Wednesday, March 30, 2005 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

[Robert K S]

Game Recap for Show #4743, 2005-03-30

2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions Round 1, game 36.

CONTESTANTS
Rick Knutsen, a musician and stay-at-home dad from Brooklyn, New York
Craig Barker, an Advanced Placement history teacher from Livonia, Michigan
Amy Fine, a part-time teacher from Bethesda, Maryland

OPENING REMARKS
Alex: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. A lot of teachers and a lot of lawyers among our former 5-time champions. Rick, Craig and Amy, good to see you again and good luck.

JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM (4/5)
OSCAR NIGHT 2005 (5/5)
MOTHERS OF INVENTION (5/5)
REAGAN 101 (5/5)
ONE OF THE 12 TRIBES OF ISREAL (5/5)
I'VE GOT "ESP" (4/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Rick: 16 R, 2 W (including 1 DD)
Craig: 8 R (including 1 rebound), 0 W
Amy: 4 R, 0 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 1
Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $1,000

Despite a smarting on a Daily Double, his quickness on the signaling device helped Rick top his opponents this round to lead in number of correct responses and overall cash accumulated.

JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Rick found the Daily Double on the 13th clue. Amy had $200, Craig had $1,200, and Rick was at $3,600. Rick wagered $2,400.

I'VE GOT "ESP" $600: King Xerxes crossed it in 480 B.C. to get to Europe
(Rick: What is.....)
(Alex: You're tied with Craig)

SCORES AT THE FIRST BREAK
Craig: $2,000
Amy: $1,200
Rick: $1,200

CONTESTANT INTERVIEWS

OCTOGENERIC ENCOURAGEMENT

Alex: Rick Knutsen from Brooklyn, New York. When he became a 5-time champion in 2001, received two notes from an 85-year-old man. First one?

Rick: Yes, he was a former bassoonist for the New York Philharmonic, and he wanted to tell me that he always loved seeing musicians on the show, and he was happy that a musician had won, and that he was, you know, lending his support.

Alex: Second note?

Rick: Second note, later, he sent me sort of an advance condolence card telling me that since the current champion was so strong, he was sad that I was going to lose in the Tournament of Champions. [Laughter] I had no chance.

Alex: Love those 85-year-old guys.


JEOPARDY! DOES DOUBLE DUTY AS THE DATING GAME

Alex: All right, Craig Barker from Lavonia, Michigan. I received an invitation to a wedding coming up soon, and you did also.

Craig: Yes, I did.

Alex: Tell the folks.

Craig: When I was in the 1997 College Tournament, uh, two of my fellow competitors, Mark Urciuolo from Marist, Bridgid Laurie from Bryn Mawr, uh, met, and, they, kind of, started dating, and now, here we are, 2005, and they'll be getting married in April 2005, and I'll be at the wedding as one of the people who was there when they met.

Alex: Convey our best wishes and our congratulations. [Applause]

Craig: I shall.


ALEX SAYS IT'S FINE TO BE UPSET, BUT FINE DOESN'T GET UPSET

Alex: Amy Fine, part-time teacher, 5-time champion way back in 1994, was upset because her final game was pre-empted. That happens. We have no control over that. But why was it pre-empted?

Amy: Um, it was--I wasn't really upset, but it--I thought it was ironic. It was pre-empted because they, uh, all over New England, was where it was pre-empted, because they were, uh, showing the press conference where Tonya Harding admitted her, uh, involvement in the knee-capping of Nancy Kerrigan. [Laughter] And the Final Jeopardy! answer was one that would really only have been known by New Englanders, it was a very narrowly focused question, and they all missed it.

Alex: And you weren't upset? I'd have been upset. I'd have been ticked.

Amy: I was--I thought it was funny.

Alex: It's not funny. I'd have been upset. Be ticked. It's okay. [Laughter]

Amy: I was upset.

Alex: All right, good for you.

