Tuesday, February 4, 2014 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Archivists]

Game Recap for Show #6767, 2014-02-04

Battle of the Decades: The 1980s game 2.

CONTESTANTS
Andrew Westney, a sports business writer from Charlotte, North Carolina
Leszek Pawlowicz, a shovel bum from Flagstaff, Arizona
Leslie Frates, a retired Spanish teacher from Hayward, California

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Thank you, Johnny. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to the second of our contests in this first round of the Battle of the Decades. Andrew voted as the fan favorite. You're also the youngest competitor this week on Jeopardy! Leszek and Leslie, nice to have you back with us. Let's go to work. Here comes the Jeopardy! round. And here come the categories. We start off today with...

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
OTHER GREAT DECADES (4/5)
BOOK COVERS (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
OF OREGON ORIGIN (5/5)
JOHN HUGHES MOVIES (4/5)
BUSINESS & THE MARKET (5/5)
THIS IS THE END (5/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Leszek: 11 R (including 2 rebounds), 0 W
Leslie: 9 R, 1 W
Andrew: 8 R (including 1 DD), 1 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 2
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $2,000



SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
Leszek: $4,600
Andrew: $800
Leslie: $400

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS



Alex: Andrew Westney is the only Teen Tournament champion competing in our Battle of the Decades. Trivia has played a very important part in your life, I understand, including wooing your wife.

Andrew: Absolutely, yeah. We, uh--Mary and I had gotten to know each other, but I wasn't sure how interested she was. So, I thought a nice kind of way to get a little better acquainted was to invite her out to a trivia contest at a local bar that I had organized a team for, uh, just to see, you know, if she showed up, even. And she appeared. She was a knockout. Uh, she came and sat right next to me.

Alex: And did she compete, and did she beat you?

Andrew: You know, I don't remember. I'm not sure my mind was really on trivia that night, to be honest.

Alex: Okay, good answer.




Alex: Leszek Pawlowicz. Archaeologist from Flagstaff, Arizona. In the year 2000, The New York Times called him the Michael Jordan of game shows. But he calls himself now a shovel bum. What does that mean?

Leszek: Shovel bum is like a ski bum, except that instead of working ski resorts, we do, uh, digs and, uh, surveys and pick up part-time work doing archaeology.

Alex: All right.




Alex: Leslie Frates is a retired Spanish teacher.

Leslie: Yes.

Alex: Now, when you're a Jeopardy! champion, you're going to be recognized. But there are some problems that can come about because of that--you're a teacher--when you're standing up in class, and the kids like to put you on the spot. What happened in some of your classes?

Leslie: In practically all of my classes, when I couldn't come up with an answer quick enough for them, they would start humming the Jeopardy! theme, which would fluster me even more. But, um, I was proud.

Alex: I bet you found ways to get even, but we won't talk about--

Leslie: Oh, very much.

Alex: Yeah, we won't talk about those right now.

JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Andrew found the Daily Double on the 26th clue. Leslie had $2,000, Leszek had $5,600, and Andrew was at $3,000. Andrew wagered $2,000.

BOOK COVERS $800: From 1969:
The puppeteer's hand holds the control piece, with the strings attached to the title

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
OTHER GREAT DECADES $1000: Leonardo da Vinci paints "The Last Supper"

JOHN HUGHES MOVIES $1000: 1988 film about a pair of newlyweds preparing for parenthood

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
Leszek: $6,400
Andrew: $6,000
Leslie: $3,000

[Archivists]

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
WHERE "U" GOIN'? (4/5)
TV CHARACTERS (4/5)
8-LETTER WORDS (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
RUN EMC (5/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
SURREALISM (4/5)
CLARINETS & SEAFOOD (4/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Leszek: 13 R (including 1 rebound and 1 DD), 2 W
Leslie: 7 R (including 1 rebound and 1 DD), 1 W
Andrew: 6 R (including 1 rebound), 0 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 4
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $5,600



FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Leslie snagged the next Daily Double on the 13th clue. Leslie had $6,200, Leszek had $10,000, and Andrew was at $9,600. Leslie wagered $4,000.

8-LETTER WORDS $800: If you grasp all the symbols seen here at a glance, this field must be your hobby

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Leszek who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 28th clue. Leslie had $13,800, Leszek had $16,000, and Andrew was at $12,400. Leszek wagered $10,000.

