As promised (or at least mentioned), I’ve watched Saturday’s rerun, this time with my dad, mom, and sister “Peaches.” I have some sort of good news (maybe just for me) about the Saturday reruns. I can’t watch them where I live because I don’t get any channel that airs them. So the good news is that I think I’ve discovered a way to record them by setting a timer on a VCR at my parents’ without them having to lift a finger. We’ll see if it works. Right now Dave Belote is in the middle of his six-game run, and the likes of Stephen Weingarten and Ryan Chaffee will come up eventually. I don’t want to miss those episodes!
Yesterday’s other two contestants were Emily Brown and Todd Ryan. Dave had just won his first game. Todd found the Daily Double in the Jeopardy round, in Also a U.S. State. He had 4000, while Dave had 1800 and Emily had 2600. Todd wagered it all on this clue: “2-word beseeching request for Ms. Fanning to continue in the direction of Antarctica.”* He got it right! I thought this next clue was going to be a triple-stumper in the same category before Dave got it in the nick of time: “First name of Ms. Engel of ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ fame.”*
Peaches impressed me when she answered this one at the bottom of Jailhouse Rock in the Jeopardy round: “This ‘chateau’ on a tiny rock in the Mediterranean was a prison in real life, not just in The Count of Monte Cristo.”* Later she told me that she actually doesn’t say when she knows the answer to clues, because she lets me answer them! So I told her again that I really wanted her to keep track of her Coryat scores. This time, she said she would. I think this is a good time to hold a contest similar to the one two weeks ago, where I asked you to post your Coryat scores. Serendipitously, a prize (if you deem it prize-worthy) has presented itself: My aunt no longer has a need for two Trivial Pursuit games that I already own (the original and Baby Boomers editions). Would you guys participate in a contest if those were the prizes? They are in good shape, of course. Let me know via a comment here!
Speaking of Trivial Pursuit, Peaches and I were playing the Millennium edition of Trivial Pursuit today when she read me the following question in the Arts and Entertainment category, after saying to our mom, who was passing, “Don’t tell her the answer, Mom.”: “What actor portrayed Ben Hogan in Follow the Sun?”* Now, I knew this one cold without my mom’s help because I have read Ben Hogan’s biography. So I went crazy with a victory dance. After I sat back down and answered the question, Peaches told me she hopes I react that way on Jeopardy! some day, because the contestants generally look like they lack enthusiasm (not like on Wheel of Fortune, she said). She thinks there is “too much decorum.” I hadn’t even argued with her before she added that she wants me to put another poll on this blog! So I’m doing it. She wants to know if the amount of enthusiasm shown by the Jeopardy! contestants is sufficient or insufficient. So please vote and also, if you want, leave a comment about that. For more on this, check out this entry where I got nailed by a guy (who I suspect is a former contestant) because I thought a champion looked apathetic after his wins.
Back to yesterday’s episode: At the end of Double Jeopardy, Todd led with 9400, while Dave had 5600 and Emily had 3400. Emily found the first Daily Double in the Double Jeopardy round, in Death in Venice. She had 5000, while Dave had 6400 and Todd still had 9400. Emily got this one right, and so did my dad: “This physicist who noted an effect in sound waves from moving sources died in Venice in 1853 and is buried in its San Michele.”*
My dad got this toughie right, too, in Math: “The continuous summing of a change in a function over an interval, it’s the inverse process of differentiation.”*
Todd drew a laugh when he answered this clue in Letter, Please about the Air Force before Dave, who is a colonel: “Tomcats, Falcons, and Eagles get this alphabetical designation in the Air Force.”*
Emily found the second Daily Double of the round, in Opera. She had 11200. Dave had 13200 and Todd had 20600, also their scores at the end of the round. Emily got this one right and added 4000 to her score: “Several operas based on ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ are named for this gypsy girl.”*
It was a lucky thing for Peaches that she watched yesterday’s game, as there was a category about Des Moines! (She lives there.) Here’s a triple-stumper and the last clue of the Double Jeopardy round in the category: “Des Moinesians keep current with this newspaper, founded in a log cabin in 1849.”*
The Final Jeopardy category was Shakespeare’s Women. This was the clue: “The name of this royal daughter from a tragedy is from a word meaning ‘little king.'”* My dad and Peaches were puzzling it out, and my dad actually said the right answer without knowing it. I was like, “That’s it!” Emily missed it and lost all of her 15200. Todd, too, missed it, but he hadn’t wagered anything. Dave got it right and ended with 20601, beating Todd by one dollar. And he had been trailing the whole game! Look for Dave next Saturday, then.
*South Dakota, Georgia, Chateau d’If, Glenn Ford, Doppler, integration, F, Esmeralda, The Des Moines Register, Regan