» What is... Jeopardy Options

[M. Darcy]

I missed Thursday and Friday - is Micah still on or did he lose yet?

[cgchimes]

He lost today.
And that Final Jeopardy question totally messed with my head! If you say someone had a bad encounter with something, doesn't that imply that it's possible to have a good encounter? I can't imagine having a good encounter with a guillotine.

[AgentX]

If you say someone had a bad encounter with something, doesn't that imply that it's possible to have a good encounter? I can't imagine having a good encounter with a guillotine.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. I thought in another instance that it could be beneficial to the person. I don't often hear "Jimmy had a pleasant experience at the Firing Squad" or "Ken was delighted with his time in the electric chair".

I think I've been shut out on Final Jeopardy in '04, and just a few weeks ago these were a piece of cake.

[CatLady]

And that Final Jeopardy question totally messed with my head!

I'm visiting friends for a couple of weeks, and they watch something else at 7PM. (Yeah, I know, I know! Sheesh...)

What was the bad encounter/good encounter FJ?

[karatekate]

I can't imagine having a good encounter with a guillotine.

cgchimes - thank you for posting that!! I was coming here to find out what the question was (I canceled my cable - what was I thinking! - and don't have an antenna so I only pick up one station with sound... Jeopardy! I get fuzzy picture, no sound). Does anyone remember the clue/answer, though? I thought it was something along the lines of "In 1792 Mr. Stinkybottoms was the first person on record to have a bad experience with this", but that couldn't have been the guillotine, since that's been around for just ages.

[iMissEthan]

Could it have been the first person in the US? I didn't watch the show, but that's what I thought when I read your post.

[JazzieCazzie]

I didn't watch it but the first person to be executed by electric chair in the US was William Kemmler. And don't even ask why I know this stuff because I am just strange. In those days they called it being "Westinghoused." I believe it was in Auburn, NY. (I know they call the minor league baseball team there the Doubledays but I think they should be the "Old Sparkies.")

[cgchimes]

The guy in the question had a French name, so I'm assuming he was executed in France during the French Revolution.

[JazzieCazzie]

Oh, sorry ... don't know why I was thinking electric chair. After all, it's not like you guys hadn't written guillotine 8 times in this thread. Now I really want to know what the guy's name was ... But they never executed anyone by guillotine in the US.

ETA: Actually, the guillotine WAS introduced around the time of the Revolution ... ironically enough, it was "invented" by a doctor (Guillotin) who wanted to find a humane and painless mode of execution after watching swordsmen botch their jobs horribly and hangmen leave their victims twirling to die by slow strangulation. When he was working on the prototype, who should come by to give him advice but King Louis XVI.

This post has been edited by JazzieCazzie: Jan 6, 2004 @ 12:48 pm.

[Gayle781]

Oh, sorry ... don't know why I was thinking electric chair. After all, it's not like you guys hadn't written guillotine 8 times in this thread. Now I really want to know what the guy's name was ... But they never executed anyone by guillotine in the US.

The guy's last name was Pelletier. I can't remember his first name though.

[karatekate]

So once guillotine was determined to be the right question, and with the name provided by Gayle781, I did a little research:

Guillotine like devices existed and were used for executions on the British islands before the French Revolution but the French developed the machine further and became the first nation to use it as a standard execution method. On April 25, 1792 highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier became the first person executed by guillotine.

Colour me shocked. I really thought the guillotine was older than that. The things you learn from Jeopardy!

[M. Darcy]

I hope that the people at Jeopardy actually remembered that Bebe Neuwirth played Lilith on three shows - not two. Lilith was on Cheers, Fraiser and Wings.

Was I the only one who would have answered the Genghis Khan answer ala Shatner? What is KKKhhhhaaannn!!!!!????

[trainman]

Actually, on Wednesday's show, I'm more shocked by the fact that they accepted Luis's response of "what is the triathlon?" in Final Jeopardy! After all, the watch in question is named Ironman, not Triathlon, and there's more than one triathlon in Hawaii anyway. It's a good thing that turned out to have no bearing on the outcome of the game.

And also, given that my user ID here is trainman, I know that the clue about the "flagstop" train on Tuesday's show was incomplete at best; they might have meant that the Alaskan train in question makes only flag stops, but even Amtrak still has flag stops on some trains, most notably their Chicago-New Orleans train, the City of New Orleans. (I know at least one commuter rail line in the U.S. has flag stops as well -- the Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend -- and there are probably others.)

[M. Darcy]

Oh yeah, I didn't think that was fair they accepted Triathlon but not Iron Triathlon.

Oooh, I missed Tuesdays show - do you remember what the final question was? I work for a rail union which is why I find what you said interesting.

[AgentX]

Oh yeah, I didn't think that was fair they accepted Triathlon but not Iron Triathlon.

That's exactly what I said to my friend when we were playing over MSN.

I would have thought they would only accept Ironman and Ironman Triathlon. I'm sure there are many triathlons in Hawaii, but the Ironman is the only one where Timex had the watch. I think Alex wanted to give it to her, because it wouldn't have really made a lot of difference and wanted her to end on a high note.

Oooh, I missed Tuesdays show - do you remember what the final question was? I work for a rail union which is why I find what you said interesting.

Tuesday's category was animals I believe, with the answer having something to do with the fact that a birds scientific name was Camelus