Finally, I get a chance to blog about a guy who’s been making waves on Jeopardy! the last few days:
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| Mark Runsvold (Does he not look like Nick Carter? Or Ashton Kutcher?) |
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| Tom Vaughan (He’s a plastic surgeon, and he looks a little like Hugh Jackman!) |
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| Christine Janson (What’s with the hat?) |
Today’s was Mark’s third game. He went into today’s episode with over $100,000!
I swept Musical Numbers today. By the first break, I’d only missed this triple-stumper, in Adventures in Literature: “This thriller by Richard P. Henrick is about a mutiny aboard the USS Alabama, a nuclear submarine.” At the first break, Mark and Tom each had 3000 and Christine had 400. The next clue was the Daily Double of the round, in Massachusetts General Hospital. Tom found it, and I remind you he is a doctor! He wagered 2800 on this clue: “Massachusetts General is one of the first hospitals to make genetic testing standard in cancer treatment. Robotics allow the processing of up to 96 samples at once so doctors can immediately target patients with these changes in DNA sequence.” Tom said “cancer,” and was wrong. I got this one right.
Tom also missed this one in Celebrated on Their Birthdays, which I as a nurse got: “International Nurses Day, May 12.” He said “Clara Barton.” Mark got that one right.
I made the same mistake Christine did on this clue in “A” before “E”: “Per Virgil, he ‘was the first to journey from the coasts of Troy as far as Italy and the Lavinian shores.” She ended the word with a “d” instead of an “s.”
There were 9 clues left on the board when Mr. Trebek said there was a minute to go! Four clues remained at the end of the round, all in a category about plumbing. Mark showed why he’s been a strong champion: He led with 5200 while Christine had 800 and Tom had -400.
Double Jeopardy round featured a Rat Pack theme, and I swept the category called The “Rat” Pack.
I have to be honest, I don’t know what Sami is, but I have a vague idea now. I had only one right in that category when Mark found the Daily Double there. He had 11200, Christine had 3200, and Tom had made a comeback with 9200. Mark wagered 3800 on this clue: “The Sami were gravely affected by this 1986 disaster as fish and livestock meat became tainted.” Mark and I got this right.
I was impressed by Tom’s Daily Double wager later in the round, and especially how fast he figured it out: There was one more 800 clue on the board. He had 14000, Mark had 17400, and Christine had 7600. Tom wagered 4200, which was brilliant: He would’ve gotten the lead of course if correct, but if he’s missed, he could still miss that 800 clue and have more than half Mark’s total. The category was Joey, and this was the clue: “Seen here is a joey of this marsupial species whose name is from the Telugu word ‘Pandikokku,’ meaning ‘pig rat.'”
I got this one in time, but Tom missed it. He did get the last clue of the round, giving him 10600 going into the Final. The Final category was 19th Century Novels. Here was the clue: “This novel’s first epilogue says, ‘The activity of Alexander or of Napoleon cannot be called useful or harmful.'” I never read this, and I’m still surprised that all three contestants got it right. Was it really that easy? Christine added 7500 to her score. Tom added 7000, kind of an interesting wager. He depended on a wrong answer from Mark, and in that case he need only have wagered 3000. As expected, Mark wagered 3801 (to beat Tom by a dollar if he doubled). So we’ll see Mark again tomorrow!
My Coryat today was 24000. Mark‘s was 15600, Tom’s was 17600, and Christine’s was 7600.
Here are my Coryats from recent games:
7-14: Janet Vigen Levy 7600 Kathleen Lee 18800 Paul Barbour 13600 Me 23800
7-15: Aric Wu 9400 Mark Runsvold 27000 Kathleen Lee 10800 Me 21800
7-18: Jerry Hou 8400 Karawan Meade 8400 Mark Runsvold 27600 Me 19000
This weekend, I got caught up on a few weekend episodes. I played them standing up, for practice. My mom was good enough to keep score for me, but I didn’t get the impression that she loved it. Here are the Coryat scores:
originally 3-29-10:
Regina Robbins 6200 Manny Maldonado III 7400 Melissa Kowalski 11200 Me 13800
originally 10-23-09: Randie Kim 10000 Johnny Forrest 22000 Jaime Mahoney 7800 Me 20200
originally 10-27-09: Imran Arif Maskatia 8000 Jamison Hedin 7200 Christine Valada 16400 Me 19800