Andy here again for the third day in a row. Alex opened todays show by saying that Richard has been “winning ugly”. Frankly, if I’m that spot, a win’s a win — and I’m certainly not complaining about an “ugly” or “beautiful” win!
Today’s players, challenging Richard Block, are John Baker and Scotti Whitmire.
J! round categories: THE GILDED AGE, “MIS”QUOTES”, FAST CARS, CITY BY POPULATION, TV SHOW HAIKU, SHEEP (what appears to be a video category)
I was pretty happy with the pace of the opening part of the game, though the contestants did hop around the board a bit. All categories got seen once, though Richard had the best start, holding a lead with $4,000 (John had $1,200 and Scotti $600) at the opening break.
I was a little annoyed at SHEEP $400: A human & dogs gathering a group of sheep together are said to be doing this, also a verb used for gathering military personnel together for duty — considering I negged the same way as Richard with what seemed to be the answer until “military” was spoken – clues that are read definitely need to be more straightforward!
John finally got to the Daily Double on the 28th clue of the opening round. The scores had him at $4,800, Richard with $3,600 and Scotti $2,800. He bet $1800 and the clue was as follows: Gilded Age advocates of the theory called “social” this -ism applauded the “survival of the fittest”. His correct response put him at $6,600.
The score after the J! round:
John $6,600
Richard $3,600
Scotti $2,800
DJ! round categories: THE GILDED AGED, SINGERS PORTRAYED ON FILM, DISCOVERING JAPAN, WHERE’D YA GET THAT TITLE?”, RHYME CLUB, LANGUAGE LAB
Makes sense as to why Alex used Richard’s interview story about being lost in Japan now!
Scotti found the DJ! round’s first Daily Double, at the bottom of WHERE’D YA GET THAT TITLE?; she had $4,400, John $7,400, and Richard $2,000. At this point I would probably have gritted my teeth and bet $3,000 myself; Scotti bet $2,000 (which I’m quite okay with as well). She saw the following clue: Lorraine Hansberry’s title “A Raisin In The Sun” comes from a line in the poem “Harlem” by this man. Her incorrect response put her down to $2,400.
Richard got to the game’s final Daily Double, on the 13th clue in a low-scoring game. He had $2,800, Scotty $3,600, John $4,600. His wager was a fearful $1,200, and he saw the following clue: Though he didn’t make it all the way to “Cipango”, he reported it had “gold in the greatest abundance”. Richard failed to give an answer, and that dropped him to $1,600. No worries, though, as Richard started rebuilding his score by going after a great number of high-valued clues.
The audience, and Alex, got a kick out of Richard’s response on THE GILDED AGED $2000: Forbes ranks this “skinny” 72-year-old Mexican telecom king as the world’s richest person.
I’m still trying to figure out how we only got through 23 clues in the DJ! round; probably a function of all of the early negs and Triple Stumpers, but a $2,000 get on the final clue of the round brought Richard into the lead. The scores going into FJ!:
Richard $7,600
John $5,800
Scotti $4,800
FJ category: AIRLINE HISTORY
FJ clue: Clipper Goodwill, a Boeing 727, took this airline’s last passengers from Barbados to Miami December 4, 1991
Scotti: 4800 -2801 = 1999
John 5800 + 5500 = 11300
Richard 7600 – 4001 = 3599
That means we’ll be saying goodbye to Richard, John Baker is the new Jeopardy! champion. He’ll close out the week tomorrow.
My Coryat: $23,800; 32 right, the one neg in the SHEEP category.
Where’d Ya Get That Tough Board?
