“This U.S. city now has 10 times the population of the other U.S. city for which it was named in 1845”
They all seemed to miss the point that these were two US cities with the same name.
How many cities are there with the same name in the US, one of which is 10X bigger? Not Las Vegas, nor Springfield ( 
) , and definitely not NYC and SF, of which there are no other US cities by those names.
I mean, I may have come up with some other guess I might have written down instead. Yeah, if we were down to the last three measures of the Think music and I hadn’t thought of anything else, I’d quickly scrawl “Portland.”
This is probably an overly pedantic point, but the specific wording of the clue was:
Note, it doesn’t say City 2 “has the same name” as City 1, it says it was “named for” it.
Jeopardy makes use of this phrasing all the time: by, for example, hinting at a state that was “named for” Queen Elizabeth I: Virginia. Virginia is not called “Elizabeth,” but it was named for her.
So the contestants–and this happened to me, too–may have wasted time trying to think of a city that was named with some other US city in mind, but with a name that was an oblique reference to the older city, not a carbon copy of it.
I am generally good at Final Jeopardy but was discouraged by D. 1845 made me think of Texas which did not help much - I did not know the cities of Portland were named from each other, and might have guessed “Springfield”. However, twice this week I knew all the answers on the board, which does not happen very often.
Oh by the way, @Mark_Finn, I appreciated the way you gave us the clue and spoilered the answer. I bopped in here this morning before I saw the episode and was able to bop back out again before I ruined it for myself!
My thoughts were, “Kansas City. No, it’s gotta be Portland.”
I thought it was fairly easy (not that I’m claiming to be some sort of genius, cuz I ain’t).
mmm
Interesting (and new to me).
This is a very good point.
It often seems as though the clue writers are not being as careful as they might be.
Yeah, my mind kept going down these rabbit holes where I was trying think if maybe–I know this isn’t actually true, but to give one example–there was some situation like, for example, a city like Charlotte, NC being named for an older Charlottesville, Charlottesburg, Charlottetown, etc.
I was thinking that it was too early for California’s gold rush, but too late for most settlement of the eastern states. Then I thought about westward expansion and the Oregon Trail so I guessed Portland. But I was thinking Springfield as well, because there are so many choices across the country.
I also got Sesame Street as well. I remember a magazine at the time, talking about two new children’s shows that were just premiering: Sesame Street and H. R. Pufnstuf. Both were pretty out there for 1969…
That response of “Johnson” should have got a “more specific” request since there are obviously 2 Presidents named Johnson.
They have gotten very sloppy and inconsistent about procedure and application of rules…
In response to the clue, “Ex-Confederates got a Christmas gift from this president in 1868: a full pardon,” I think it’s reasonable to accept “Johnson” alone, since there was only one President Johnson in the 19th century. If the clue hadn’t referenced a date that clearly excluded one of them (e.g., “This president’s wife was born Claudia Alta Taylor”), then both first and last names would have been required.
nm wrong thread
Today I Learned: that there are still European colonies in South America. I guessed French Guyana, but I was thinking: is that still a thing?
That’s the source of one of those betcha didn’t know trivia questions: which country shares the longest border with France? (Brazil)
I got it. At first I thought it was something about the moon landing, Armstrong and Aldrin being on the moon since the previous day. But the word “series” in the clue told me it had nothing to do with that. Then I remembered Sesame Street debuting about that time, as I had a clear memory of one of my junior-high teachers praising it to high heaven during the 1970-71 school year despite the fact that we were all too old to watch it. So I guessed Sesame Street.
Another nomination for Cringeworthiest Answer was the lady yesterday guessing “Washington’s” Little Red Book instead of “Mao’s.” I did not want her to win just for that, but win she did.
Oh god, yes.
And I wouldn’t have guessed Sesame Street in a million years.
The fiendish thing about that Sesame Street clue is that everything in it that looked like a hint, actually wasn’t.
The date. Maybe it had something to do with the moon landing? Nope.
The letter D. Maybe it’s a show whose title started with D, or the main character’s name started with D? Nope.
Wet cement. Maybe it’s a show that had something to do with cement, or with building and construction in general? Nope.
I’m astonished, truly astonished, that anyone got it. On its face, it’s an absolutely impossible clue.
But was the finger in cement a recurring thing, like the hammer on Dragnet, or just that one time?
I imagine it was a one-off. Sesame Street was all about short interesting clips, often focused on the letter or number being promoted on that day’s episode.
I got it because I wanted it to be possible; my daughter loudly complained, when the category was revealed before the commercial break, that she’d have no shot at getting it — and so I was already hoping, before the clue came up, that she would have a shot. So when the clue came up, the first thing that occurred to me was, hey, she’d actually have a decent shot if it’s that…