Hello everyone, before I get to today’s Jeopardy! recap I want to address a comment from a reader I received today. Jeanie entrusted me with thejeopardyfan.com blog for two weeks and after the first three days I have already got someone hopping mad–sorry Jeanie. The viewer felt that I was insulting the contestants in this blog and this maligning behavior stemmed from a deep rooted jealousy. First off I want to apologize to the anonymous person–as a Canadian I am well disposed to apologize and do so without hesitation. Secondly, I agree that I am indeed envious of the contestants on Jeopardy!–I’d love to be on Jeopardy! and I have no illusions as to why I am not. I am also painfully aware of my odds of every being on Jeopardy. However, I think that my (occasional) lampooning of contestants is in good fun and not malicious. After all I don’t even know these people–all I know is their occupations, home state, and their odd anecdotes that Jeopardy! producers deign entertaining. I hope that my humour will be taken in the spirit it is intended and that my mea culpa will satisfy Anonymous (I once dated a girl named Anonymous–any relation?). If you still aren’t happy rest assured Jeanie will be back in a week and civility and politeness will reign again, in the meantime I’m studying up on my etiquette.
On today’s show Paul Kursky the three day champion with 41 grand to his credit returned to face-off against Arizonian public defender Eric Rau and Terrill Wilkins a high school teacher from South Carolina. Here is a fun game for everyone, guess which candidate once weighed over 500 lbs–talk about a surprise. Paul was looking very confident at the start of the show and got off to a fast start. Paul is a copywriter, married to an improv actress, and lives in San Francisco–one of the most beautiful cities in the world in my humble opinion. Paul has a YouTube bachelor auction video posted online that I can only assume was created before he met his wife.
The first round categories were not united by a central theme and had the disparate categories of Folk Music of the World, Bald is Beautiful, Weiss Guys, Say “Ah”, Annual Events, and Driving Safety. The last category was filled with video clues with Alex Trebek (in his business casual) at Ford’s headquarters in Michigan showcasing their driving simulator, Virttex. I was a bit put off by the somewhat crass product placement that yeilded few interesting clues and was followed by a PSA where Alex lays down some sobering stats on cellphone use and accidents. The daily double was in the last clue with: To make the driving as realistic as possible, the simulator includes such features as 3D sound, with noises of the road, the engine and the tires, as well as that apparent change in pitch you just heard, named for this Austrian physicist*. How do you feel about product tie-ins and Jeopardy? Imagine a BP Petroleum category with Tony Hayward doing the video clues–for $2000: When I am not sleeping until the spill is taken care of I often retire to my two million dollar ____ for some down time, it is named The Insomniac [answer: yacht].
After the commercial break Paul with $4,800 was ahead by a factor of two to Eric’s $2,400 and Terrill’s $1,600. But the game was just beginning to heat up…
At the end of the first round I liked the clues of Bald is Beautiful, although it was tilted to pop music heavily. My favorite bald man was featured in this $800 clue: Famous for playing a Siamese king, he also played a royal on film in “Solomon and Sheba”–he had hair in that one*. I answered half of the Weiss clues but must admit I was not familiar with a single Weiss–very educational. Also news to me was how Folk Music of the World ended with the interesting clue: Mexican songs called Narcocorridos glorify those involved in this trade*. I’ve included a sample below of the genre.
Going into double Jeopardy the three contestants maintained their places but the margins changed substantially to $6,600, $5,000 and $4,600 respectively. The categories again lacked a common thread with Latin Authors, Sports Rules, Monarchs Formerly Known As Prince [awesome title], The Produce Department, Other Grand Canyons, and Anagrams of Colors. Anagrams of Colors made me use any clue other than the color to answer the difficult anagram questions like: A purplish red anagrams to this person of great influence, especially in business*. Aside from the $2,000 clue in Latin Authors I came up dry: The golden age of Roman literature runs from Cicero to this “Art of Love” author*. At the end of the round the players had racked up over 40 grand collectively–Paul with $16,100, Eric with $12,200, and Terrill clawing into second place with $12,400. The final category was After the Presidency–surprise, surprise another President question (I must one day sit down and study the presidents in earnest): One of the 2 presidents to return to elected jobs in U.S. federal government after their final terms* I got it right (I guessed) and so did all three contestants who finished with a grand total of $73,000 combined! But only Paul with $24,800 will return, for his fourth show.
Doppler, Yul Brenner, Drug Dealers, Magnate, Ovid, Adams/Johnson