After the recap today, you’ll find my Q & A with Fran Frederick, and a little summary of my day with “bpmod”/Brian of the message boards!
Today’s contestants:
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| Ernest Nino-Murcia of Iowa City, IA |
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| Sarah Fowlkes of Brooklyn, NY |
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| Chris Dunn of Shepherdsville, KY |
Ernest, by the way, is answering questions for this blog! Look for that in a day or two.
I groaned at the very first category: It’s the Biggest in Area. This is neg bait for all of us. I consider it a success that I got two right and clammed on the others.
Ernest skipped over Food Stuff and went to Internet Slang first, even though we found out later he writes a food blog!! I got excited about this. I was only 1/5 in the category, but as in the Area category, at least I clammed rather than negged on the rest. After that category was gone, Chris went to Food Stuff. He found the Daily Double there, at the bottom of it. He and Ernest had gotten 4 right (Ernest also had one neg), and Sarah had gotten 1 right. Chris had 2800, Ernest had 800, and Sarah had 600. Chris wagered 1500 on this clue: “In 2005 South Korean scientists cured a few chickens of Avian flu using this, sometimes called Korean sauerkraut.” Chris and I got it right.
The next clue was a triple-stumper I picked up in I Need Some Space: “The first photo of this heavenly body was a daguerrotype made by John William Draper around 1839.”
At the first break, Chris and Sarah had each gotten 2 right since Chris’s Daily Double. Chris was off to a fast start then with 5100, while Sarah had 1200 and Ernest still had 800. At the end of the round, Ernest had 2400 (3 right and 1 neg since the break), Chris had an impressive 9500 (7 right and 1 neg), and Sarah had 2200 (3 right and 1 neg).
I was surprised this was a triple-stumper, in 11-Letter Words: “Lunulae are the pale crescent-shaped areas found at the base of these body parts.”
Okay, you need to see this highlight:
This was one of 8 Ernest got right since the round began, when Sarah found the Daily Double! She too made a comeback, getting 7 right. Chris got 1 right and had 1 neg. Chris had 9900, Ernest had 11600, and Sarah had 10200. She wagered 4000 on the clue in Painters & Paintings, with 2 categories left after this softball:
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| “Seen here is a rare self-portrait of this American painter.” |
She got it right! Chris found the next Daily Double in Almost-Forgotten Wars, with 3 clues left after this one. He’d gotten 2 right since Sarah’s Daily Double. Sarah had got 3 right, and Ernest had gotten 1 right. Ernest had 12000 and Sarah had 18600. Chris wagered 3000 of his 12300 on this clue: “Warships rammed fishing boats in the 1975-76 ‘cod war’ between Britain & this usually peaceful Atlantic neighbor.” Chris and I didn’t get it.
Sarah and Chris each had one neg and Chris had one right before the end of the round. Chris had 8900, Ernest still had 12000, and Sarah had 17800 going into the Final. The Final category was The Arts. This was the clue: “Formed in 1909, it performed to great acclaim in Paris, London, New York & Monte Carlo, but not in Moscow.” I can’t wait to see this one in the weekly poll. I said what Sarah and Chris did, which was wrong. Chris didn’t wager anything! Ernest too got it wrong, and lost all but a dollar. Sarah lost 8000, which was still enough for a win.
I negged on 5 of the 6 $800 clues in the Double Jeopardy. Ouch. For example, I said “dos Passos” for this one in Authors’ Trilogies, but that response appeared later in the category: “‘Torch Song Trilogy,’ for the stage.” My Coryat today was 16200. It would’ve been 25000 without negs. Some other recent Coryats:
originally 9-15-08: 29800
originally 9-16-08: 31200
originally 9-17-08: 27800
originally 9-18-08: 24400
Now, for Q & A with Tuesday’s Fran Frederick!
Will you explain how you decided on your Final Jeopardy wager?
Although I did a lot of research prior to my appearance, I was not aware that contestants sat in the audience and watched the games before being selected. I assume you saw the game before mine, in which one contestant made it a true daily double and misheard the clue (he was very nervous). This very much influenced all of my wagering. Also, there was a clue in that game about Nicki MInaj. I feel very confident in the category “Women in Entertainment”, but that gave me pause. Otherwise I would have gone with $10, 349. Why $10,000? I guess I just liked the round number.
How did you know “Mary Pickford”?
I am a big fan of film and film history (thanks to my Mom), which explains why I knew Mary Pickford.
I thought “Nate and David” was one of your finer gets.
I thought the “Six Feet Under” answer was one of my better ones, as well.
Some J! fans think you have a real case to be brought back for a second chance, over the sedan/litter clue.
I am still kicking myself for ringing in on the “sedan” clue and would love to have another shot at it. I think that I had a very good chance at winning. I am all for a “Bring Fran back” campaign 🙂
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
I have been taking some ribbing from people in my school system about not getting the “Pi” day clue. The only other thing I would add is related to the set. As I said, I did research about the show prior to appearing. But, I never saw any mention of the fact that there are moving platforms behind the podiums and that they raise you up so that the contestants are relatively the same height. I was playing about a foot off of the floor. Thanks for the opportunity to explain myself.
Thank you, Fran!
Of possible interest to boardies (or other people), I saw “bpmod”/Brian on Tuesday this week. He was here
from Canada, visiting family. I’d wondered whether we’d get to talk about the boards since his mother and brother would be there too, and might feel left out by the conversation! But they spent time with Brian’s family the whole day except for lunch and dinner, so I got my board fix. I enjoyed my time with everyone I met that day.
Highlights:
- I was amazed when Brian told me he didn’t know I’d blogged about the J! reunion til like a few days ago. It goes without saying!
- Did you know “mod” in his name doesn’t mean “moderator”? I didn’t. B is for his first name, P for middle, M for Confirmation, and Od for his last name.
- He and I joked that we’d see something we learned or talked about on that day’s Jeopardy! And we did: Oliver Hazard Perry. And it continued on the next day’s episode: P_a_r_e. We walked on one at Homestead National Monument. I wore my Jeopardy! ball cap (the one given to contestants) for the first time in honor of the occasion. And speaking of Homestead, I had given Brian a long, long list of options over a couple weeks, and he chose the very first thing I threw out there. Whatever!
- I took Brian to Walmart because he had smashed his camera in his car’s trunk a day or two before. He didn’t find one he liked. We went to another store and went on a walk. (The store was closed when we got back!)
- Brian texted me the next day that he was in my town, but I was working that night and couldn’t meet him. I’m pretty sure he’s on his way home by now.