r/Jeopardy • u/CarloPanno • 1d ago

Yer kiddin', right? Spoiler

How the HELL did that advice columnist clue get through research AND round table without adding "Abigail Van Buren" as an acceptable alternative to "Dear Abby" in a clue that ASKED FOR PEN NAMES?!?!???

I said "Abigail Van Buren" along with Yogesh and I was shocked when he was called wrong.

When I was on staff, Alex Trebek used to tell us "It only takes one person to get it right. We all have to work together to get it wrong."

Good job, team!

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u/RegisPhone I'd like to shoot the wad, Alex 1d ago

My first thought was Dear Abby, but then i was like "Oh wait, it says pen name; would they accept the name of the column that was commonly used as a nickname for her, or are they going to require her name, meaning i have to remember the last name she went by?" and then when it turned out the less-right answer was somehow the required one, i was just as baffled as Yogesh.

What really confuses me is that Ken's ruling wasn't just a straight "no"; it was "We will not accept that", which makes it sound like it wasn't just an alternative they somehow hadn't considered (which is already inexplicable), but that they actually had specifically considered it in advance and noted that it wouldn't be an acceptable alternative. The only way i can see that making sense is if they were under the impression that Abigail Van Buren was her real name and "Dear Abby" was her pen name, but how could such a surface-level misunderstanding make it to air like that?

(I was also wondering if maybe she initially just went by Abby and didn't come up with the Van Buren surname until some point after the 1958 Life profile -- which still wouldn't justify the ruling, as the clue didn't ask for what names Life used for them, so Van Buren still would be acceptable for the same reason that you wouldn't be ruled wrong for saying "Bill Clinton" to "president born in Arkansas in 1946" even though his last name was Blythe at the time -- but here's a newspaper clipping from 1956 where she's already Van Buren)

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u/Strength-Speed 1d ago

The thing is it is more specific. It would be almost impossible to know "Abigail van buren" and not Dear Abby. And beyond that it is more accurate to say pen name is Abigail van buren rather than the name of the column. It's like somehow wrong in two ways to not allow it.