They fought The Law and THEY won

It’s clear to me that the Blogger’s “scheduling” so-called capability is a joke. This was supposed to publish about 11 hours ago. I give up, but not without great disappointment. I had planned to use “scheduling” quite a bit.
At any rate, yesterday‘s contestants:

Milind Kulkarni

Paul Wampler

Betsy Stephenson

Paul swept “Br-r” in the Jeopardy round, where the correct response begins with “br,” then has an “r” later in the response. Sample clue: “This two-word name for the type of glass seen here includes a kind of spirit.”*

Each contestant found a Daily Double today. Milind found the first one, also the last clue before the break, in State of My Birth. (I swept that category, by the way.) Milind had 2000, Paul had 5000, and Betsy, who appeared to struggle at first with the buzzer, had 400. Milind wagered 1000 on this clue: “Cesar Chavez, Joe Jonas, Barry Goldwater.”* Were it not for the “Barry Goldwater” I wouldn’t have gotten this one. Milind got it too.

     At the end of the Jeopardy round, Paul had 6400 and Betsy and Milind were tied at 2400.
     Betsy found the next Daily Double, in Peeved Veeps. By then she had gotten the hang of the signalling device. She was still tied with Milind, but this time with 7200. Paul had 8400. Betsy wagered 1200 on this clue: “This veep led the Democratic-Republican attacks against 1798’s Alien and Sedition Acts.”* That one was kind of a toughie, and I thought Betsy gave a reasonable response, but it was wrong.
     Paul, then, found the last Daily Double in The Country that Borders…. It was the second-to-last clue on the board. He was leading (as usual) with 13200. Betsy had 8000 and Milind had 10800. Paul wagered 1200 on this clue: “Iran and India.”* I missed the other four clues, but I got this one right, and so did Paul.
     No one answered the last clue, so Paul ended with 14000, Betsy with 8000, and Milind with 10800. The Final Jeopardy category was The Law. This was the clue: “Asked in 1966 to write a concise statement for arresting officers to recite, Ca. D.A. Harold Berliner started with these 7 words.”* I thought this one was a no-brainer, and all three contestants got it right, too. Betsy added 4000 to her score, and Milind added 5201. Paul wagered enough to win if Milind had doubled, so he is your champion again. Paul is looking really good, horizontal stripes notwithstanding. He’s looking like Tournament of Champions material. My own Coryat score today was 24800. Paul‘s was 14800, Betsy’s was 9200, and Milind’s was 10600.
     There was an abundance of quadruple-stumpers today, to coin a phrase (it’s easier than “triple-stumpers that stumped me too”). I’ll be writing entries on such questions soon, so if you have a preference from among these, please let me know in a comment: Notre-Dame de Chartres, Austria, Nicaragua, bulkheads, fluke, Cuzco, screech owl, Bulgaria.
     Did anyone else watch the Nova episode on “The Smartest Machine on Earth” last night? What did you think? Some of my observations:

I recognized a few former champions who were warming up “Watson” for the big day.
I loved it when Ken Jennings said that Jeopardy! is too daunting a task for a computer! You go, Ken!
I also had to agree with producer Harry Friedman when he scoffed at the idea at first, saying that of course a computer was going to have all the answers. This still makes me wonder what all the fuss is about!
I found it interesting that “Watson” will not be connected to the Internet. I wonder where he gets his knowledge. But did you notice that later in the program that he found an answer using Internet Movie Database? (I love that site, by the way.)
Has Brad Rutter really never been beat before?
I had to wonder whether the writers knew that their clues were going to be for the “Watson” episodes…? It seems like that could make a difference.

*brandy snifter, Arizona, Thomas Jefferson, Pakistan, “You have the right to remain silent”