RUN EMC $1600: The equation would never have made it big in its original version, which was conceived as the equivalent m = this

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
WHERE "U" GOIN'? $1600: To this Texas city that Vice President John Nance Garner called home

TV CHARACTERS $800: Of the 6 main characters on "Friends", these 2 were brother & sister

CLARINETS & SEAFOOD $1600: Tilapia is known in Israel as this apostle's fish; tradition holds he caught one & found a coin in its mouth

SURREALISM $1600: Surrealism popped up in '80s music as this band's song "Debaser" took off from Bunuel's film "Un chien andalou"

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
Leszek: $25,600
Leslie: $13,800
Andrew: $13,600

PREFINAL REMARKS
Our three contestants didn't make many mistakes today, so that gives me a little extra time right now to tell you that the two players who are eliminated from further competition today will go home with $5,000 each. The player who moves on, should that person lose in the next round, will go home with $10,000. And if they keep winning, of course, they could wind up winning $1 million. The category for final today is 20th CENTURY WOMEN AUTHORS. And, players, here is the clue...

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
20th CENTURY WOMEN AUTHORS

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Crush for first place.
Leszek: Wager $2,001 to cover Leslie.
Leslie: You have the hope of surpassing Leszek if you come up with the correct response. Bet at least $13,401 to force Leszek to wager to win while also protecting your position from being usurped by Andrew.
Andrew: Your only hope of a win is that you're the only one to give a correct response, so bet $13,598 or so, leaving a few bucks behind in case someone wagers it all.

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
Readers' letters to this author about her 1948 short story asked where the title event was held & if they could go & watch

FINAL SCORES
Andrew: $13,600 + $13,600 = $27,200 (Who is Jackson?) (2nd place)
Leslie: $13,800 - $9,801 = $3,999 (Who is Shirley Frates) (3rd place)
Leszek: $25,600 + $2,400 = $28,000 (Who is Shirley Jackson?) (Quarterfinalist)
(Alex: [To Leszek] He crossed out...)
(Leszek: I crossed out Shirley 'cause I wasn't sure if that was her first name.) (Alex: Ahh, well, you did the right thing. You'd have been correct no matter what.)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $7,600

GAME DYNAMICS


CORYAT SCORES
Leszek: $17,200, 24 R (including 1 DD), 2 W
Andrew: $12,400, 14 R (including 1 DD), 1 W
Leslie: $10,600, 16 R (including 1 DD), 2 W
Combined Coryat: $40,200

BATTING AVERAGES
Leszek: 25/59 = .424
Leslie: 16/59 = .271
Andrew: 15/59 = .254
Team: 56/63 = .889

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
BUSINESS & THE MARKET $800: In 2013 Facebook dangled $3 billion in cash in front of this photo-messaging company, which said no
(Andrew: What is Instagram?)

BUSINESS & THE MARKET $1000: This giant Peoria-based company purchased ERA Mining Machinery in 2012
(Leslie: What is John Deere?)

8-LETTER WORDS $1200: In this type of composition, like Brahms' Opus 79, the "H" is silent
(Leslie: Oh no, I rang too soon. Uh, what is lullaby?)

8-LETTER WORDS $2000: A light-giving celestial body, or someone eminent in his or her field
(Leszek: What is a luminance?)

CLARINETS & SEAFOOD $2000: Thrilled by the recently invented instrument, he wrote the quintet heard here

SURREALISM $1200: This French surrealist made the 1946 film "Beauty and the Beast"

SURREALISM $2000: "Dog Barking at the Moon" is by this countryman of Picasso & Dali who ran with the Surrealists in the 1920s

RUN EMC $1200: E=mc2 refuted the old laws of this "of mass" & "of energy"--m & E aren't fixed in total quantity but can be converted
(Leszek: What is equivalence?)

CORRECT RESPONSES
The Godfather
the 1490s
She's Having a Baby
heraldry
E over c squared
Uvalde
Monica & Ross
St. Peter
the Pixies
Shirley Jackson
Snapchat
Caterpillar
a rhapsody
a luminary
Mozart
(Jean) Cocteau
(Joan) Miró
conservation

[jeff6286]

20th Century Women Authors
Readers' letters to this author about her 1948 short story asked where the title event was held & if they could go & watch.

Spoiler

Who is Shirley Jackson (The Lottery)? Leslie said Shirley Frates.

