Hey everybody! Andy’s written today’s entry, even though I’ve titled it from Jeanie’s perspective! Mainly because I’m an evil, evil person.
Over at J! Board, the following thread took shape: The Jeopardy Question No One Could Answer — Jeanie thought the thread was about a joke her uncle tried to tell the other day where the contestants were asked their opponents’ names, and “no one had studied that!”. Turns out the joke’s on Jeanie, as Stefan pointed out that the clue had come up in a game before! (look under “DID YOU NOTICE? for $800). I have to say, that’s my absolute favorite clue in the history of the show now that I’ve seen it! And now I’m hoping that Jeanie’s uncle sees this post, especially considering that both Jeanie and her sister tried to stop the joke from being told!
Now that I’ve got that bit of entertainment down on paper, on with the show! Tonight’s challengers for Keith Whitener (4-day champ, $87,998) are Robert Herzfeld and Dana Sellke!
Will Keith become the latest 5-time champ?
J! round categories: FOODS, STUFFED; LITERARY LOVERS; CROSSWORD CLUES “V”; TYPES OF AIRCRAFT; BEST NEW ARTIST GRAMMY; SCIENCE TERMS
It should come as no surprise whatsoever that Keith went straight into SCIENCE TERMS and went 4-for-5. However, it was Robert who saw the Daily Double under TYPES OF AIRCRAFT $600. The scores were:
Keith $3,400
Robert $1,600
Dana $200
Robert wisely chose to make it a True Daily Double, and saw the following clue: Webster’s Dictionary from 1806 defined an aeronaut as “an aerial sailor in” one of these. His correct answer brought him to $3,200!
The first break came three clues later, with the following scores:
Robert $4,200
Keith $3,600
Dana $200
I’m shocked that I actually did better in LITERARY LOVERS (all 5) than I did BEST NEW ARTIST GRAMMY (3 of the 4). That said, I found myself actively cheering against Dana by the end of this round, simply because she was taking forever to select clues — the result of that being we didn’t get to see the final clue in my favourite category of the bunch!
At one point in the round, Robert said “P’Zone” when he meant to say “Calzone”; I’m sure that Pizza Hut is absolutely thrilled with that one; if I worked in their PR department, I’d probably send him that clue value in the form of a gift card!
That said, at the end of the Jeopardy! round, we saw scores of:
Robert $5,800
Keith $5,600
Dana $1,600
Coming back into the round, Alex mentioned that the player in the middle often is the one going first in Double Jeopardy! — I could probably look at Archive data at some point to compile this stat, but I’d venture that the %ages would be somewhere between 33% and 50% (and the second podium close to equal to the third podium), simply because the champion has already demonstrated that they are a superior player than just a randomly selected one. (I could go on for paragraphs about this, but I’ll stop here).
DJ! round categories: OLDE ENGLAND; WHO’S THE MRS.?; GO TO THE DOGS; BALLET; U.S. BODIES OF WATER; SLANG-UAGE
Dana went into OLDE ENGLAND, and by the time the Daily Double was found under $1600, Keith had control of the board! Scores:
Keith $8,000
Robert $5,800
Dana $1,600
Keith, now seemingly gunshy after yesterday, ventured just $1,000. His clue: This title was re-created in 1301 when Edward I gave it to his son who was born in Caernarfon. Keith’s response was incorrect here and he fell to $7,000. I got that clue instantly, but it helps to know the existence of “Prince of Wales” as “heir to the throne” — I’ve known the term since about I’ve been about 5 or 6 because it’s the name of an NHL hockey trophy originally sponsored by that person since the 1920s!
I also think Keith was gunshy about hunting after missing the CIVIL WAR Daily Double yesterday, as while he switched categories, he went to the $400 level. Inexplicably though, Dana, while trailing heavily, switched back to finish OLDE ENGLAND. That $2,000 clue provided a huge swing: A London hospital founded for the order of the star of Bethlehem became known as this, also meaning a madhouse. Both Keith and Dana negged, with Robert finally picking up a huge $2,000 rebound.
Dana did recover by going 4/5 in WHO’S THE MRS.? and the game proceeded a bit from there. After 3 clues in U.S. BODIES OF WATER, though, Robert decided to switch into SLANG-UAGE. I guess he felt there was a better chance of seeing a Daily Double in there. Keith switched back to US BODIES OF WATER after 3 SLANG-GUAGE clues, and lo and behold, US BODIES OF WATER $1600 had the Daily Double behind it! The scores:
Robert $9,000
Keith $7,800
Dana $4,000
Keith bet $3,000 – and his clue: Pamlico Sound, the largest lagoon on the East Coast, is located on the eastern shore of this state. I flip-flopped between two states (Florida — figuring “why else would they say “eastern” if it didn’t also have a “western” — and Maryland — Pamlico/Pimlico, even though Pimlico was a horse’s name) that ended up both being wrong – I knew from Keith’s smile that he had this one — I’m guessing he’s probably been there, as it’s his home state! His score is now $10,800.
8 clues to go at the minute to go signal – and some really costly negs down the stretch as well by both Dana and Robert led to a bunch of clues left and the following scores:
Keith $11,200
Robert $5,000
Dana $2,000
FJ! category: 20th CENTURY BOOKS
FJ! clue: “A Cry of Children” & “Nightmare Island” were proposed titles for this novel
Dana 2000 + 2000 = 4000
Robert 5000 + 555 = 5555
Keith 11200 + 1199 = 12399 (5-day champ, $100,397)
Congratulations to Keith for being the latest 5-time champion!
I seem to do so much better on literature and art clues on Jeopardy! than I do in LearnedLeague; we’ll see if that changes once LL55 rolls around!
I’ll be back tomorrow when Keith goes for #6!
Also, a couple of notes: I believe Jeanie may be doing Q&As with Ariane and Elizabeth from later this week; so, if you’ve got questions, ask ’em!
Tournament of Champions update:
1. Monica Thieu $100,000 (College Champion)
2. Patrick Quinn $100,000 (Teacher’s Champion)
3. Jason Keller $213,900 (9 wins)
4. Stephanie Jass $149,570 (7 wins)
5. Joel Pool $116,800 (6 wins)
6. Dave Leach $98,054 (6 wins)
7. David Menchaca $115,503 (5 wins)
8. Keith Whitener $100,397 (5 wins)
9. David Gard $84,700 (4 wins)
10. Dan McShane $62,001 (4 wins)
11. Patrick Morrison $80,701 (3 wins)
12. Francis Lansangan $78,401 (3 wins)
13. Matt Samberg $61,402 (3 wins)
14. Andy Baggarly $60,402 (3 wins)
15. Stephanie Fontaine $54,500 (3 wins)
—
16. Joey Falco $53,999 (3 wins)
17. Erin Zweiner $53,399 (3 wins)
18. Beau Henson $51,203 (3 wins)
19. Margaret Swanson $48,000 (3 wins)
20. Claudia Gray $45,202 (3 wins)
21. Dan Adkison $37,400 (3 wins)
22. Jacob Silverman $35,998 (3 wins)
23. Jessamine Price $26,803 (3 wins)