Today I got an e-mail from the publisher of Stephen Baker’s Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything. (You may recall that the book was one of the prizes in my contest that ended two weeks ago.) Attached was a “kit” to make the experience of watching those episodes complete. The kit includes badges indicating whether you support “man” or “Watson,” cut-out Trebek-like moustaches (I kid you not), “Watson”-themed Valentines, facts about “Watson,” and more. Here’s the kit. Let me know in a comment if you use it! The “Watson” episodes of Jeopardy! air February 14-16.
Today’s contestants:
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| Kristi Springer |
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| Fred Cofone |
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| Roger Mueller-Kim |
A golf theme was a highlight of the Jeopardy round. Did you guys notice that there was triple-stumper both today and yesterday that was the same response? Yesterday’s clue was in TV Personality Marriages: “Anna Torv and Mark Valley played lovers on this eerie Fox show & married in real life in 2008.”* Today’s clue was in Golf: “The closely mowed ring of grass around a putting green is called an apron or this out-there name.”*
Fred found the Daily Double of the round, in Greens. He led with 6000, Roger had 2800, and Kristi had 1200. Fred wagered 1200 on this clue: “The name of this element comes from the Greek for ‘light green.'”* I might have gotten it right, but my dad, who I had the pleasure of watching with today, answered quickly. (He’s a chemistry teacher!) Fred got it wrong. At the end of the Jeopardy round, he had 4800, Roger had 4000, and Kristi had 3000.
Kristi found the first Daily Double in the Double Jeopardy round, in Poets’ Monograms. She had earned the lead with 6600, while Fred had 6000 and Roger had 2400. Kristi wagered 2000 on this clue: “He was the ‘ploughman poet’: RB.”* My dad got it right immediately, again! (I tried to get him to keep score today. I might try again tomorrow, because we’ll be able to watch the weekend episode together.) Kristi got it wrong. Noteworthy (and a hint): Mr. Trebek did not say the correct response in his usual way, with a funky accent.
Fred found the other Daily Double, in Complete the Oxymoron. He had 8800, Roger had 4000, and Kristi had 4600. Fred wagered 1800 on this clue: “These diamonds are stolen! Or, in criminal slang, that’s some hot…”* I knew this one, and so did Fred.
At the end of the round, everyone was in pretty good shape (at least score-wise): Fred had 17000, Roger had 10400, and Kristi had 8600. The final category was British Business. This was the clue: “For decades, Rolls Royce also owned this luxury brand named for its founder; now both are produced by German companies.”* My dad threw out the correct response, then changed it. I missed it, and so did Kristi and Fred. Kristi lost 5000. Roger added 7001, so with Fred’s miss it was clear he would not win today. He lost 4000. A very happy-looking Roger is your new champion! My score today was 18200. Fred‘s Coryat score was 17600, Roger’s was 10400, and Kristi’s was 10600.
*Fringe/fringe, chlorine, Robert Burns, ice, Bentley