know he was from the South. Then there is the irony of the most famous Civil Rights figure participating in the opening of a movie that is seen by some as glorifying the Civil War and the Lost Cause.

[talkingaway]

The coin flip isn't exactly a coin flip. Get it right, and you net +x. Get it wrong, and one opponent nets +2x (your neg plus their correct response) for responding with the only other option, while the other opponent nets +x (not including their original incorrect response, which is already in the books.) So, while it's a coin flip to get it right, you're basically risking more than you could win.

So it's more of a Monty Hall problem. Neither of them wanted to take the risk of ringing in with the wrong answer and thus giving the right answer to their opponent. Guess it makes more sense that way.

Not quite the Monty Hall problem, per se. I'll let you google for more info. But in brief, the Monty Hall problem has to do with conditional probability, and how getting new information from Monty Hall - namely, Monty KNOWS where the prize is hidden, and he will NEVER open that door, increasing the suspense (and increasing your odds should you choose to switch doors.)

Contrast that with Deal or No Deal. Howie Mandel lets the players open the unwanted suitcases. If you have 3 suitcases, 1 with a prize and 2 with a zonk, and the player gets to pick which of the two unchosen cases is opened next, there's a chance that the player will open the prize, and will effectively end the suspenseful part of the game.

What my analysis has to do with is known as "expected value" - or, the average amount of money/benefit you expect to win in a given trial. If I let you flip a fair coin and the prize is $2 for heads, it should cost you $1 to play. Any more, and your expected value from the coin flip goes down. Any less, and your expected value goes up (and mine goes down.)

[TenPoundHammer]

Contrast that with Deal or No Deal. Howie Mandel lets the players open the unwanted suitcases gives the show more padding than an entire season of Dragon Ball Z, thus making me realize only two episodes in that there is no "game" in this "game show" whatsoever

FTFY

[Volante]

No guess on FJ! I don't recognize either title.

FJ for reference if you don't want to hop for it

These 2 films, recent back-to-back winners, both have 9 letter titles that end with the same 5 letters

"Moonlight" was a NHOI for me so I understand the top-box TS there.

NHO any of those "Moon" movies except "New Moon".

Either we need a new acronym or NHO is going to get literallied*

*Yes, literally wasn't itself literallied; it was always used as an exaggeration. I just can't think of a better example word.

[jeff6286]

This is not exactly new, 99% of the things he claims to have NHO have been asked for or mentioned in previous Jeopardy! clues in episdoes he has watched. He's been told this literally one billion times, he doesn't care, keeps saying NHO. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[TenPoundHammer]

I've been trying to figure out why I've been in a major FJ! slump of late...

4/1: I knew what the clue was referring to, but just couldn't pull it.
4/2: I couldn't tell you thing one about The Sun Also Rises other than "written by Hemingway".
4/3: I know who Pulitzer was, but not that he was Hungarian or a newspaper publisher.

4/6: Had the wrong date for the Panama Canal and just couldn't make the connection.
4/7: Immediately dismissed the correct response, figuring it had to be something else.
4/8: Didn't see a TOM in this one at all.
4/9: Got this one
4/10: Absolutely no guess.

4/13: Got this one
4/14: Couldn't process "cartographic feature".
4/15: Clue just seemed way too wide-open for me to get a bead on.
4/16: Couldn't tell you anything about The Tempest.
4/17: Couldn't tell you anything about Charlemagne

4/20: Was vaguely familiar with "Shallow" but it just didn't surface in time
4/21: Rick Riordan doesn't ring any bells for me.
4/22: Couldn't think of any major country that was in the 500 million range.
4/23: Couldn't tell you what a "statesman" is
4/24: Didn't know who Rolls-Royce was named for.

4/27: George McClellan doesn't ring any bells for me.
4/28: Major brainfart on this one. It was stupidly obvious but I just couldn't get there.
4/29: Saw no way to figure this one out.
4/30: Got snagged on GEICO and couldn't pull back to the BLATANTLY OBVIOUS correct response.
5/1: Tried doing el/la/los/las and couldn't match them to any countries. Total brick wall.

5/18: Got this one
5/19: I am vaguely aware that Swiss Family Robinson exists but couldn't tell you thing one about it.
5/20: Got this one
5/21: Got this one
5/22: Brain lock. Couldn't pin any Ivy League school other than Harvard to a state.

5/25: Got this one
5/26: I thought "iron curtain" was a generic term and had no idea what to guess.
5/27: Got this one
5/28: Got this one
5/29: Saw no way to figure this one out.

6/1: Couldn't tell you anything about Prussia
6/2: Had no idea what to guess, though Cook = HI was familiar after the fact
6/3: Nothing I tried seemed to fit. It was obvious after the fact but just didn't click.
6/4: Keep forgetting that Lawrence of Arabia was a real person.
6/5: Thuddingly obvious but I just couldn't make it work because I was positive that Gulliver's Travels was way earlier.

6/8: Had no idea what to guess. There were TONS of important films in the late 30s and none seemed to fit.
6/9: Had no idea who to guess. Couldn't tell you a thing about Pierce.
6/10: Saw no TOM in the clue at all.

Seems my biggest pitfall by far is just plain not knowing the correct response clearly enough to make the connections, paired with some massive bouts of cranial flatulence.

I've tried the "just put ANYTHING down" approach hundreds of times before and it's never worked even one percent of the time. I guarantee you I could have taken 100 guesses on this Tuesday's and they'd have all been wrong.

[ParrotRob]

4/8: Didn't see a TOM in this one at all.

You seriously didn't think the word "finch", when used in a question about American authors, might have been placed there to tickle a response?

[TenPoundHammer]

4/8: Didn't see a TOM in this one at all.

You seriously didn't think the word "finch", when used in a question about American authors, might have been placed there to tickle a response?

It sure as hell didn't work on me.

[alietr]

It sure as hell didn't work on me.

After 200 pages, the question remains ... What does?

[TenPoundHammer]

It sure as hell didn't work on me.

After 200 pages, the question remains ... What does?

I have that question too. No matter what I try, I can't get out of my own way, and I still have severe memory leakage that causes even the most basic of stuff (what planet is biiggest, again?). No matter how hard I try to shove certain facts in my head, they just slide right back out.

[mas3cf]

I have seen one of those, but never knew it was called a "multiplication table".

What. In. Heaven's. Name. did you think it was called???

[TenPoundHammer]

I have seen one of those, but never knew it was called a "multiplication table".

What. In. Heaven's. Name. did you think it was called???

I didn't think it had a name. I remember seeing one ONCE in third grade, and that was it.