28 March 2012

"I'll take 'severed feet' for $800, Alex."


The Jeopardy! online test is tonight; it's the first step toward becoming a contestant.  It's too bad the readers of this blog can't sign up as a sort of "hive mind," but you can certainly try out on your own.  Details here.

I'll probably restart the blog tomorrow.  Today I'm cramming for the test.


Relevant:  A Jeopardy! episode from 1974.  And miscellaneous Jeopardy! trivia.

btw - “Watch Jeopardy!, Alex Trebek’s fun TV quiz game” is a pangram (it contains every letter of the alphabet).

Addendum:  A hat tip to Zak, who found a list of the questions online (the morning after the test).  Here are the first 25:


1. BYGONE KINGS
His title in French was "Le roi soleil"

2. MOVIE FACTS
Steven Spielberg wasn't yet 30 when he directed this 1975 scarefest that became one of the biggest hits ever

3. FICTION
Dan Brown introduced the character Robert Langdon in this novel that preceded "The DaVinci Code"

4. STATE CAPITALS
This city of about 175,000 people, also a state capital, was named by Roger Williams

5. WHAT'S FOR LUNCH
This Mexican dish is meat & veggies coated with masa dough & wrapped in a corn husk

6. FAMOUS AMERICANS
This man who died in CA in 1926 developed over 800 plant varieties, including a russet potato that bears his name

7. POETS
Her "Sonnets from the Portugese" was dedicated to her husband Robert

8. ALSO A BODY PART
This body part is also a term for certain baby mammals, like elephants

9. HISTORIC PLACES
It's a national monument in Charleston Harbor

10. PAINTINGS
This 1893 painting is perhaps the most famous artwork ever done in Norway

11. ANNUAL EVENTS
The UFO Encounter Festival takes place each July in this New Mexico city

12. CABLE TV
Since 2006 Tom Colicchio has been the head judge on this Bravo cooking show

13. MIDDLE EAST GEOGRAPHY
Riyadh is the capital of this country

14. TECHNOLOGY
Version 4 of this popular communications device includes Facetime, a system for video calling

15. SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDIES
This title character has Banquo killed & is later visited by Banquo's ghost

16. MEDICINE
Conjunctivitis, an inflammation of the membrane that lines the eye, is commonly known as this

17. CROSSWORD CLUES "H"
Emporium for men's clothes & hats (12)

18. BIBLICAL PEOPLE
She's the "she" in the verse "She caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head"

19. THAT'S COLD!
Temperatures can reacn -90 degrees in this area that makes up 75% of the world's biggest country

20. LITERARY TERMS
Type of novel that's often set in a gloomy castle designed in the arch. style of the same name

21. DISASTERS
Masses of pumice from this volcano landed in the ocean & halted ships around Indonesia in 1883

22. ROCK MUSICIANS
In U2 Bono sings lead; this man, born David Evans, plays lead guitar

23. MINERALS
Halite is also called rock this

24. CANADA
With 5.1 million in the metro area, it's Canada's most populous city

25. HOTELS
The Regal Maxwell House & the Sheraton Music City are found in this souther US city

The last 25 are at this link.   I think I only got 31 of the 50 right.

17 comments:

  1. Nice to see you back - I wish you luck!

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  2. My wife is in the hospital so I'll be missing the test. It wasn't really a choice though, was it?

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  3. Good luck! I was a contestant 6 years ago, when you had to go to their testing locations. I'm curious of they give you a score or answer key with the online test.

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    1. It's over, and I did terribly. It's amazing how difficult it can be to think under time pressure (15 seconds), so that one can't even remember that Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, or who the sixth US President was.

      They don't give the answers or tell you what your score was.

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  4. I took the test as well and I feel woefully mediocre and ill-educated.

    Thank you for posting this- glad to see you are back and hope you are on the mend.

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  5. I hope I broke 50%. I couldn't remember the name Macbeth!

    Who had a potato named after him?

    Zak

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  6. Yes, it was about a man who died in California and was the namesake of a popular brand of russet potato, as I recall.

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    1. I wonder if not everyone got the same questions... Or perhaps I had a senior moment.

      Did you have questions re the capital of Australia, where Riyadh is, what state the Devils sports team is in, largest city in Canada, city named by Roger Williams, BobDylanThomas, potential and kinetic energy, a TV program about cooking, U2 musician, and a Russian space mission translates "peace" ?

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    2. Yes, those were some of my questions. Now I'm worried that I hallucinated the potato question in my panic.

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    3. Ok, I'm not crazy; I found a link to the questions. I guess someone typed them up instead of answering:

      http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/159/ootv/idiotic-jeopardy-wagers-tonight-tldr-504675/index171.html

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    4. Luther Burbank! I totally could not think of his name last night. I'm good with this quiz when I have the internet at my fingertips.

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    5. Riyadh is in Saudi Arabia. Sydney Australia. Roger Williams named Providence, RI. Toronto? Bono sings for U2. Mir?

      That's all I can come up with off the top of my head. Question marks indicate I'm not too sure.

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    6. Wrong on Sydney (Canberra). For U2 they wanted the lead guitar. See addendum to the post for the text of the questions.

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  7. Good to see that you are back on "your feet" Minnesotastan.

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  8. Friends used to encourage me to try to get on Jeopardy, but I knew that I just don't think that quickly--especially not under pressure.

    Hope you're feeling great! We've all missed you, Minnesotastan.

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  9. 23 of 25 - I overthought the Norwegian painters (who thought impressionists started that young?). The other miss was just a brain freeze.

    Glad you're back on your feet in a slightly metaphorical way. You let me speed surf the net.

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