There have been two bright moments in the *Jeopardy!* Tournament
of Champions semifinals. (1) The creep Amodio did lousy in the
exhibition match on Tuesday. (2) He got knocked out by the erudite
Sam in the second of the three matches.

To some extent because of his arrogant wagering in Final Jeopardy.
All three knew "Majorca and Minorca" (with two different spellings);
Sam's wager put him $1 over what the creep's total would have been
if he'd gone all in. But the creep's wager was $0, assuming that
neither of the others would possibly be able to come up with
"Geographical Pairs."

Why was he never penalized for misusing the inanimate question
word "What's" (not to mention the unidiomatic contraction) to
refer to human responses?

And the failure to use first names is occasionally problematic.

I could not understand the penalization of the third contestant
for mispronouncing something -- where could he even have
inserted the sound that the "sharp-eared judges" claimed he
got wrong? And why would that have been considered wrong
when many other mispronunciations were not?

The two finalists so far are thus Amy and Sam. It's likely that
Mattea will be the third; she ran away with the exhibition game.

* Peter T. Daniels:

> There have been two bright moments in the *Jeopardy!* Tournament
> of Champions semifinals. (1) The creep Amodio did lousy in the
> exhibition match on Tuesday. (2) He got knocked out by the erudite
> Sam in the second of the three matches.
>
> To some extent because of his arrogant wagering in Final Jeopardy.
> All three knew "Majorca and Minorca" (with two different spellings);
> Sam's wager put him $1 over what the creep's total would have been
> if he'd gone all in. But the creep's wager was $0, assuming that
> neither of the others would possibly be able to come up with
> "Geographical Pairs."
>
> Why was he never penalized for misusing the inanimate question
> word "What's" (not to mention the unidiomatic contraction) to
> refer to human responses?
>
> And the failure to use first names is occasionally problematic.

In the third game, there was an answer "Who's Gray" that left me totally
stumped as to the identity of the person, since Ken, for once, didn't
repeat it with the first name inserted. I had to look it up by the title
of the poem (Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.)

> I could not understand the penalization of the third contestant
> for mispronouncing something -- where could he even have
> inserted the sound that the "sharp-eared judges" claimed he
> got wrong? And why would that have been considered wrong
> when many other mispronunciations were not?

"Titus Androndicus". Drawing the line must be quite difficult indeed,
but one thing I'm sure of is that mispronunciations that reflect a
spelling difference are judged more harshly than just odd vowels.

> The two finalists so far are thus Amy and Sam. It's likely that
> Mattea will be the third; she ran away with the exhibition game.

Well, that turned out differently.

--
If this guy wants to fight with weapons, I've got it covered
from A to Z. From axe to... zee other axe.
-- Buffy s05e03

On Saturday, November 12, 2022 at 1:53:51 PM UTC-5, Quinn C wrote:
> * Peter T. Daniels:
> > There have been two bright moments in the *Jeopardy!* Tournament
> > of Champions semifinals. (1) The creep Amodio did lousy in the
> > exhibition match on Tuesday. (2) He got knocked out by the erudite
> > Sam in the second of the three matches.
> >
> > To some extent because of his arrogant wagering in Final Jeopardy.
> > All three knew "Majorca and Minorca" (with two different spellings);
> > Sam's wager put him $1 over what the creep's total would have been
> > if he'd gone all in. But the creep's wager was $0, assuming that
> > neither of the others would possibly be able to come up with
> > "Geographical Pairs."
> >
> > Why was he never penalized for misusing the inanimate question
> > word "What's" (not to mention the unidiomatic contraction) to
> > refer to human responses?
> >
> > And the failure to use first names is occasionally problematic.
> In the third game, there was an answer "Who's Gray" that left me totally
> stumped as to the identity of the person, since Ken, for once, didn't
> repeat it with the first name inserted. I had to look it up by the title
> of the poem (Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.)

It's always just called "Gray's Elegy"; it's not like he wrote a whole
book of verse with familiar quotes in it (so that we need to know
his name). Recently Metrist tried parsing part of it here.

The other two Gray writers are the anatomist and the botanist;
Zane (Western novels) is Grey like the TV series.

> > I could not understand the penalization of the third contestant
> > for mispronouncing something -- where could he even have
> > inserted the sound that the "sharp-eared judges" claimed he
> > got wrong? And why would that have been considered wrong
> > when many other mispronunciations were not?
>
> "Titus Androndicus". Drawing the line must be quite difficult indeed,

Good grief.