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM $1000: Bunny Tracks is a signature flavor from this "colorful" brand that makes folks feel "hoppy"

SCORES AT THE END OF THE JEOPARDY! ROUND
Rick: $6,800
Craig: $4,000
Amy: $2,600

[Robert K S]

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND CATEGORIES
ART & ARTISTS (3/5)
KITTY LIT (4/5, including 1 correct Daily Double)
NAME THE JAMES (3/5, including 1 missed Daily Double)
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT (4/5)
YOU'RE THE "CHAMP" (5/5)
I'VE GOT ESPN (5/5)

THE RIGHTS & THE WRONGS
Craig: 10 R (including 1 rebound and 1 DD), 1 W (including 1 DD)
Rick: 7 R, 0 W
Amy: 7 R, 1 W

Clues revealed: 30
Triple Stumpers: 5
Double Jeopardy! Round Potential Lach Trash: $7,200

Craig outplayed Rick this round, but a whupping on the first Daily Double conditioned him to be venusian when he found the second DD on the Final clue. Though he got it right, it didn't put him into the lead: a windfall for Rick.

FIRST DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
Craig snagged the next Daily Double on the 14th clue. Amy had $5,800, Craig had $8,400, and Rick was at $12,800. Craig wagered $4,400.

NAME THE JAMES $800: ...who was the last president to be born in a log cabin
(Craig: Who is Polk?)
...
(Craig: Rebuild.)

SECOND DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND DAILY DOUBLE
It was Craig who snatched up the last Daily Double of the game on the 30th clue. Amy had $9,400, Craig had $10,800, and Rick was at $13,200. Craig wagered $800.

KITTY LIT $2000: He wrote an "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat" (as well as that other famous "Elegy")

TRIPLE STUMPERS IN THE DOUBLE JEOPARDY! ROUND
NAME THE JAMES $1200: The 2 Jameses who co-starred in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies "Promise" & "My Name Is Bill W"

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT $1600: Yaroslavl &
Togliatti

ART & ARTISTS $1600: (Sarah of the Clue Crew shows a slide of a painting.) Géricault was just 21 in 1812 when he painted our next work, which displays the turbulence of this movement

ART & ARTISTS $2000: In 1943 Jackson Pollock had his first solo exhibit at "Art of this Century", this woman's NYC Gallery

KITTY LIT $800: In the poem "The Duel" there's a terrible spat between the Gingham Dog and this "Scrappy" cat

SCORES ENTERING FINAL JEOPARDY!
Rick: $13,200
Craig: $11,600
Amy: $9,400

FINAL JEOPARDY! CATEGORY
VOCABULARY

PREFINAL REMARKS
Alex: We are nearing the end of this first round in this Ultimate Tournament of Champions. In about a week and a half, we'll get into Round 2 where non-winners will be guaranteed $10,000. So it's getting to be very pricey.

VENUSIAN MONOLOGUES/MARTIAN CHRONICLES
Four-fifths for first place.
Rick: Wager $10,001 to cover Craig.
Craig: You need to wager $7,201 to cover Amy's doubled score, but no more than $8,400 if you want to top Rick on a Triple Stumper.
Amy: Consider risking between $2,201 and $6,199. This will top a $0 wager by Craig while still beating Rick on the Triple Stumper (should Rick wager to cover Craig's doubled score).

FINAL JEOPARDY! CLUE
This term for a sudden piece of good fortune literally refers to fruit blown to ground

FINAL SCORES
Amy: $9,400 + $9,400 = $18,800 (What is a windfall?) (3rd place: $5,000)
Craig: $11,600 + $9,999 = $21,599 (What is windfall?) (2nd place: $5,000)
Rick: $13,200 + $10,001 = $23,201 (What is windfall?) (Winner: $23,201 and an advance to UToC Round 2)
(Alex: It's really a good deal unless the fruit falls on a concrete driveway and then splits--makes it tough to eat.)

Total Potential Lach Trash: $8,200

THE BETTOR'S COURT
Craig: You wagered more than was necessary and it may have cost you the game under certain circumstances. Your real fault, however, was a too-venusian wager a Daily Double that was the last clue of the round.

