Thread by @Jeopardamy

Post-game thoughts (12/28):
First, one thing I meant to mention in the previous recap: Seychelles may not have been the correct answer yesterday, but their flag is *lit*, definitely one of my top five favorite flags 🇸🇨

As I think I've mentioned, I'd been reviewing the all-time leaders, and so I knew that Julia Collins had won 20 games, which was the longest streak for a woman (and fourth all time). I loved watching Julia, I felt like we had similar approaches, so I wanted to pay tribute to her

Julia, somewhat famously, wore a lot of sweaters during her run, so that was what I chose. I debated whether to wear it for this game, or save it for the next one, but since I couldn't be sure there would even *be* a next one, I put it on. But would I actually tie her record?

Josette, Chas, and I split the first three clues, but fortunately I got the Daily Double. No reason not to bet the max there, and even though my fascination with the space program as a child was fairly brief, it was enough that I wasn't going to miss Gemini

I get the different Mars rovers mixed up, but thankfully my childhood summer camp and marching band experience made it easy to get "Spirit" from that clue!

Did well in the sports category; I've always been a Columbus Crew fan (insofar as I've followed MLS), dating back to the Brian McBride days. And the best sports experience of my life was at Crew Stadium, where I saw the first ever "dos a cero" match between the US and Mexico

Once again, knowing which president was "the fifth" is one of those boring (to me) facts that has a hard time sticking in my brain

Never heard of "elflock", but mussed is one of those words that only exists paired with a specific other word ("hair" in this case). So that was a guess, but a confident guess.

A neat little extra bonus of my tribute to Julia was that I didn't have to come up with another anecdote for this game!

I actually swept the "Old Words" category, but it was broken up by a commercial break, so I didn't get the applause. Curse you, capitalism! *shakes fist at sky*

I swear I've heard the Simpsons creator's name pronounced "Groaning" rather than "Grey-ning", but if so, I guess I heard it from someone who was wrong lol

The last clue of the round was one of those classic Jeopardy situations, where they could have left everything out of the clue except "Norwegian painter" and I would have known they meant Munch. They're never going to have a question about, like, Frits Thaulow or whoever.

(Yes, I did just find that name by googling "Norwegian painters")

I was sad to miss the Futurama clue; like most comedy it hasn't all aged well, but I've watched every episode of the original four seasons multiple times, my favorite is probably Mars University. Or Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles. Or Three Hundred Big Boys! Never mind, idk

I never watched Battlestar Galactica, and I've gotten the vague impression that its ending was disappointing. What do you think, is it worth a watch?

After a couple of misses in That's Bogus, Chas understandably moved away when he got control of the board, but when I got it right back, I went back to the category for whatever reason, and there was the Daily Double!

Which kind of turned out bad for me, actually. As I look back on it, I'm not sure why I decided to go with a big bet on a category where I'd already been stumped on 2/3 clues.

I figured I'd still have a reasonably safe margin if I missed it (which was sort of true), but that might have been a situation for a defensive "don't give them momentum" strategy

"Forgery" either comes to your mind there or it doesn't, and it didn't for me. That was definitely a case where I was mad at myself after hearing the answer, but the brain works in mysterious ways!

Josette, registered dietician, went on a bit of a run in the Vitamin category, and all of a sudden my shot at a runaway was in doubt; and if Josette found the last Daily Double, she could potentially take the lead!

I assumed the last DD was in the Book Titles category (although I should have skipped the top one). Speaking of Matt Groening, the only thing I ever think when I hear Naked Lunch is "I can think of at least two things wrong with that title"

Gravity's Rainbow is one of the few books I've started but not finished; I might give it another shot some time, I got through Mason & Dixon eventually and was glad I did. But more importantly, it gave me that last Daily Double!

This was a *super* awkward wagering decision. There was one clue left, for $400, and if Josette got it, and doubled up in Final, she'd have $23,200, exactly my current score!

Unlike Final Jeopardy, you're not allowed to bet $0 on a Daily Double, so I just bet $200, on the basis that it more or less equals 1 in Jeopardy clue amounts. So, even though it was only $200, it was a crucial $200! But it was easy, "khan" is the only Mongol title anyone knows

Which meant that I had to *not* ring in on the final clue, the only way Josette could win would be for me to ring in and miss, then ring in and get it, giving her $11,600 to my $23000, enough to catch me in Final. But Chas picked it up, and my 20th win was secured!

I could have bet a few hundred bucks on Final, but I decided to just bet $0, and enjoy the luxury of a Final Jeopardy with absolutely nothing riding on it. It was worth it. Though I guess it's not quite true to say that *nothing* was riding on it, there's still pride at stake!

When I was a kid I had this coffee table book called something like "History's Greatest Disasters," which I was obsessed with, and even at the time, I was like "this is a weird book for a kid to like!" I flashed back to that book, which had the Arno flood near the end

Twenty wins! It happened months ago for me, and I'm still trying to take it in. In my highest of high hopes, I never dreamed of matching Julia's streak. It's hard to say how I felt: proud, dazed, happy, numb, all those things. But along with all that, I was also ready for lunch!

Thanks so much to Chas and Josette! Josette came on strong at the end, and gave me some of the most interesting endgame strategy I've been faced with. And Chas was a great guy all day, very gregarious and warm, I feel like he set the tone for that week's batch of contestants

Also, by at least one measure, this was the best group of contestants thus far. As Ken mentioned, all 30 responses in the first round were correct! And there were only four misses round two: the Daily Double I missed, the $400 and $800 in Bogus, and the $400 in Book Titles

There's a statistic called "Combined Coryat", which basically measures how well the three contestants did, ignoring the effects of Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy. The maximum is $54000, and this game scored $49,200, easily the highest of any game I've played!

To Julia Collins... and beyond? We'll find out tonight, see you then!