"Who's Your Baghdaddy?", part two
While we're on a theme here, tonight's Final Jeopardy clue went something like this, for category "World Capitals":
'A 1958 coup in this city ended the monarchy, followed by ten years of turmoil and then 35 years of dictatorship'Sadly, none of the contestants got the right answer. I hope I don't sound overly pessimistic (or, God forbid, anti-American), but if some of the smartest people in America couldn't guess this much about the place that's been at the centre of both their country's foreign policy and the world's attention for some time, what can we say about the average American's knowledge of Iraq and its people, history and culture? This in the Information Age.
Can this truly be modern war?
4 comments:
I talked to my co-worker who was on Jeopardy, and he lost the day after he became champion. The first day he was on the show, he did not know the Pakistani or Afghani president, which I found surprising, and it's not he ain't smart, but perhaps its only American history and politics is what they focus on in school, and the relevance of 1958 coup is way down in importance to most Americans.
He mentioned that if you come on second place, you get $2000, and $1000 for coming in first place.
After your breakdown in your previous entry on not being able to find a title, you are headed down to the safe road of recovery with this post and creative title (I didn't notice the lack of creativity in your posts anyways), but to be dramatic in all of this, I must quote the show Seinfeld, Frank Constanza (George's dad) said after he came back from his hiatus from not cooking:
"I'm back baby!!!"
correction ... $1000 for last place contestant.
Sorry, but I couldn't figure out that question either. There are so many countries that have been run by a dictator for the last 3-4 decades, have experienced a decade of turmoil post-WW2 and had a monarchy in the distant past. That actually is a pretty non-specific Final Jeoprady. How would one link it to Iraq specifically unless you knew the timeline of Iraq's history for the past 50 years?
I admit the clue doesn't look terribly easy. But half the time getting it right in Jeopardy just requires some smart guesswork.
You didn't have to know Iraq's timeline to guess the answer (or the question if you will). All you need is simple math. 1958 + 10 + 35 = 2003. Which country's dictatorship ended in 2003? Not so difficult to figure that out.
Ozair, that was pretty funny. I don't think though that one post is necessarily indicative of a road to recovery.
I should seriously blog less and work more. My mom keeps telling me so, but since when do we listen to our parents.
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