I was out shopping today when not one but two people, my friend Robert and my sister, tweeted/texted me, asking if I got today’s final. Spoiler alert: I didn’t. ‘Kay?
Today’s contestants:
 |
| Evan Nolan |
 |
| Michelle LaLonde (another eye contact issue today!) |
 |
| Mary Harris |
Michelle was a one-time champ at the top of the show. Mary was introduced as a knitting store owner. I find that cool, as I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do with myself now that I’ve been on the show. (I don’t knit but I’m thinking of another business.) I was hoping Mr. Trebek would ask Mary if she knitted her sweater, but he didn’t. For what it’s worth, I can’t believe someone doesn’t like potatoes, either.
Mr. Trebek opened the show noting the dearth of multiple-time champs. I’m glad, because I wouldn’t mind if Beau Henson, the guy who defeated me, made it into the Tournament of Champions. He won three episodes. And I’d like to be in a ToC audience some day!
I knew this 1000 clue in A Single Tree because I used to live in West Covina CA, about 7 miles from the town of the same name: “Connecticut has the charter this; France has the chapel this, with a room for prayer inside.”
How about this clue in What Makes It Go?? I didn’t ring in on this one!:
Three clues were still covered at the end of the Jeopardy round. The Daily Double, in Cowboy Talk, wound up being the last clue. Michelle found it. Mary had 3800 and Evan had 4600. Michelle wisely wagered all of her 1600 on this clue: “As a verb, it meant to shoot someone; as a noun, it referred to a rectangular bar of chewing tobacco.” Michelle knew it right away, but I doubt I’d have gotten it. What a great way for her to end the round!
I heard the audience laughing and had to look up from my Coryat sheet to see what was funny:
I hoped to sweep Pack Your Bags once I knew what it was about, but I, like Mary, said “Samsonite” on this one:
All these videos remind me, I hope to record the champions’ panel discussion at the unofficial J! reunion next week. I got a new memory card in my phone, and I really really hope I can make this work, but I haven’t done something like this before! (Edit: Now that I’ve published these I notice that the sound is barely there. I hope I didn’t waste my reward points on a memory card, and I especially hope I can still record the panel! Anyone have any suggestions?)
I was happy to see this clue, as I admire Ivanka and I read her book (and I own it): “Last name of Ivanka, who has a line of satchels & purses; we understand Dad’s in NYC real estate.” The part about “Dad” was superfluous! She’s famous in her own right! And anyway, Ivanka always calls him “my father.”
I also hoped to sweep Celebrity Names, but I negged on this one when I rang in and couldn’t come up with the name before Mary did: “Since his real last name was Jenkins, Elizabeth Taylor could have been Mrs. Jenkins twice.” I did get this next clue in the same category, a triple-stumper: “This real first name of Mia Hamm is also the first name of an actress-granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway.” Evan eyed the other categories, but he stuck with this one and found the Daily Double. He led with 5400 while Mary had 3800 and Michelle had 2800. Evan wagered 3200 on this one: “He got his name in utero after he kicked his pregnant mom as she was looking at a Da Vinci painting.” Evan didn’t get it, while I did.
I love how Michelle dives for the higher-value clues when she finds out time is running out. She found this clue in We’ll Leave Tonight that way: “On Oct. 15, 1946, the night his execution was ordered, this No. 2 Nazi took a 1-way trip via poison in his Nuremberg cell.” I kicked myself while we waited for someone to ring in, because I had just seen this same guy in a clue maybe a day or two ago in one of the GSN reruns I refer to below.
There were five clues left at the end of the Double Jeopardy round. This time the Daily Double was the second-to-last clue in the round, in We’ll Leave Tonight. Michelle found it again, and she once again knew the correct response right away. She wagered 2000 of her 5600 while Mary had 7400 and Evan had 2200. This is the clue: “On June 20, 1791, she influenced her husband to flee Paris; too bad his picture was on the nation’s paper money.”
The Final Jeopardy category was Museums. Here is the clue that got my friends’ fingers moving: “For 2010 & 2011, it’s gotten more visitors than any other single museum in the U.S.” This was a triple-stumper. Evan lost all but $11. Mary lost 1500 of her 7400. Michelle lost 5500, making Mary the new champ. Maybe she’ll wear another sweater tomorrow.
Here’s the message board thread from today’s episode. My Coryat today was 19600.
I had the pleasure of watching a couple of weekend reruns recently, though one was interrupted by a weather warning (11 clues lost). At least it wasn’t a new episode, and besides, when I first watched the episode I was playing with a Jeopardy Challenger as opposed to using the Coryat method. So it’s hard to tell how much I’ve grown. I did finish Kara Spak’s first episode. My Coryat was the magical 28000.
Then I felt energetic and watched a handful of GSN episodes overnight a few nights ago. My Coryats:
originally 12-6-05: 18000 (last time: 18400! Not cool!)
originally 12-7-05: 16800 (last time: 14200. Phew!)
originally 12-8-05: 16400 (I remember seeing this one but I don’t have a record of it on this site.)
originally 1-27-06: 20800 (I don’t believe I’ve seen this one on GSN before, but I’m sure we’ll all see it again.)
originally 1-30-06: 22400 (Same as above.)