I actually like that one. I got it, but not right away, so I’m not too surprised it was a triple-stumper. My first thought was “bikini”, since I know that term comes from an island. But the rest of the clue didn’t work, so I kept thinking, and got “Manhattan”
If the clue has said “…also a type of clam chowder” I think that would have been too easy.
Oh, I liked it too, I just can’t believe none of them got it.
Using “island” to allude to Manhattan is one of their favorite little points of misdirection. If the clue said “a borough of New York City” instead of “an island,” that would have been too easy as well. They know that when most people hear the word “island” without context, they start thinking middle-of-the-ocean, tropics, especially the Pacific when you mention WWII, as evidenced by the fact that two of them wrote “Mai Tai.” On Jeopardy, if the clue references “island,” you just always have to consider whether Manhattan fits the bill.
It also helped that the Manhattan is one of my favorite cocktails.
I’ve never noticed that, but probably will the next time. The one quirk I have picked up is how often Fidelio shows up in opera categories.
I see the Adriatic Sea come up a lot. And Don Quixote related questions.
If there’s an African country question it’s always Chad (its hardly ever Chad).
If it’s the Great Lakes it’s always Superior (it’s . . . never mind).
Yes, definitely. If the clue is asking for an arm of the Mediterranean sea, and you don’t know, guess “Adriatic.” You’ll be right 95% of the time.
I was compiling a list of these at some point.
They like Langston Hughes. I don’t know Jack about Langston Hughes, but I do know that if a Jeopardy clue says “Harlem Renaissance poet,” the correct response is “Who is Langston Hughes?”
They also like to test the fact that George III was the King of England during the American Revolution.
The Manhattan Project comes up a lot, but I don’t think there’s one particular factoid about it they like to test.
This is exactly why I was able to guess the correct answer.
Tonight’s FJ was basically a reworking of the FJ I bombed on when I was on the show, 35 years ago.
The way it was worded then: “One of the two presidents who were widowed and remarried while in office.”
Naturally, I got it right this time.
I did it again! As soon as Ken announced tonight’s FJ category, Action Movies, I said, Die Hard. I don’t know why, it just came to me, maybe because some people, including Ken, think it’s a Christmas movie. (It isn’t.)
And a few weeks ago the FJ category was “Flags of Our Hemisphere,” to which I immediately said Brazil, because it has a relatively well-known and distinctive flag. The only other likely one was Canada, but I thought that would be too obvious.
The clue was
The stars on this country’s flag represent states, 26 of them; unlike the USA’s, its “federal district” gets its own 27th star.
I’m pretty impressed with myself.
On the clue where you combine the band names, it seemed kind of arbitrary. I think one answer was ‘Florence and the Machine’ or something like that, but there’s been many bands with ‘Machine’ in their name … Tin Machine … Music Machine … etc.
I’m assuming they would have accepted any band name that fit the clue?
They’ve done this before; someone gives an unexpected response and they rule that it fits the clue.
The clue was “Daft + the Machine” (emphasis mine,) so presumably a correct response would include a band in whose name the “the” was present.
I am pleased as punch that Ken Jennings has correctly identified Die Hard as a Christmas movie. (It is.)
People believe many things that aren’t true: the earth is flat, the Loch Ness monster is real, Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
Agreed. Just because a movie is set at Christmas time doesn’t mean it’s a Christmas movie. (Says this Jew.)
It is every bit a Christmas movie as It’s a Wonderful Life. And you would have to be a hardcore Scrooge to deny that It’s a Wonderful Life is not a Christmas movie.
Ken has spoken. He can make Xmas decrees just like the judge with the mailbags in Miracle on 34th St.
Ken can make things happen just by thinking it. Just like…oh, never mind.
This is bizarre…I just recently had the completely original idea, that Die Hard and IAWL are both dramas set at Christmas time that would work equally well if they were set on the Fourth of July. So if IAWL is a Christmas movie, so is Die Hard. Apparently my idea, while original, is not unique. 
Actually, if the clue was “The first sentence of Atlas Shrugged” then a correct response could be “Who is John Galt?”, which is already phrased in the form of a question.
When the clue is “He is described as ‘Prometheus who changed his mind’”, then a correct response could be “Who is John Galt?”, which also happens to be the first sentence of the novel, or “Who is Galt?” It seems that the writers did not anticipate an answer with just the last name, even though that’s usually acceptable. Still, it seems strange in this case.