This weekend rerun originally aired December 23, 2009. The contestants (I don’t like that the closed captioning covers up part of their faces, but at least you can see what they do and where they’re from!):
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| Matt Green |
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| Ryan Chaffee |
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| Abby Collins |
There were two Christmas-themed categories today (see the original air date above): The First Christmas: Luke Reporting in the Jeopardy round, and Christmas in New York in the Double Jeopardy round. I swept the former and only missed this one in the latter: “During the holiday season, more than a quarter of a million people visit Santaland at this famous store on Herald Square.” The answer I gave was actually the answer to this one later in the category: “Part of many New York City holiday memories, this store opened in Manhattan in 1870, calling itself a toy bazaar, and has been a wonderland for kids at Christmastime ever since.”
Did you guys know these two triple-stumpers? In Movies by Quote: “A band manager: ‘The Boston gig has been canceled… I wouldn’t worry about it, though, it’s not a big college town.'” Or this one in The First Christmas: Luke Reporting: “Joseph’s current whereabouts are unknown; he went ‘out of the city of Nazareth’, ‘up from’ this region.” (Bonus for my Coryat score: Ryan answered this one incorrectly.)
Matt found the Daily Double in the Jeopardy round in The First Christmas: Luke Reporting. He had 2000, Ryan, a 3-day champion at this time, had 1200, and Abby had 600. Matt wagered 1000 on this clue: “From Jerusalem, also called ‘the city of’ this king, Luke signing off.” Matt got it right. At the first break, he had 4400 while Ryan had 1400 and Abby had 2000. Before the round was over, Ryan swept Ballet, which helped him move into a close second place with 6400 while Matt had 7000 and Abby had 3400.
Ryan and Matt were still neck-and-neck when Matt found the first Daily Double of the Double Jeopardy round, in Headless and Shoulders. Matt had 12200, Ryan had 12000, and Abby had 8200. Matt wagered 2000 on this clue: “In myth, the winged horse Pegasus sprang from this female monster’s beheaded body.” Matt and I got it right.
Matt found the next Daily Double, too, this time in Legal Matters. This time he was in second place, but barely: He had 15400 while Ryan had 16800 and Abby still had 8200. Matt wagered 1400 on this: “From the Latin for ‘twisted,’ it’s the branch of civil law dealing with injuries to one’s body, property, business, reputation or privacy.” I thought this one was tricky, but Matt knew it.
At the end of the round, Ryan had 20800, Matt had 21600, and Abby had 9800. This Final Jeopardy category was -isms. This was the clue: “This term for an economic system first appeared in English in Thackeray’s ‘The Newcomes,’ about the rise of a family.” The right answer came into my head right away, but I thought it was too obvious and almost didn’t pull the trigger. I had nothing else at the end of the thirty seconds, so I went with it. Abby was wrong and lost 9000. Ryan was right and doubled his score! Matt was wrong and lost a whopping 20001, making Ryan the champion again. Go, Ryan!
My Coryat score today was 26600. Ryan‘s was 20800, Abby’s was 9800, and Matt’s was 21000. My best categories were The First Christmas: Luke Reporting, 2009 Headlines in the City’s Newspaper (which I swept), Christmas in New York, and Before and After. My worst categories were Rich Stew and Ballet.
By the way, I’m still finding out more information about the unofficial Jeopardy! reunion (coinciding with the National History Bee and Bowl) April 14th-17th. The latest: 2007 Tournament of Champions winner Celeste DiNucci will be there. Other good news about it, on a personal note – I am relieved that events start a little bit later than I expected on Friday afternoon. That’s good because I don’t think I’ll miss much with my plane arriving at about 2 p.m. (I’d been bugging a little bit!) Here is a link to the latest message board posting about the weekend.