Tim Relihan 14800 (University of Nebraska student!) Steph Gagelin 13999 Marshall Flores 15601 Me 22400
(Keep in mind that the contestants had to consider their final scores for wild-card spots. Since I didn’t have to consider that, I wagered as though all would be wagering for the win.)
Now for today’s contestants:
Amanda found the first Daily Double somewhat early, that is, before the first commercial break. She had 1400, Katie had 2000, Sam had 600, and I had 4000. The category was “P”roduce. Amanda had an embarrassing moment after missing this one: “Augusta National Golf Club is on land once used to grow Belle and Thurber types of these.”* She guessed the same thing I did, but then when Mr. Trebek said something like, “Georgia is famous for…,” she said, “Peanuts,” but that still wasn’t the right answer!
I got these triple-stumpers in the Jeopardy round. Did you guys know them? This one in Back in the 90s was read by Katie Couric: “One of the greatest outpourings of emotion I’ve ever witnessed was on September 6, 1997, when I co-anchored coverage of this event from London.”*
What about this one, in Avatar: “One avatar of the ancient war god Vrthraghna was this tusked wild animal.” Or this one in World Capitals: “It makes sense that this is the sea closest to Dublin.”* (How did all three of them miss that one?)
At the end of the Jeopardy round, Sam led with 7000. Amanda had 1600, Katie had 3000, and I had 8000.
Poor Katie got the first Daily Double, in Music and Dance. She had 5400, and she wagered 3000 to tie with Amanda for second place. This was the clue: “The lowest A on the piano has a frequency of 27.5 hertz; as it’s one octave higher, the next A up has this frequency.”* Okay, who knew this, seriously? Katie didn’t, and neither did I.
Time for two triple-stumpers in the Double Jeopardy round. This one, in 2- or 11-Letter Words: “Used chiefly in law, it means, ‘in the manner of;’ it’s seen a lot in e-mails, too.”* And in Continental Settings: “‘The Quiet American.'”* (This one was a bit of a guess for me.)
Sam found the second Daily Double with one clue left after it. The category was Medieval Jobs. Sam was well-positioned with 15000, while his two opponents both had 7200. This was the clue: “Bowyers made bows; these workers made the arrows.”* Sam got it right, and added 1000 to his score. It’s not a lot, but I probably wouldn’t have wagered that much. He had a lock on the game. There was, of course, one clue left, but he still could’ve kept his lock from being at risk. As it turns out, Sam got the last clue right, too. So he had 18000 while his opponents had 7200. I had 23400.
The Final Jeopardy category was Documents. This was the clue: “It says, ‘The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations.”* This was easy, I think. All three contestants got it right. I didn’t understand Amanda’s wager (7199) or Katie’s (5000). In Amanda’s case, why would you keep a dollar? You can’t catch Sam. A dollar wouldn’t make a difference in the wild-card race, but still…? As for Katie, why wouldn’t she risk everything? 2200 is obviously not enough to get a wild-card spot in the event that she loses, so why not risk it all? Sam risked 3500, which I don’t get, either. He was going to advance to the semifinals no matter what his score was. In any case, he still advances to next week’s semifinals.