A fun and challenging game to close out the week, with lots of fodder for a new weekly poll (although I don’t think I’ll be using any of ’em there). By the way, the Tennis clue is from a GSN rerun this week, and the correct response is “Roland Garros.” The 20th Century Writers clue was tweeted by Jeopardy! on Friday. The contestants:
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| David Menchaca of Long Beach, CA |
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| Jim Stekelberg of Granada Hills, CA |
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| Sally Greene of Moscow, ID (Who does she remind me of?) |
By the way, both David and Sally will be answering questions for this blog. Leave me a comment below if you have anything to say to either of them!
David found himself at the champion’s lectern today after his first (only…?) win yesterday. Maybe it was because I watched the first time through with my parents but I negged out early. I saw my Dad shake his head when I said “glacier” for this clue in “G”eography (The entire text of the clue is in the picture.):
I still think my response wasn’t that bad. I almost think it’s acceptable, in fact. They were looking for “Greenland.” Then I said “Gaza” for “Giza” on this one in the same category, even though I had it right in my head by the time David answered correctly (Again, the whole clue’s in the image.):
I had three negs by the first break, but the good news is I only had one more in the whole game. At the first break, Sally and David had each gotten 5 right and had 3400 and 1400, respectively. (David had also negged once.) Jim had gotten 4 right and had 2400.
The contestants were a rare 3/3 on appealing contestant interviews today. David considered studying opera? I’m gonna ask him about that for sure.
Sally got 3 more right, all in Who Said What about Whom?, when she found the Daily Double there. She wagered 1400 of her 4600 on this clue: “John Keats called this American ‘a philosophical Quaker full of mean and thrifty maxims.'” Sally and I got it right! She had a huge lead at the first break: 9400 (5 more right since her Daily Double) to David’s 2600 (4 more right and 1 more neg), and Jim’s 3800 (2 more right).
David lucked out and had an Opera Lovers category available to him in Double Jeopardy. He started there. He wound up being 2/5 in the category. There was one triple-stumper, and he negged on one after responding with the name of the work rather than a character’s name. The other clue in the category, Sally got.
Who was that “Joshua Molina” in the Celebrities’ Favorite Movies category?
David found the first Daily Double of the round in The British Are Going. (There had been a category The British Are Coming in the Jeopardy round, about the British Invasion.) David had gotten 8 right since the beginning of the round, and negged once. He had 10600. Sally had gotten 4 right and negged once, and had 11000. Jim had gotten 2 right and had 6200. David wagered 2000 on this clue: “In 120-degree heat in April 2009, British combat operations ended in this country, turned over to a U.S. brigade.” David got it right. I said “Afghanistan,” which Mr. Trebek mentioned could’ve been another possible guess.
David found the next Daily Double only a few clues later. He’d gotten 2 more right since his first Daily Double, and Jim had gotten one right. David had 15400 and Jim had 8200, then. David wagered 2000 again on this one in 20th Century Authors: “From 1962 until his death in 1967, he was poet laureate of Illinois.” I got this one but David did not. Mr. Trebek then gave the less-than-a-minute warning with 8 clues left in the round. There were 3 clues left covered. It was anyone’s game at the end: David had gotten one more right since his 2nd Daily Double and had 15400. Sally had gotten 2 more right and had 12200. Jim had gotten one more right and had 8600.
The Final Jeopardy category was Islands. I expressed some negativity but my mom said I might get it. I didn’t. Here’s the clue: “This nation independent since 1960 is the largest island in the world with French as one of its official languages.” Jim got it right and added just 1000. (He shrugged then. I think I’d have wagered 2200.) Sally missed it and lost 5001, apparently to cover Jim had he doubled. I consider this acceptable because if David made his expected wager of 9001 to cover Sally if she doubled, Sally’d still end with more money than David if he got the final wrong. David got it right though, and added 9001 for the win and a 2-day total of 40301. So if he wins Monday it seems likely he will pass Beau on the ToC list.
My Coryat today was 18800 (20600 without negs). I regret not ringing in on “Louis,” “doe” and “right of way.”
Now, I’m shocked but I see I actually blogged about reruns that came up on GSN this week, when they were weekend reruns a couple of years ago. Brian Levinson saying “Guyana” rang a bell so I checked it out. Here are my Coryats when I played these today (June 16):
originally 9-25-08: 21000 (22800 without negs, and as usual there were a couple I should’ve rang in on.)
originally 9-26-08: 27200 (30800 without negs)