20680 replies to this topic

[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?

[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.

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.

[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

[M. Darcy]

Oops, my bad. trainman didn't actually say it was the final question.

[DragonScribe]

"Iron Triathlon" wasn't accepted because there's no event called that. That's just the way it goes. It was looked for, but the event isn't called that anywhere.

We've had a major ... upset, I suppose you could call it, on the show. Sunday night, Steven Dorfman, one of the writers - the one who's been on the show the longest, and has certainly written the most material - died. Rather unexpectedly, even though he'd recently had surgery for colon cancer. We're still trying to adjust to this. The funeral was today in the Detroit area. One of our other writers, and Alex, traveled to Michigan to be there.

[WindStar]

Dragon, I am so sorry for the loss, both to you personally and to the show. Steven will be missed, but I know that the rest of you will step up and fill in very well.

[M. Darcy]

Here is the obit in today's New York Times Steven Dorfman

[LTG]

Man, "Grub, Shrub, or Beelzebub" is a great category. A great tribute to him would be to pick some of his best categories from the years and put them into a special show or shows.

[Halfpint Ingals]

one goof last night.
(not direct quote)

Answer: This (shows go downhill) came around when Fonzie did this on his mortercycle
question: what is Jump the shark

actually he jumped the shark on water skis. he jumped over cars on the cycle (and hurt his knee)

I thought whole Triathlon thing was cheesy.

this 4 day champion is doing awesome

Edited by Halfpint Ingals, Jan 9, 2004 @ 11:32 PM.

[iMissEthan]

Sorry to hear of Steven Dorfman's death. I agree with ltg that a great tribute would be to bring back some of his best categories/clues.

Am I mistaken, Dragon or has your username changed? I don't recall scribe being at the end previously.

Edited by iMissEthan, Jan 9, 2004 @ 3:51 PM.

[trainman]

My condolences also to the "Jeopardy!" folks. I remember an article about the show, and the writing process, that Steven Dorfman wrote for Games magazine in the late 1980s/early 1990s...I wish I still had it, because he included some of his own personal favorite answers and questions.

DragonScribe would obviously know more about this than me, but I believe he's responsible for a lot of the long-running inside jokes that the writers are still occasionally using in clues, such as "those darn Etruscans" and "spineless jellyfish" (which the New York Times obituary alluded to).

Edited by trainman, Jan 9, 2004 @ 4:09 PM.

[DragonScribe]

Whew! Not my mistake, though. Right, it's not a motorcycle exploit.

As for the Triathlon thing -- well, this is a nit-picker's paradise. We wanted to give it to her, yeah. And if we could have found just a couple of references to an "Iron Triathlon" we could have waffled with the judging. But it just wasn't there. Wrong info. We once had to rule against a contestant for giving the Civil War photographer Mathew B. Brady the wrong middle initial. We would have accepted "Brady" or "Mathew Brady". But the initial given was wrong. This is why it's best to answer the minimum on Jeopardy! - let Alex prompt you for "more specific". Well, I mean, be as specific as possible "The President" isn't going to do when "Roosevelt" is called for. "More specific" would be Teddy or FDR.

Of course, Alex can't ask people to be more specific on the Final.

Oh, Duh, things I meant to say --

We are planning a sort of tribute for Steven. We have what we call a "signiture board" or "signiture game" where one writer has done all the material. Yesterday, the Head Writer was sorting through stuff to put this together - Steven certainly wrote a wide enough variety of material to do it.

And yes, he was responsible for some of the notable catagories. (Although "Those Darned Etruscans" actually was generated by another writer) Steven came up with "Wood" "More Wood" "Son of Wood". He also borrowed the Before & After idea from Wheel. When we all thought it would be deadly on Jeopardy.

iMissEthan -- the screenname? Yeah, a change. It happens sometimes, you know. ;-)

Edited by DragonScribe, Jan 9, 2004 @ 4:17 PM.

[Toomanyblondes]

Tom Walsh has a great blog going for his Jeopardy run.

[Toomanyblondes]

DDP!

Edited by Toomanyblondes, Jan 9, 2004 @ 11:46 PM.

[Halfpint Ingals]

I have been coming to TWOp for 5 years, but only occasionally here. Dragon, are you a part of program ?? I assume from posts you are

rdited: I had to work tonight. did the guy win for a 5th night ??

Edited by Halfpint Ingals, Jan 9, 2004 @ 11:31 PM.

[AgentX]

Was I the only one a bit disappointed in that Alex let the guy at the end get away with a second guess on one question?

The correct question was Who is Sadie Hawkins
He said Sadie May, then Alex started going mmmmnnnn, and then when he still had time left on the clock he said Sadie Hawkins and they gave him the money.

Now I'm not sure if May was the original comic book characters name or if there's some other logical explanation for it, or maybe I'm just a stickler. Either way that guy (who I found rather annoying and loud) would not have gotten the money if I was in charge.

[LTG]

I think that a few little things like that are acceptable in the first round. Although that guy was working my last nerve. I just know that during the first commercial break, someone from the contestant handling crew came to have a talk with him about waving his hand around like a spastic lobster each time he tried to buzz in.

And yes, he did win his 5th night, soundly defeating a too-tense idiot in the process.

[cgchimes]

Dragon Scribe- please accept my condolences on your co-worker's death.
"Before and After" is one of my all-time favorite categories- the answer I remember the most is "What is Preparation H.L. Mencken?" :-)