A fiendish final clue, for two

From left to right: Roger Craig, Matt Martin, Jelisa Castrodale

     Roger was vying for his sixth win today.  Mr. Trebek noted that Roger, having won $230,200, has been earning more per hour than A-Rod of the Yankees.  I can’t decide what to call the color of Roger’s suit.  Lemon?  Cream?  Eggshell?  Some other pie ingredient?  Do you guys have other suggestions?

     I swept But What Am Eye? today.  Roger departed from his usual M.O. and stuck with one category.  It was Jelisa, in fact, who acted more like him and jumped around the board more often.  (Jelisa, by the way, mentioned in her interview that she is a stand-up comedian as well as a sportswriter.  I don’t think she looks like a stand-up comedian; do you guys think so?)  She found the Daily Double in the Jeopardy round, in That Hurts.  She had 2000, trailing Roger by 600.  I think she should have made this a true Daily Double, but she almost did, wagering 1500.  It makes me wonder why she didn’t go all in.  Here was the clue: “Before ‘group,’ it means a sect separate from a larger body; by itself it refers to a small shard of wood or bone.”*  She knew it immediately, and so did I.  I wagered everything on it.

     Jelisa continued to roll in the round.  Roger looked almost dejected when he selected for the first time in a while.  At that time, believe it or not, he had less than half of Jelisa’s total!  Wow.  The clue he picked was a triple-stumper, in The Comedic Calvin Coolidge: “This beloved humorist of the day said Cal’s wit was too subtle for most people.”*

     At the end of the Jeopardy round, Roger had 6000, Matt (a police officer who does look like a police officer) had 1600, and Jelisa had 7500.  This time, there was only one clue left uncovered on the board.  I had an amazing round (plus I don’t have to worry about ringing in first), and amassed 17200.

     Speaking of Matt being a police officer, he unintentionally drew a laugh from Mr. Trebek and the audience for answering this clue correctly in Pillow Talk: “Folks with tailbone injuries find sweet relief sitting on pillows in the shape of these sweet, baked treats.”* (Hint: you know, long-standing joke about policemen and _________.)

     In the Double Jeopardy round, Roger was doing well in I Know Ur when he found a Daily Double there.  He had 9600, Matt had 1200, and Jelisa had 7500.  Roger wagered 4000, conservative by his standards.  The clue: “Ur is dominated by one of these stepped, pyramidal temple towers dating from the third millennium B.C.”*:

     He got it right, as did I.  Roger had been on a long answering streak when Jelisa found the next Daily Double, in Movies at Sea.  She had 11500 and Roger had 22800.  She wagered 5000 on this clue: “One tagline for this 1997 Oscar winner was ‘Collide with destiny.'”*  We both got it right.  I thought it was an easy one, actually.

     Did you guys know this triple-stumper in the round, in Words with Diacritical Marks?: “This 2-word Native American Tribe lived in the Pacific Northwest.”*

     At the end of Double Jeopardy, Roger had 22000, Matt had 6000, and Jelisa had 19700.  I was having perhaps my best day ever, with 34400.  The Final Jeopardy category was Sports and the Media, seemingly well-suited to Jelisa!  The clue: “On February 8, 2010, the headline in a major newspaper in this city read, ‘Amen!  After 43 years, our prayers are answered.'”*  Roger and Matt looked perplexed as the camera panned across the contestant panel.  Jelisa, naturally, looked confident!  I got this one right, only because of the “Amen” and “prayers are answered” and the date.  Matt missed it and lost 1000.  Jelisa got it right, and doubled her score except for one dollar.  Smart!  Incidentally, I just got done reading a very funny book by tennis coach and commentator (and former #4 player in the world!) Brad Gilbert, called I’ve Got Your Back.  In it, he reminds us not to play to not lose.  In other words, play to win, which is what Jelisa did today.  Roger MISSED this one.  Gasp!  He lost 17401, which would’ve secured him the win had he gotten the answer right.  Instead, Roger’s sweet run ends today.  It’s too bad.  I really liked him.  But we will see him again someday at the Tournament of Champions.  Til then, Roger.  Over and out.  (And we’ll miss you!)

     Come back tomorrow for Part One of my interview with 4-time Jeopardy! champ and Tournament of Champions quarterfinalist Ryan Chaffee.

*splinter, Will Rogers, ziggurat,
doughnuts, Titanic, Nez Perce, New Orleans (because of the Saints)