Jeopardy gets it wrong

Jul 18, 2013 7 Replies

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Larry Blanchard 13 years ago

On Jeopardy tonight, there was a question about a sealer with the same name as a tree. The contestant answered shellac. Alex said the answer was lacquer. Both were wrong, but shellac was closer to being correct.

There's no such thing as a "lac" tree, only a "lac" bug. For a list of the host trees, see:

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And lacquer refers to nitrocellulose and acrylic mixtures having no relationship to the lac bug. It is true that in ancient times the red pigment derived from the lac bug was known as lacquer, but that was back when what we now know as shellac was a waste product :-).

Why am I posting this here? Because Jeopardy wants me to write them via snail mail and I'm too darned lazy. Maybe someone here knows someone on the show and can berate them about the error :-).

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Doug Miller 13 years ago

Larry Blanchard wrote in news:ks7lgv$ac3$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:

And he is correct.

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aka "Chinese Lacquer Tree".

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Leon 13 years ago

And shellac comes from a bug, not a tree.

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Larry Blanchard 13 years ago

That's what I said, Leon:

"There's no such thing as a "lac" tree, only a "lac" bug."

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Larry Blanchard 13 years ago

Interesting. I was thinking of the obsolete use of "lacquer" to mean shellac, or at least the red pigment derived from it.

But the jeopardy reference pertained to the floating puppets of Vietnam. Your reference talks about a substance used in "China, Korea and Japan" while mine referenced India. Neither mentioned Vietnam.

But since Vietnam is a lot closer to China, I suspect your reference is the applicable one. I stand corrected.

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Ken Moffett 13 years ago

Larry Blanchard wrote in news:ks94iu$43h$ snipped-for-privacy@speranza.aioe.org:

..............

So, how is Vietnam closer to China that India? Sleep through Grography class? Check a map. India has a huge border with western China. Vietnam has a relatively small border with southeastern China.

Ken

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Joe 13 years ago

You have to wonder how its usage continued after the first contact with it. The stuff is the same as that found in poison ivy, oak, & sumac - uroshiol. Hence the name Toxicodendron_vernicifluum.

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basilisk 13 years ago

Maybe not everyone is susceptible, I could bath in poison ivy sap and not be affected.

basilisk

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