O Canada!

Andy here with another recap! Jeanie had some flight difficulties makint it to Los Angeles; I think these travels have her going via Minneapolis and Atlanta!

This week’s contestants:
Jon Choi
Matthew Church
Betsy Foss
Tiffany Gholar
Mary Gildea
Sandy Howard
Jenna Johnson
Curtis Morales
Greg Munda
Varun Shekhar
Debbie Singer

Monday’s players:

Matthew’s from Prince George, BC!

J! Round categories:
SECRET SERVICE CODE NAMES
LAWYERING UP ON TV
GORILLAS
1930s ENGINEERING FEATS
THINGS THAT ARE ROUND
TIME TO END IT “ALL”

All 3 players had luck on the buzzer over the first 15 clues; each contestant got in at least four times! Matthew found the first Daily Double, under 1930s ENGINEERING FEATS $600! Scores were:

Matthew $2,600
Betsy $2,600
Tiffany $1,400

Matthew made it a true Daily Double! His clue: This massive project was the first in North America to contain more masonry than the Great Pyramid at Giza

Scores at the first break:

Matthew $6,200
Tiffany $2,200
Betsy $1,600

Matthew is a medical student at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario (even though he’s originally from Prince George, British Columbia)!

Coming out of the break, Matthew picked up another 6 clues, whereas Tiffany and Betsy had their scores stay down.

Triple Stumper collection:

CODE NAMES $600: Fittingly, Fraction is the Secret Service code name for this cabinet post

END IT “ALL” $1000: To become uninteresting through familiarity

At the end of 30, the scores were:
Matthew $10,000
Betsy $3,600
Tiffany $1,800

DJ! round categories:
POETIC WOMEN
A MATTER OF “LIFE” OR “DEATH”
BITTER
LET’S ROCK!
FLORENCE
THE MACHINE

POETIC WOMEN $1200 had the first Daily Double. $800 was a Triple Stumper: Richard Lovelace’s poem “To Althea: From Prison” says, “stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars” one of these

Tiffany got to play the Daily Double, though, with the following scores:

Matthew $10,000
Betsy $3,600
Tiffany $1,400

Tiffany bet the full $2,000. Her clue: Longfellow called her the “handsomest of all the women in the land of the Dacotahs”

After this, the two women had a better time on the buzzer, and Betsy got to play the final Daily Double, under BITTER $1600! Scores were:

Matthew $12,400
Tiffany $7,000
Betsy $6,000

Betsy chose to bet $3,000. Pro tip: When Alex says “Only” after your bet, you’ve bet too small. Her clue: This bitter green ligueur is disttled from alcohol infused with wormwood. That which makes the fond grow heartier brought Betsy’s score to $9,000! It felt like a missed opportunity, though! Betsy got just one clue the rest of the game. Meanwhile, Matthew got 9 of the final 16 clues to cement a lock game!

Scores going into Final:
Matthew $24,000
Tiffany $11,400
Betsy $9,800

FJ! category: COUNTRIES FOR SHORT

FJ! clue: North Korea is the DPRK; this country is the LPDR

Betsy 9800 – 9799 = 1
Tiffany 11400 – 11300 = 100
Matthew 24000 + 0 = 24000

So we have a Canadian champion, and he’ll defend his title tomorrow! See you then!