Labor Day’s episode was pre-empted where I live by golf on NBC and tennis on CBS. What I can do, though, is update you on the Summer Hiatus Challenge happening on the Jeopardy! message boards. Week 6 begins today. You still have a chance to get in on the action. If you do, let me know here and you will be eligible to win a copy of Chuck Forrest’s Secrets of the Jeopardy! Champions.
Here are the scores of the former champs that I am following, through week 4:
mrbungle (Ryan Chaffee): 1242 with two perfect days
emurphy (Liz Murphy): 968 with one perfect day
aggiebud (Buddy Wright): 886 with one perfect day
ptucker (Patrick Tucker): also 886 with one perfect day!
Asphodel (Alison Stone Roberg): 805 with two perfect days
I have 770 with one perfect day.
Below is a sample set of questions, written by DadofTwins. Are these difficult for anyone else? I only got #s 2 and 9 right, and I didn’t guess on any of the others:
FRANCE IN THE NEW WORLD
2: “Alphabetical” code names for French agents Jean Conrad Hottinguer, Pierre Bellamy, and Lucien Hauteval, whose attempts to extract bribes nearly led to war with the United States in 1798.
4: Seventy years before the first permanent French settlement in Canada, he mapped and explored the St. Lawrence River.
6: The European Space Agency’s major spaceport is in Kourou in this South American department of France.
8: Napoleon III backed the installation of Maximilian I as emperor of this country in 1864.
10: In 1673, he and Jacques Marquette led an expedition that explored the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Arkansas.
JAPANESE MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
3: When Yomiyuri won Japan’s league championship in 2002, this team with the same nickname won the National League pennant in the U. S.
6: This animal nickname is shared by the American League and Japanese Central League 2006 pennant winners.
9: In 2009, he became the first person to earn an MVP Award in both the Japan Series and the World Series.
12: This largest incorporated city in Japan, not Tokyo, is home to the Baystars, the only team in the NPL not named for its corporate owner.
15: The total number of teams in the two Japanese major leagues, or the maximum number of innings that can be played before a regular season game is declared a draw.
I hope your Labor Day was a happy one.
Answers: X Y and Z, JACQUES CARTIER, FRENCH GUIANA, MEXICO, JOLIET, GIANTS, TIGERS, HIDEKI MATSUI, YOKOHAMA, 12