After today’s recap, as promised: Q and A with contestants! First up: Monday‘s Sara Shiver of Columbia, South Carolina. (I was able to watch the show after all, by the way!)
Coming tomorrow: Richard Block and Susan Bowyer. Incidentally, Richard said he sat in the audience for today’s episode. You can find this thoughts on it at the end of this post, too.
Thanks to everyone who voted in the weekly poll below. There is a new one there now (as of last night).
By the way, did anyone watch the National History Bee on the History Channel? I recorded it and will watch soon.
Today’s contestants:
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| John Baker of Dixon, IL |
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| “Burrito architect” D.J. Perry of Houston, TX |
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| Claudia Gray of Monrovia, CA |
Claudia found the Daily Double before the first break, in Peninsulas. She had 1200 (3 right). John also had 1200 (2 right and 1 neg), and D.J. had 0 (2 right and 1 neg). Claudia wagered it all on this clue: “This triangular peninsula juts into the northern end of the Red Sea.” Claudia guessed “Arabian,” and was wrong.
John still had 1200 at the first break. Claudia had 1000 (2 more right), and D.J. had 2000 (3 more right).
I have to admit I laughed when Mr. Trebek said after John’s interview, “Right, here I am again playing straight man to contestants.” (John described his model railroad that had sites “PB and J” and “BLT.”) Did you think it was strange what Mr. Trebek said after this clue in R_T?: “The last name of Secretary of War Elihu Root is found within this last name of the president he served.” John negged with “FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” and D.J. came back with the correct response. Mr. Trebek said to John, “If you had just said ‘Roosevelt,’ you’d have been okay.”
I swept Presidential Campaign Slogans. John moved into first place on the last clue of the round (3800; 6 right since the break and 2 negs), Claudia had 3400 (4 right and 1 neg), and D.J. had 3600 (also 4 right and 1 neg). Mr. Trebek said “It’s a very, very close game.” After the commercials, he said, “This is the closest game we’ve had at this stage in a long, long time.”
We just had a Physics category on May 11, but here we are again. (That’s okay with me.)
I got this triple-stumper in The Wright Stuff: “The title of this book by Barack Obama was taken from a Jeremiah Wright sermon.” I knew that title had to have come from somewhere!
D.J. found the first Daily Double, in Physics. John had negged three times this round, and in fact D.J. picked up the correct response on all three of those. D.J. had gotten two others right, and John had gotten four right. Claudia had gotten one right. As a result, D.J. led with 7200 while John had 6200, and Claudia had 4200. D.J. wagered 2000 on this clue: “2 light waves whose phases have a fixed relationship, as in a laser, are said to be this, like a clear sentence.” He got it right.
I was sweeping Play Characters when John found the Daily Double there a few clues later. He had 7800 (one right since D.J.’s Daily Double), Claudia still had 4200, and D.J. had 11200 (2 right since his Daily Double). John wagered “just 800” on this clue: “Patrons at Harry Hope’s saloon eagerly awaiteth Theodore ‘Hickey’ Hickman’s arrival in this O’Neill play.” I kinda thought this was handed to us, but I don’t know what went through John’s mind. He did not get it right. Mr. Trebek pointed out we had almost 3 categories left to play.
I wouldn’t have guessed “Ariel” in this clue was male: “In ‘The Tempest,’ he isn’t a little mermaid but a sprite who serves Prospero.” And I thought this play was just “Three Sisters” (no “the”): “Olga, Masha & Irina are the title characters in this Chekhov play.”
I’ve been told (okay, once, a long time ago) that I look like this actress (category French Films): “This 2001 film starring Audrey Tautou as a shy waitress working in a Paris cafe received 5 Oscar nominations.”
We got the one-minute warning with 4 clues left, and luckily we saw them all (in both rounds!). At the end of Double Jeopardy, John had 13400 (5 right since his failed Daily Double), Claudia had 9000 (also 5 right), and D.J. had 13600 (3 right and 1 neg).
The Final Jeopardy category was Word Origins. This was the clue: “From the French for ‘to set in the woods,’ this word refers to a type of attack.” Neither Claudia nor John had a response. They lost 1000 and 5700 respectively. D.J. too said “siege.” I didn’t know this one either. I’ll be eager to see the poll. D.J. lost 13201. (That’s a lot, but it appears he wanted to cover John if he’d doubled.) So Claudia wins, and boy did she look happy!
My Coryat today was 26800. Here’s what Richard had to say about this episode:
“Once I lost, I took off my tie and stuck around for the day’s final taping, because even after all of that, I still wanted to watch some Jeopardy! Despite being a little disappointed at losing, I appreciated that the pressure was off, and I was looking forward to watching three smart people duke it out.
But in my third game, when the pressure wasn’t off, I lost on a second-guess — I was about to write the correct answer but overthought it and changed my mind at the last moment. So it goes, luck of the draw, etc. All together, I think I did pretty well, and it’s much more fun to dwell on that than on what could have been. The players on Friday, and the rest of the week, also did really well. I found this week’s games particularly tricky, and as always when watching Jeopardy!, I was impressed with everyone who knew
and deduced things I’d never heard of.”
Thanks, Richard. Now, here’s Sara Shiver!:
Q: I notice you pronounce your last name with a long “i.” I don’t think I’ve seen that name before.
A: It’s a fairly uncommon name and I’ve become accustomed to being called “Shiver” with a short I – it tells me I probably don’t really want to talk to whoever’s calling on the phone if they do that, though!
Q: How did you come up with your Double Jeopardy and Final Jeopardy wagers? And your final response?
A: Honestly, I completely froze when it came time to make Final Jeopardy bets. I’d practiced and practiced at home, but there in the studio I completely lost the ability to do simple addition! I took up three sheets of scratch paper, never got the same answer twice, they called time on me, and I just put a number down. I was honestly relieved that I didn’t know the answer because I don’t think I would ever have forgiven myself for losing on the math!
Double Jeopardy I know I should have bet a lot more, since it was a strong category for me, but the game was so close I played it conservatively. In retrospect of course it was a mistake.
I came up with my final response just to put something down because frankly I had no idea – I’d kind of gone down the wrong mental path thinking of old bluesmen, and I didn’t even have a decent guess! My fiancé is a guitarist and was in the audience, and I could almost hear him trying to furiously beam the answer into my head! Of course it was obvious once I heard it. I didn’t mind so much, though – the experience was so much fun and the winner knew it fair and square.Q: A friend wonders if you believe it was random that a military man appeared on the show on Memorial Day!
A: It was indeed random – they put all the names in an envelope and draw, although he was one of the people who had come back from the previous day so they try to put them in early matches so they don’t have to sit through a whole other day of shooting!
Q: Anything else you’re dying to say?
The other contestants were all so nice – it didn’t feel competitive at all, really more of an “us against the game” atmosphere. Unfortunately I didn’t get any of their contact info, which I regret very much because I really had a good time with them. And did you know they do your makeup but not your hair?
There was actually a snafu when we filmed – somewhere in the Algebra category Alex started to call time and answer the question when Indyk rang in with it. They made us all face the corner like bad little boys and girls while they fixed it, and there was a new question – you couldn’t tell at all in the broadcast, but I think it rattled us all. That’s probably why none of us dared ring in with the quadratic equation question.