It feels good to be blogging again. I didn’t even go anywhere; I had just been working kind of a lot!
Here are my scores from last week:
Terry Andrews 800 Sara Wilkinson 25000 Suzanne Rorick 14000 Me 28798
Anjali Challiah Sawe 14799 Theo McLauchlin 4200 Sara Wilkinson 20001 Me 23000
Liz Tracey 23800 Robert Yowell 13400 Sara Wilkinson 27700 Me 19200
I’d put an asterisk by that last game if I didn’t use asterisks for another purpose in this blog, because I would have won (honestly!) if it weren’t for a silly math mistake I made having to do with multiplying or dividing my score by two. Jeopardy Challengers are so old that they still have the old clue values, before they were doubled on November 26, 2001. (Thank you to Roger Craig and Robert for digging that up for me!) I know many a Jeopardy contestant has made a math error, so it is still a loss, and I accept it!
Today’s contestants:
(from left to right, Sara Wilkinson, Matt DeTura, Paula Currall)
Did you guys know this triple-stumper in TV Show Addresses? I got it despite Mr. Trebek’s rather poor imitation of the lead character: “Ah geez, youse guys, the address is 704 Hauser Street, Queens.”* The next clue was the Daily Double of the Jeopardy round. Sara found it, still in TV Show Addresses. She led with 2800, while Matt had 800, and Paula had 0. She wagered 1800 on this clue: “A 32-room, 14-bathroom mansion at 518 Crestview Drive in 90210 land.”* Sara seemed to think the clue was ridiculous (the closed captioning described it as “scoffing”). I loved that Mr. Trebek dished it right back at her when she couldn’t come up with the correct response. Sara’s been copping a ‘tude on all four of her episodes, actually. I get the impression she thinks she’s a bad-a$$. She left a bad taste in my mouth on her first day, when she happily chirped about heckling baseball players on the opposing team. Maybe it’s for the best that her Atlanta Braves got beaten by the Phillies this postseason, although I don’t really care about the National League otherwise.
What about these triple-stumpers in the Jeopardy round? In That’s Borderline: “These two countries share the longest noncontiguous border.”* In You Take a Mile: “This Montana city with a ‘hilly’ name is known as ‘the city that’s a mile high and a mile deep.”*
At the end of the Jeopardy round, Sara had 3200, Matt had 4800, and Paula had 2000.
I was surprised that there were two triple-stumpers in 90s Female No. 1 Hitmakers. I have to admit I did miss one that was not a triple-stumper, but I knew these two: “1996: Because You Loved Me.”* (And that one was justifiably worth 400!) What about this one at the bottom of the category: “1991: Rush, Rush and The Promise of a New Day.”
Sara found the first Daily Double of the Double Jeopardy round, in The Ancients Speak. I thought this was one was a no-brainer: “In ‘Epidemics,’ he wrote, ‘As to diseases, make a habit of two things – to help, or at least do no harm.'”* Sara added 3500 to 9200. She also found the second Daily Double, before anyone else had responded to any other clue, in Companies Named After People. I thought this one was harder, but she got it right, too: “A New York bank was named for this Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln.”* I couldn’t help but remember how the other day she described William Henry Seward as her crush, then incorrectly responded with his name on this clue in Ohioans: “This Steubenville, Ohio native served Abe Lincoln as Secretary of War.”*
The next clue (after the Daily Double) was this triple-stumper, also in Companies Named After People: “In 1917, the son of an Illinois bookseller joined with a New York store and started this company.”* One category remained, Alternative Medicine, and Matt swung back into action and nearly swept it. At the end of the round, then, Sara had 21400, Matt had 17200, and Paula had 2400. The Final Jeopardy category was U.S. Currency. I wagered with the assumption that Sara (as the leader) and I would miss this one, as I knew this was a weak category for me. I mean who even cares about stuff like this: “It’s the only U.S. coin or bill produced in 2010 that features the private home of a president on the reverse.”* Did you guys know this one? Sara missed it and wagered for the win if Matt had gotten this one right, as I predicted. Matt did get this right, thus making him your new champion. I am relieved, and I’m also happy for him because he seems to be a lifelong Jeopardy! fan. When he first spoke in his interview, I thought his story of his parents watching Jeopardy! lacked creativity until he told the anecdote where his mother instructed his father to get eyeglasses, and he came back with a bigger television instead. So congrats, Matt. Do it again tomorrow! (And if you’re reading this, how did you know that Final Jeopardy clue?)
What about these triple-stumpers in the Jeopardy round? In That’s Borderline: “These two countries share the longest noncontiguous border.”* In You Take a Mile: “This Montana city with a ‘hilly’ name is known as ‘the city that’s a mile high and a mile deep.”*
At the end of the Jeopardy round, Sara had 3200, Matt had 4800, and Paula had 2000.
I was surprised that there were two triple-stumpers in 90s Female No. 1 Hitmakers. I have to admit I did miss one that was not a triple-stumper, but I knew these two: “1996: Because You Loved Me.”* (And that one was justifiably worth 400!) What about this one at the bottom of the category: “1991: Rush, Rush and The Promise of a New Day.”
Sara found the first Daily Double of the Double Jeopardy round, in The Ancients Speak. I thought this was one was a no-brainer: “In ‘Epidemics,’ he wrote, ‘As to diseases, make a habit of two things – to help, or at least do no harm.'”* Sara added 3500 to 9200. She also found the second Daily Double, before anyone else had responded to any other clue, in Companies Named After People. I thought this one was harder, but she got it right, too: “A New York bank was named for this Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln.”* I couldn’t help but remember how the other day she described William Henry Seward as her crush, then incorrectly responded with his name on this clue in Ohioans: “This Steubenville, Ohio native served Abe Lincoln as Secretary of War.”*
The next clue (after the Daily Double) was this triple-stumper, also in Companies Named After People: “In 1917, the son of an Illinois bookseller joined with a New York store and started this company.”* One category remained, Alternative Medicine, and Matt swung back into action and nearly swept it. At the end of the round, then, Sara had 21400, Matt had 17200, and Paula had 2400. The Final Jeopardy category was U.S. Currency. I wagered with the assumption that Sara (as the leader) and I would miss this one, as I knew this was a weak category for me. I mean who even cares about stuff like this: “It’s the only U.S. coin or bill produced in 2010 that features the private home of a president on the reverse.”* Did you guys know this one? Sara missed it and wagered for the win if Matt had gotten this one right, as I predicted. Matt did get this right, thus making him your new champion. I am relieved, and I’m also happy for him because he seems to be a lifelong Jeopardy! fan. When he first spoke in his interview, I thought his story of his parents watching Jeopardy! lacked creativity until he told the anecdote where his mother instructed his father to get eyeglasses, and he came back with a bigger television instead. So congrats, Matt. Do it again tomorrow! (And if you’re reading this, how did you know that Final Jeopardy clue?)
*All in the Family, The Beverly Hillbillies, Canada and the U.S., Butte, Celine Dion, Paula Abdul, Hippocrates, Chase, Edwin Stanton, Barnes and Noble, the nickel