Agh!

[yendi]

Okay, it's bad enough that today's Jeopardy had a clue for the Mac that was something along the lines of, "This computer, which shipped in 1984, came bundled with MacWrite and MacDraw."*

But the final Jeopardy featured a clue so easy that I guessed it from the fucking category (and the clue itself** confirmed it): 1950s Poem.

But wait. It gets worse.

Only one of the three players got it. The other two didn't fucking guess. At all. I mean, if, by some chance, you haven't read Howl (and why would you be on Jeopardy if you haven't?), you've surely heard of it, right? And given that category, why not guess? But two out of the three players apparently knew no 1950s poetry, or even any poems from roughly that era. Or possibly the entire 20th Century.

Gah. I know. There's a lot of pressure, etc. But still, I most definitely wasn't watching the best minds of my generation this afternoon.

*And worse, they accepted "Apple" as an answer.

** "starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the . . . streets at dawn looking for an angry fix" -- yes, they omitted a word there

Comments

[ebon-hawk.livejournal.com]

never read Howl ... nor do i really care for it .. but i got everything else right =P

[fiddledragon]

*blush* as much as I *do* know, 1950s poems aren't one of those categories...and I"ve never read nor heard of Howl

That being said...they accepted Apple!?? for Mac??!??

The Apple came out significantly earlier!

[lubedpumpkin.livejournal.com]

Bah! *deletes DVR'ed Jeopardy*

[cissa.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Howl. I generally don't read poetry (with an occasional exception for the Metaphysicals).

But even I knew that one.

(I did go to a reading Ginsberg did once. I was young and callow and it went utterly over my head. :P )

[yndy.livejournal.com]

Oh hell, I hate Ginsberg and I had that one from the clue...

You'd think they would've at least gone for Ferlinghetti or someone a touch more obscure for FJ

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Umm... What is "Howl"?

[losgunna.livejournal.com]

Yeah!! Somebody else asked it so I didn't have to :)

[jerel.livejournal.com]

"Howl" is a long, somewhat rambling poem written in 1955 by Allen Ginsberg. It's a mixture of the biographical, the abstract, a drug-induced hallucination, a rant about the modern world, and a direct address to one of his friends. There's also lots of sex (gay and straight) and drugs.

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

That Mac clue is pathetic - but at least for Howl the clue wasn't "I saw the best minds of a generation....."

(As to the "what is Howl?" questions - I'm going to assume those are posters under the age of 21......?!)

[blergeatkitty.livejournal.com]

I can't watch Jeopardy anymore. You think it makes you angry...think about how you'd feel seeing these super-obvious questions thrown at you after you'd been on the episode where the categories were "arcane Latin legal terms" and fucking "Finland." Kip doesn't even turn it on anymore because he doesn't want to hear the inevitable howl of "on ANY OTHER DAY I would have WON THAT SHIT."

[nishar.livejournal.com]

Howl... highly over rated poem. If I want to read an angry young man from the 50's, I'll stick with Colin Wilson.