Ironically, Sherlock Holmes himself tried to limit his learning of extraneous things, lest it take up space in his “brain attic” better used for some fact that he really needed.
As I recall, the extraneous thing that he decided his brain didn’t need was the fact that the earth rotates around the sun. (And I can’t argue that that knowledge isn’t extraneous.)
Ordinarily I would agree with you, but the boroughs of New York City are one of the Jeopardy writers’ pet topics (along with referring to Manhattan as an “island”) so it’s something you should keep in mind if you know you’re going to be on the show.
I don’t think I would have gotten the clue about soybeans had I not passed through rural Indiana a few years ago and asked one of the locals what that crop was that was being grown in all the fields.
Manhattan is not an island for the same reason Pluto is not a planet. Rules lawyering.
Manhattan is surrounded by water. As is Long Island. Ergo: Island.
I initially guessed Dracula until my daughter pointed out the clue specified a “human character,” at which point I guessed Sherlock Holmes. Just one of those things I remember.
I went with just “soy” as the import - any thoughts as to whether that would have been accepted?
As for the boroughs, I always stumble betwixt Staten Island and Long Island.
mmm
Say, why isn’t Staten Island part of New Jersey? Land grabbing new yorkers why I outta…
We’ve had this discussion before, in the previous Jeopardy thread. (See the surrounding posts too.) I’m aware that Manhattan surrounded by water and thus, technically, an island. Furthermore, I don’t think anyone considers Manhattan not to be an island in the sense that Pluto is not a planet. AFAIK, no Council of International Island-Deciders has decreed that Manhattan is not an island.
What bugs me about this particular writers’ quirk is that they use this factoid to try to throw you. The clue is not testing whether you know that Manhattan is an island. If that were the case, it wouldn’t bother me. If I’m taking a geography quiz and there’s a question on it: “True/False: Manhattan is an island,” I’m going to pick “true.” If there were a Jeopardy clue “The New York borough of Manhattan is one of these, a land mass surrounded by water,” or “This New York borough, home to Wall Street, Central Park, and Broadway, is an island,” fine. What bugs me is when they use it in sort of a trick question sense, as in the clue being discussed in the thread I linked to. It would be like having a clue, “This fruit, native to the Americas, was introduced to Europe by Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th century” and the correct response being “tomato.” Yeah, technically, the tomato is a fruit, but it’s so uncommon to think of it as one that referring to it as such is kind of deliberately deceptive.
I’ve noticed two auto racing categories recently. The contestants left them until last, and didn’t do very well.
But Long Island is considered a peninsula. I, who have sailed around it, will never understand this.
No, Long Island is not considered a peninsula, except for determining maritime state boundaries:
Wikipedia:
In 1985, the United States Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Maine that Long Island is integrally related to the mainland enough that Long Island Sound and the western part of Block Island Sound constitute a “juridicial bay” for the purpose of determining maritime state boundaries. In the popular media this has been often misinterpreted as a ruling that Long Island is legally not an island. The United States Board on Geographic Names still considers Long Island an island, because it is surrounded by water.
Brian
Okay, on Friday’s show, two more examples of bad betting in FJ: Brian, the returning champ, in distant third place, bet everything instead of $0, but it didn’t matter; and the leading player, Robert, wagered to beat #2, Leigh, by a dollar. He won, but could have taken home $3,000 more if he had bet to beat Brian’s best total.
But the most annoying thing was an error that Mayim and the judges didn’t catch: in the Jeopardy round, the clue was “These are the first names of the 2 characters played by Humphrey & Ingrid in ‘Casablanca.’” Leigh answered, “Rick and Elsa.” She clearly said Elsa, with an E, not Ilsa, with an I, which is the correct reply. I was expecting a correction, but no. But in the end, it made no difference to the final outcome.
Correct on both counts.
I also thought that Leigh screwed up her bet. She had $16,000 and Robert had $23,700. She had to assume that Robert would bet enough to beat her even if she doubled up, which he did so with his bet of $8301. So her only chance was if he missed the question. Thus, she should have bet an amount that would give her the lead even if she also missed; her bet should have been $599 (or less).
I didn’t notice that, but I did expect them to take away money for the response of “brook” instead of “rook” in the “Take away a letter” category. The clue was asking for the chess piece that you get when you remove a B.
I don’t think that’s right. Here’s the clue from the j-archive site:
Wow. I swear the clue said the exact opposite of that.
Never mind!
The category was ‘One Letter Changes Everything’. Some of the clues added letters; other clues subtracted letters.
The clue I was curious about from last night was about who played Vito Corleone. The contestant said “who is Brando?”, which is obviously correct. I wondered if they’d also give credit for Robert De Niro or (if you want to get really obscure) Oreste Baldini. But I checked the clue just now, and it does specifically reference “The Godfather”, so only Brando would be correct.
FJ seemed like 50/50 guess between Sodom and Gomorrah. Of course I chose the wrong one. Not sure how you were supposed to distinguish between them. I guess Sodom is just easier for people to spell and write quickly.
I didn’t think of either of those. I said “what is Jericho?”
Not my best guess ever, I admit.