Leszek Pawlowicz: $25,600+$2,400=$28,000...advances to Quarterfinals of Decades Tournament
Leslie Frates: $13,800-$9,801=$3,999
Andrew Westney: $13,600+$13,600=$27,200

[TenPoundHammer]

Was it just me, or did Leszek look kinda look like Dalton from The Red Green Show?

====

Well, in J! alone, I got four more than my total goose-egg last night. CLammed on Caterpillar, Final, and 1960, couldn't pull GM, 500, or Cleary in time.

None of those John Hughes movie titles rang any bells for me.

====

DJ! seemed much easier to me, with 10 right.

Lach Trash on Uvalde? Sweet.

Tickled to see the Friends clue be a TS. Murder, She Wrote was waaaaaay overvalued.

8 Letter was weirdly valued. I can't say that I've heard the word "insolvent" before, I couldn't get heraldry, and symphony was very very easy to overlook. The bottom two, however, were easy gets.

====

Figured that FJ! would be someone I'd never heard of before. I had to look her up just to see what event the clue was referring to.

====

Wow, we got this game done fast. They did the "We'll be back for FJ! right after this bumper", AT had time to explain the $5,000 compensation, they got in a Crackle plug, it still took a good 10 seconds before Johnny got to "Promotional consideration provided by...", and the credit roll was somewhat long.

[Leander]

Yeah, I was surprised Alex didn't explain what story the FJ clue referred to. Can't imagine readers actually wanted to see the event, or assumed it was real. The story was an instaget for me, but I wasn't 100% sure the author was Shirley Jackson (although that's who I guessed)

[esrever]

Picked up Lach trash on "Uvalde"

Didn't get FJ.

Alex should have mentioned the title of the Shirley Jackson short story in the FJ clue. I looked it up, and apparently it is called "The Lottery."

[wallzy41]

Drew "The Lottery" and Shirley almost instantly, but pulled Jackson at the last second. Overall, I felt this game was either fast-paced and done extremely well, or eating dinner during DJ! distracted me. This game felt a bit easier, although a few of the clues were facepalm worthy when I clammed, knowing a vast majority tonight. Congrats on the win Leszek!

[skullturf]

Tickled to see the Friends clue be a TS.

Me too. I got that one and the "Pixies" triple stumper.

I missed the Berkshire Hathaway clue in the J! round, but I realized afterwards that a business-themed clue that mentions Nebraska will probably have something to do with Warren Buffett.

I was a little too clammy in the clue where we had to name decades. Got the first two, but was torn between late 1940s and early 1950s on the McDonald's one. Probably would have guessed 1880s for Holmes, but didn't ring in, and probably would have guessed 1510s for the last one (and would have been wrong).

I was happy to get this FJ. I spent about 15 seconds being very stumped. At first, I tried to think of titles that might contain words like "races" or "games" or something like that. Then, I moved away from thinking too hard about the title of the story, and tried to think of mid-20th-century short stories written by women, where it might be somehow inappropriate for people to want to watch the events depicted. Wrote down "Shirley Jackson" somewhere between the 20 and 25 second mark. On a different day it might have taken me 40 to 45 seconds, or longer. Wasn't positive it was correct, but felt cautiously optimistic about it.

[jpr281]

Overall, I felt this game was either fast-paced and done extremely well, or eating dinner during DJ! distracted me.

DJ finished at 7:20 on WABC. Usually the final DJ buzzer sounds at 7:21. This is also explained by Alex coming back from the break to read the FJ clue: "I have a couple extra of seconds here..." where he explained that the 2 losers go home with $5,000.

That being said, I had no clue on FJ. When the first person responded "Jackson" I knew immediately it was Shirley Jackson and "The Lottery." I thought that was written in the late 1800's for some reason. Oh well.

[Golf]

No surprise Leszek went big on the late DD in a category he was confident in, but still managed to shoot himself in the foot. Not really sure what Leslie was trying to accomplish with her FJ wager.

But really excellent knowledge base displayed by all three. Happy to see Leszek win.

[ACW]

Yeah, I was surprised Alex didn't explain what story the FJ clue referred to. Can't imagine readers actually wanted to see the event, or assumed it was real.

Agreed on both counts. Who'd wanna see that?!

[billiej]

Argh, I had a feeling FJ was referring to "The Lottery" (people wanted to see this? Seriously?), but I just couldn't pull out the name of the author in time.

[StevenH]

This was an awesome game! All three contestants had several impressive gets! I found this board easier than last night's, but this one was still pretty tough.