(There were at least two yesterday, but they go by too quickly to
remember. Ken is definitely inferior to Alex about foreign names
and words, but way superior to Mayim. Speaking of whom, the
Celebrity version has reached possibly the finals tomorrow, and
all three contestants did decently in their games, unlike most
celebrities. Too bad she didn't get to run through the cast of
*Call Me Kat* the way she did with TBBT. Leslie Jordan would
have been an absolute hoot.)

> but one thing I'm sure of is that mispronunciations that reflect a
> spelling difference are judged more harshly than just odd vowels.
>
> > The two finalists so far are thus Amy and Sam. It's likely that
> > Mattea will be the third; she ran away with the exhibition game.
>
> Well, that turned out differently.

On 11/12/2022 5:07 PM, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> Quinn C wrote:
>> Peter T. Daniels:

>>> There have been two bright moments in the *Jeopardy!* Tournament
>>> of Champions semifinals. (1) The creep Amodio did lousy in the
>>> exhibition match on Tuesday. (2) He got knocked out by the
>>> erudite Sam in the second of the three matches.

>>> To some extent because of his arrogant wagering in Final
>>> Jeopardy. All three knew "Majorca and Minorca" (with two
>>> different spellings); Sam's wager put him $1 over what the
>>> creep's total would have been if he'd gone all in. But the
>>> creep's wager was $0, assuming that neither of the others would
>>> possibly be able to come up with "Geographical Pairs."

>>> Why was he never penalized for misusing the inanimate question
>>> word "What's" (not to mention the unidiomatic contraction) to
>>> refer to human responses?

>>> And the failure to use first names is occasionally problematic.
>> In the third game, there was an answer "Who's Gray" that left me
>> totally stumped as to the identity of the person, since Ken, for
>> once, didn't repeat it with the first name inserted. I had to look
>> it up by the title of the poem (Elegy Written in a Country
>> Churchyard.)

> It's always just called "Gray's Elegy"; it's not like he wrote a
> whole book of verse with familiar quotes in it (so that we need to
> know his name). Recently Metrist tried parsing part of it here.

I think that's humour, Quinn. Gray wrote one poem full of familiar
quotes (I still sometimes call it "Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard", just for variety) that was one of the best-known and
most-quoted poems in English for more than a century.

> The other two Gray writers are the anatomist and the botanist; Zane
> (Western novels) is Grey like the TV series.

[tripping over the tongue]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2022, at 08:05:13, CDB posted:
>On 11/12/2022 5:07 PM, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>> Quinn C wrote:
>>> Peter T. Daniels:
>
>>>> There have been two bright moments in the *Jeopardy!* Tournament of
>>>>Champions semifinals. (1) The creep Amodio did lousy in the
>>>>exhibition match on Tuesday. (2) He got knocked out by the
>>>> erudite Sam in the second of the three matches.
>
>>>> To some extent because of his arrogant wagering in Final
>>>> Jeopardy. All three knew "Majorca and Minorca" (with two
>>>> different spellings); Sam's wager put him $1 over what the
>>>> creep's total would have been if he'd gone all in. But the
>>>> creep's wager was $0, assuming that neither of the others would
>>>> possibly be able to come up with "Geographical Pairs."
>
>>>> Why was he never penalized for misusing the inanimate question word
>>>>"What's" (not to mention the unidiomatic contraction) to refer to
>>>>human responses?
>
>>>> And the failure to use first names is occasionally problematic.
>>> In the third game, there was an answer "Who's Gray" that left me
>>> totally stumped as to the identity of the person, since Ken, for
>>> once, didn't repeat it with the first name inserted. I had to look
>>> it up by the title of the poem (Elegy Written in a Country
>>> Churchyard.)
>
>> It's always just called "Gray's Elegy"; it's not like he wrote a
>> whole book of verse with familiar quotes in it (so that we need to
>> know his name). Recently Metrist tried parsing part of it here.
>
>I think that's humour, Quinn. Gray wrote one poem full of familiar
>quotes (I still sometimes call it "Elegy Written in a Country
>Churchyard", just for variety) that was one of the best-known and
>most-quoted poems in English for more than a century.
>
Regarding the title - I've recently set a quiz (not for publication yet,
but before the editor, and the chances of this post being picked up by
potential entrants are minuscule, and anyway there are 99 other
questions) in which the correct answers are signalled by first letters;
one is EWiaCC. G'sE would have been Wrong. (Stoke Poges, wasn't it?)
--
Paul