GAME DYNAMICS
http://www.j-archive.com/chartgame.p...45&color=light

CORYAT SCORES
Craig: $17,200, 18 R (including 1 DD), 1 W (including 1 DD)
Rick: $15,600, 23 R, 2 W (including 1 DD)
Amy: $9,400, 11 R, 1 W
Combined Coryat: $42,200

BATTING AVERAGES
Rick: 24/59 = .407
Craig: 19/60 = .317
Amy: 12/58 = .207
Team: 55/63 = .873

MISCELLANEOUS INTERESTING CLUES
OSCAR NIGHT 2005 $600: Sandy Powell must have been flying high after winning the Oscar for Costume Design for this film
(Rick: What is Finding Neverland?)

I'VE GOT ESPN $400: (I'm Scott Van Pelt.) When this ESPN "Big Show" debuted September 7, 1979, fans were told, "You've gone to sports heaven"

I'VE GOT ESPN $800: (Hi, I'm Dan Patrick.) In 2004 this Colt was En Fuego & the NFL was his "place" to throw a record 49 TD passes

I'VE GOT ESPN $1200: (Scott Van Pelt reads the clue.) You can relive memories like 1977 NBA final games on the channel launched under this name in 1997

I'VE GOT ESPN $1600: (Dan Patrick reads the clue.) From baseball, basketball & boxing, they were named by ESPN's "Sports Century" the 3 greatest North American Athletes of the 20th Century

I'VE GOT ESPN $2000: (Scott Van Pelt reads the clue.) When ESPN began here in Connecticut in 1979, most MLB highlights were of these 3 nearby teams; they could be taped off TV

ART & ARTISTS $800: (Sarah of the Clue Crew shows a slide of a painting.) Arcimboldo portraits, using non-human elements, anticipate by 350 years this movement, founded in the 1920s

KITTY LIT $1600: This woman's cat Sneaky Pie gets credit as her co-author on such mystery novels as "Murder, She Meowed"
(Amy: Who was Braun?)

CORRECT RESPONSES
the Hellespont
Blue Bunny
Garfield
(Thomas) Gray
James Garner & James Woods
the Volga
Romanticism
Peggy Guggenheim
the Calico Cat
windfall
The Aviator
Sports Center
Peyton Manning
ESPN Classic
Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali
the Yankees, the Mets, and the Red Sox
Surrealism
(Rita Mae) Brown

[rmfromfla]

Congrats, Ricfran, but kudos also to arfine & Craig ......

[SGMagicMan]

I missed the middle half of DJ due to possible bad weather in Champaign... I eagerly await the J! Archive update so I can fill in the blanks on my scorecard.

A good game, and a good FJ... strong TOM. I spent about 20 seconds trying to think of a good luck phrase involving fruit until the answer came to me.

Congrats to Rick - and thanks for helping me earn 60 points!

[Robert K S]

You're headed the wrong direction, Scott. In Mexico there's scarcely a product that doesn't have a bootlegged rendition of Mickey Mouse or Popeye on it.

[DrunkJeopardyWatcher]

Exciting game today, and might I also add that Rick's tie was rocking. Simply fantastic.

[OntarioQuizzer]

Quick show of hands:

Who was screaming at their TV when Craig only bet $800 on that final Daily Double?

[wr2500]

Originally posted by OntarioQuizzer
Quick show of hands:

Who was screaming at their TV when Craig only bet $800 on that final Daily Double?

*raises hand* At least he bet enough to put himself closer to Rick's score than Amy's.

If anyone cares, the J! round Daily Double was found before the first break for the first time in nine games. (This is still the case if nobody cares )

Rotisserie: Well, I would like to see Graham Gilmer win, so I'll wager 5 points on him.

[Jaksiel]

Originally posted by SGMagicMan
A good game, and a good FJ... strong TOM. I spent about 20 seconds trying to think of a good luck phrase involving fruit until the answer came to me.

I spent the whole time thinking about fruit and came up with nothin'. Gah.

[gargle]

Very good game, each. I admired Craig's speed, and Rick's deliberateness, and Amy. A bit of reflection might have served Craig, though, on the "log cabin" clue (to wit, that the last POTUS to be born in one was probably no earlier than Lincoln).

I thought that I'd figured out FJ before Alex finished reading, so it was serendipitous that there was a bit of lag between my flipping the off switch in my brain and it stopping.

P.S. As long as I'm here, I'll put 15 on the Teen champ tomorrow.

