I kept track of my score for the first time today using Josh Horstman’s chart. I hope I did it right; my score at the end of the Jeopardy round seemed high for me. Here is what it looked like, in case any of you are trying it at home:
Yes, I did miss this one in Estonia that stumped all the contestants, too: “It’s Estonia’s capital and largest city.”* I had it in my head, but I wasn’t confident enough to ring in. Did you guys know this triple-stumper in Billboard’s Top Artists?: “The 1999 Billboard Music Awards were ‘One Sweet Day’ for her; she was named top artist of the 1990s.”* I counted these two right in Old Lunch Counter Lingo even though I didn’t give complete responses (I would have if prompted, as Mr. Trebek did for Susan Neuffer in the next round. More on that later.):
“‘Bossy in a bowl’ is this hearty dish containing chunks of meat and vegetables.”*
“Oh, look, little Johnny is chowing down on a ‘bow wow with red lead,’ this favorite.”*
At the end of the Jeopardy round, Susan had 2600, Michael Muller had 3600, and one-day champ John Krizel had 6800. Here is my Double Jeopardy round, which I feel like I need to show you because it was much worse than my first round!
Three of the 5 clues in Art and Artists were triple-stumpers, and Susan got the other two. She had 11200 at the end of that category, one-day champ John had 7200, and Michael had 4400. Susan had answered 6 of 11 clues correctly since Double Jeopardy began, including this Daily Double in Pick a Part that earned her 3000: “1967: Luke Jackson.”* (You have to name the actor who played that role.) As you can see on the chart, I didn’t get any in Art and Artists right. Ouch.
Speaking of “ouch,” I winced when Mr. Trebek gave Susan at least one extra chance on this clue in Mega-Events: “In 1896, more than 2000 were trampled in the stampede for free beer at the coronation of this doomed czar.”* Susan at first said, “Nicholas,” then “Czar Nicholas” when Mr. Trebek asked her to be more specific. Then Mr. Trebek had the crust to say, “There were many Czar Nicholases,” a stretch anyway! She finally said the whole answer. I thought that was unfair, and I even thought they would fix it before Final Jeopardy, but they did not.
John found the second Daily Double, also the last clue of the round. He led with 12400 while Michael had 9200 and Susan had 10400. The category was Name the Element, and this was the clue: “Its symbol is the same 2 letters as Minnesota’s postal abbreviation.”* John got it right, and added 1000 to his score.
Here was the Final Jeopardy clue, in Men of Paris: “When the body of this man who died in 1870 was moved in 2002, a cloth with the motto ‘Un pour tous, tous pour un’ was used.”* I knew this right away, but wasn’t sure which of two men with that name it was, or if I even needed to specify. I didn’t, and neither did the contestants, and it turns out they didn’t have to. John and Michael got it right, and Susan got it wrong. I felt better about the “Czar Nicholas” fiasco then. (It wasn’t her fault. She just got lucky.) Michael wagered 9005 of his 9200, but John had been leading and wagered enough to win as long as he got it right. John is the champion again!
I don’t hate this new way of keeping score, but the jury’s still out as to whether it’s better than the Jeopardy Challenger. I will try again tomorrow!
*Mariah Carey, Tallinn, beef stew (I just said “stew”), hot dog with ketchup (I just said “hot dog”), Paul Newman, Nicholas II, manganese, Dumas