On Sunday, November 13, 2022 at 7:38:11 AM UTC-7, Paul Wolff wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Nov 2022, at 08:05:13, CDB posted:
> >On 11/12/2022 5:07 PM, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> >> Quinn C wrote:

[Jeopardy]

> >>> In the third game, there was an answer "Who's Gray" that left me
> >>> totally stumped as to the identity of the person, since Ken, for
> >>> once, didn't repeat it with the first name inserted. I had to look
> >>> it up by the title of the poem (Elegy Written in a Country
> >>> Churchyard.)
> >
> >> It's always just called "Gray's Elegy"; it's not like he wrote a
> >> whole book of verse with familiar quotes in it (so that we need to
> >> know his name). Recently Metrist tried parsing part of it here.
> >
> >I think that's humour, Quinn. Gray wrote one poem full of familiar
> >quotes (I still sometimes call it "Elegy Written in a Country
> >Churchyard", just for variety) that was one of the best-known and
> >most-quoted poems in English for more than a century.
> >
> Regarding the title - I've recently set a quiz (not for publication yet,
> but before the editor, and the chances of this post being picked up by
> potential entrants are minuscule, and anyway there are 99 other
> questions) in which the correct answers are signalled by first letters;
> one is EWiaCC. G'sE would have been Wrong.

Well, it's always called that, but according to the /Harper Anthology/, the
original title was "An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church-Yard". Are you
going to adjudge that Wrong?

> (Stoke Poges, wasn't it?)

Spoon River?

http://thewonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2005/04/if-gray-had-had-to-write-his-elegy-in.html

It might help to have seen /The Spoon River Anthology/ by Edgar Lee
Masters, but those who haven't will get the idea.

--
Jerry Friedman

On Sun, 13 Nov 2022, at 07:16:09, Jerry Friedman posted:
>On Sunday, November 13, 2022 at 7:38:11 AM UTC-7, Paul Wolff wrote:
>> On Sun, 13 Nov 2022, at 08:05:13, CDB posted:
>> >On 11/12/2022 5:07 PM, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>> >> Quinn C wrote:
>
>[Jeopardy]
>
>> >>> In the third game, there was an answer "Who's Gray" that left me
>> >>> totally stumped as to the identity of the person, since Ken, for
>> >>> once, didn't repeat it with the first name inserted. I had to look
>> >>> it up by the title of the poem (Elegy Written in a Country
>> >>> Churchyard.)
>> >
>> >> It's always just called "Gray's Elegy"; it's not like he wrote a
>> >> whole book of verse with familiar quotes in it (so that we need to
>> >> know his name). Recently Metrist tried parsing part of it here.
>> >
>> >I think that's humour, Quinn. Gray wrote one poem full of familiar
>> >quotes (I still sometimes call it "Elegy Written in a Country
>> >Churchyard", just for variety) that was one of the best-known and
>> >most-quoted poems in English for more than a century.
>> >
>> Regarding the title - I've recently set a quiz (not for publication yet,
>> but before the editor, and the chances of this post being picked up by
>> potential entrants are minuscule, and anyway there are 99 other
>> questions) in which the correct answers are signalled by first letters;
>> one is EWiaCC. G'sE would have been Wrong.
>
>Well, it's always called that, but according to the /Harper Anthology/, the
>original title was "An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church-Yard". Are you
>going to adjudge that Wrong?

Poems' titles are notoriously unreliable.

I've just checked my answer sheet, and it reads as I wrote. But there's
a kindly marking panel who will allow alternative correct answers.
Editor's decision final.
>
>> (Stoke Poges, wasn't it?)
>
>Spoon River?
>
>http://thewonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2005/04/if-gray-had-had-to-wri
>te-his-elegy-in.html

That credits Verse and Worse (collected by Arnold Silcock): and my copy
thereof does indeed contain IGHHtWHEitCoSRIoiToSP.
>
>It might help to have seen /The Spoon River Anthology/ by Edgar Lee
>Masters,

Not me, sadly.

>but those who haven't will get the idea.
--
Paul