[Robert Hutchinson]

Originally posted by SGMagicMan
A good game, and a good FJ... strong TOM. I spent about 20 seconds trying to think of a good luck phrase involving fruit until the answer came to me.

I actually clapped my hands together very abruptly and shouted it, also after about 20 seconds. (Good thing I wasn't in the studio.) (See other thread.)

I couldn't really get upset at Craig's $800 wager, especially if he was praying for a Triple Stumper FJ! Which makes me wonder--what's been the ratio for FJ!s in the tournament so far? That is, how many 0/3s, how many 1/3s, etc. I suppose I could go look it up myself . . .

[StevenH]

Congratulations to Rick for defeating two tough opponents.

For tomorrow I'll wager 10 on Graham.

[SGMagicMan]

20 on Graham, por favor.

(I gotta practice my Spanish - apparently I'm now headed to Mexico.)

[Autumn]

Originally posted by SGMagicMan
I missed the middle half of DJ due to possible bad weather in Champaign... I eagerly await the J! Archive update so I can fill in the blanks on my scorecard.

A good game, and a good FJ... strong TOM. I spent about 20 seconds trying to think of a good luck phrase involving fruit until the answer came to me.

Congrats to Rick - and thanks for helping me earn 60 points!

It's up, minus the capters and one incomplete clue of Sarah's that I didn't fully understand. I'm waiting for the Closed Caption to come out so I can fill it in. It's Arts & Artists for $800, DJ! round, FYI.

Did anyone else think that Art & Artists for $1200 was worded very unfortunately? Ambiguously?

[Scani71]

Also, Rick's final wager was misentered as $1,001 rather than $10,001...

Excellent game by all three players - I guess Craig was playing once bitten, twice shy on the final Daily Double, but a wager even for a slight lead would have done him good.

[MarkBarrett]

I all but had 2500 written down for Craig's last DD when he went with the 800. Did Craig take into account Rick's 4/9 history on FJ? Did Craig not do well with the FJs he saw at home before taping? Was Kitty Lit that intimidating in the 2000 box? My guess is Craig was once bitten with the 4400 loss on the his first DD. If Craig doesn't show up here to explain it, I'm hopeful Rick or Amy have some insight. That situation is the wrong time to be conservative and it cost Craig the game. Craig outbuzzed Rick and that's no easy feat. Amy did a great job of staying in contention and maybe the outcome would have been different if Amy tried to hunt down the DD in the last category.

With Johnnie Cochran's death in the news I had to smile at the Simi Valley clue. I remember the O.J. trial when J.C. worked in the questioning of one of detectives to include the fact that the detective came from his home in Simi Valley. It was a slick, subtle and memorable.

I'll join in with the others on FJ that got all messed up with the fruit portion. I was trying to work orange this and pear that. All I could get was "found apple" . If I had more time I probably would have gambled on three cherries.

Nice job by Rick with the Ruth/Jordan/Ali clue. It's unusual to see a regular clue asking for three different parts that don't usually go together in a common group.

Tomorrow I will risk 25 points on Graham Gilmer.

[Steve McClellan]

Originally posted by Robert Hutchinson
I couldn't really get upset at Craig's $800 wager, especially if he was praying for a Triple Stumper FJ! Which makes me wonder--what's been the ratio for FJ!s in the tournament so far? That is, how many 0/3s, how many 1/3s, etc. I suppose I could go look it up myself . . .

Here's what I found:
0 correct answers: 8
1 correct answer: 8 (including one solo-player and one 2-player)
2 correct answers: 12 (including one 2-player)
3 correct answers: 8

Or:
0%: 8
33%: 6
50%: 1
67%: 11
100%: 10

Team batting average: 0.551 (0.538 when not counting non-participants as misses)

[MattOttinger]

Originally posted by Jaksiel
I spent the whole time thinking about fruit and came up with nothin'. Gah.

Me too.
"Apple.... No, that's not it. Pear.... Nothing."

[SGMagicMan]

Champaign, Illinois is spelled different than the potent potable. I'm talkin' here about the J! Archive, now sportin' a typo.

[EugeneF]

BOOLAH, BOOLAH.

Congratulations Rick. Cotton Mather would have smiled if he ever were capable of it.

Eugene