I said Instagram for Snapchat and John Deere for Caterpillar. Flickrz was my second guess for the former, but I knew that it was Catepillar when John Deere was ruled incorrect.

I knew that Courtney Cox and David Schwimmer played the siblings on Friends, but I had no idea what their names on the show were.

Props to Leszek for the get on the African river. I had never heard of that one.

I liked Leszek's wager on the last DD. He went for the crush on a category that he liked, and would still have enough left on a miss to have a chance in FJ if the second place contestant bet large.

FJ was an instant get.

[hanzz]

If you're incredulous over who would want to see The Lottery, I refer you to the fact that this Hunger Games-esque reality show actually happened, if only, I presume, to satisfy in the most legal way possible the bloodlust-hungry masses.

I, for one, am enjoying this Quarter Quell. (Decennial Decimation?)

[lisa0012]

Instaget FJ! I had to read that story in 8th and it gave me the creeps for years. Still does.

Loving the tournament.

[TenPoundHammer]

Tickled to see the Friends clue be a TS.

Me too. I got that one and the "Pixies" triple stumper.

I was tickled because I found the show about as entertaining as having Drano poured into all of my bodily orifices at the same time, and was glad to see three people who had either forgotten the show, or never cared about it in the first place.

[WooWho?]

With the caliber of players they attracted, I was expecting TOC-level clues for most of the games.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see that a lot of the clues were very gettable at home--and I got FJ! to boot. Gutsy move by Leszek on that last DD--could've been a very different story if anyone else got it. Fronting $10K that late in the game (especially when it's that close) is probably not the best strategic move, but if you're confident in the category, who cares?

Wasn't sure about Jackson's last name on Final, but decided to go with it because I knew Shirley cold...and it just sounded right.

[naurae29]

Tickled to see the Friends clue be a TS.

I had to consciously stop "Ross and Rachel" from rolling off my tongue. Pavlov gone wrong?

[soxfan99]

Another great game. This is shaping up to be a fantastic tournament.

I liked the way that Leszek crossed out "Shirley". He mad sure that there was no doubt whether he wanted it GONE.

Overall, today's felt easier than yesterday, thought I had never heard of the FJ. Wikipedia says that "it has been taught in middle schools and high schools for decades since its publication," but it was never picked up by my school district.

I always get a little annoyed at the level of difficulty of math questions. The consensus seems to be that these are ToC level questions, but the the DD in the $1600 row of DJ was basic math that is taught in Algebra I (either 8th or 9th grade). It's not annoyance at the show, though, because I'm sure a lot of contestants would have gotten it wrong. Rather, I get tired of the idea that so many people have that "It's math - it must be hard!" You'd never hear an educated person ask a colleague to read something to him because he's "just not an English person," yet it's generally acceptable for somebody to justify lack of math skills by saying "Oh, I'm not a math person!"

[goatman]

Yeah... Hunger Games idk why ppl love it so much but it's always on the show, appeared again tonight as an instaget = 'mockingjay pin'. in spite of having little or no interest in gratuitous violence novels I held my nose to buy all three and read them cover to cover, a solid investment for 'modern novels' categories. I expect to see clue of Donald Sutherland as Pres Snow on one of these tourney games in his reprised role in HG2: Catching FIre. Probably need to know my new fav actess = 'J-Lawr', who is Katniss Everdeen, lol. Better remember Suzanne Collins and Panem too, J! really likes that oddball clue, heh.

On Friends I was also like, "O DOH, Monika and that dorky kid brother whatsihisnamegain?!" Bah, we watched that show for 10 years and it's just Zip! gone... Why can't they ask about the other guys, 'Matt' is always right! Amazingly I instagot Uttar Pradesh for Lucknow; somehow this was still stored in my remote compressed long-term memories from a College class on India studies from 1985, omg where do these things COME from?!

I agree we thought this game was way hard and even more tough than game 1. Mrs G said, "At leastI knew Murder She Wrote... lol"
I guessed Ayn Rand's 'Anthem' for FJ then too late realized that was from 1937... it won an award in 1987 after just 50 years ,lol.
Oddly this is the first mention of Castle I've seen, and today only appears as an auxiliary clue to Angela Lansbury.
I did miss a few games this year though... is it just not popular? Not violent enough I guess, sigh.
Time to go back to US Presidential trivia grinding.