Guess who’s back, back again, Andy’s back, tell a friend!
Andy here with the recap of the Tuesday, October 2, 2012 episode! Your returning champion (1 day, $24,600 – Joanna Mang)
Your challengers:
Remember, Sara’s agreed to do an interview, so if you’ve got any questions you want me to ask, go ahead and tell me!
J! round categories: FAN MAIL TO HISTORIC FIGURES; WHATCHAMACALLIT; POLITICAL TERMS; SAME SPELLING, DIFFERENT SOUND; THE WALKING DEAD; WHERE IS CARL?!
It was Joanna that saw the first Daily Double, in POLITICAL TERMS $400. Scores:
Joanna $600
Daniel $400
Sara $0
Joanna, even though she could wager up to $1,000, only chose to wager $600. Her clue: While scrambling eggs for her kids, Congresswoman Pat Schroeder got the idea of calling Reagan this “President”. Joanna’s response was incorrect and she fell back to $0. Plus, she forgot her phrasing! Not that I had any idea on that clue, either…
Sara managed to get in on the final clue before the break — only clue number 12, though I figured that was a result of Sara’s not having buzzed in previous. Scores at that first break:
Joanna $1,400
Daniel $600
Sara $400
Sara makes art out of paper bags. I feel as though she could do awesome things with the prize bags I give out at Squirrel Tooth’s at my pub quiz.
Joanna’s interview got to talk about her Ken Jennings fandom — her and her friends have called themselves the Ken Dolls. They have a T-shirt.
Speaking of Ken, this gives me a chance to segue into the following: I received an email from the Smithsonian Magazine the other day, and I hope you all don’t mind that I take a few minutes to inform you all of the following:
Puzzle Master, and Jeopardy’s All-Time Champion Ken Jennings Designs Exclusive Puzzle for Smithsonian’s October Issue on The Secrets of American History.
Smithsonian’s Secrets of American History special issue not only reveals historical secrets large and small but is itself a code to be cracked. The October issue includes a month-long contest conceived by puzzle master and Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings, who recorded 74 consecutive wins on Jeopardy and has written books on trivia buffs and the map-obsessed. The first Smithsonian reader to correctly follow all the clues, avoid all the red herrings and uncover all the secrets will win the Grand Prize valued at $10,000 dollars: a free trip to Washington D.C. and a “Secrets of the Smithsonian” tour behind the scenes of the world’s largest museum and research complex.
The hunt starts in the pages of Smithsonian’s October Issue (content will also be made available digitally) and continues online, with 11 total puzzles throughout the month of October. Jennings jumped at the chance to create the Great American History Puzzle for Smithsonian, “I’ve been solving puzzles as long as I can remember. I love them for the mystery – it rarely happens in real life in such an exciting, clear-cut way.”
Learn more & access the puzzle here: http://puzzle.smithsonianmag.com/
Onwards and upwards with the show!
Sara definitely picked up some buzzer mojo during the second half of the round! She seemed quite happy whenever she was able to answer a question! At the end of the Jeopardy! round, we saw scores at:
Sara $5,000
Joanna $2,800
Daniel $1,800
DJ! round categories: ALPHABETICALLY FIRST; MY SON, THE ARTIST; HIGH-SCORING SCRABBLE WORDS; WHOSE ALBUM?; CLASSICAL LITERATURE; BE A LIZARD WIZARD
(Hmm. Looking at my LearnedLeague get rates, this is going to be a feast-or-famine board for me!)
A mistake by Daniel on the $1600 ALPHABETICALLY FIRST led to Sara seeing the first Daily Double at the $2000 spot. Scores:
Sara $9,000
Joanna $2,000
Daniel $1,800
Going “Oooooh!” and giggling, her bet was $5,000. We seem to have a contestant after my own heart here!
Her clue: Of permanent U.N. Security Council members. I came up with this straight away, and after a little bit of thought, Sara came up with it as well! She now has a commanding lead at $14,000.
Sara’s next clue selection was MY SON, THE ARTIST $2000. Behind it was the next Daily Double. Her bet: Another $5,000. Her clue: This German artist studied under his father, the elder, & later became court painter to Henry VIII. If I told you Sara was 34/40 on LearnedLeague’s art questions, you’d bet she’d get the correct answer here. And she did – putting her score at $19,000.
I’ve actually played the $1600 clue under HIGH-SCORING SCRABBLE WORDS over the board: This beautifully plumed Central American bird was sacred to the Aztecs & Mayans. Yes, it scored a ton!
I liked how Alex pointed out on the $2000 clue (Posed a series of oral or written questions) that a blank tile would be required; otherwise I’m sure all of the know-it-alls would be posting to the various message boards!
Neither Joanna nor Daniel were able to mount enough of a series charge to Sara’s commanding lead to keep this game from being a runaway! Scores going into FJ!:
Sara $29,800
Joanna $7,200
Daniel $2,200
FJ! category: FAMILIAR PHRASES
FJ! clue: OED’s earliest citation of this 5-word phrase is “Now, Monsieur Poirot, you would without doubt like to visit” this place
Daniel 2200 -2199 = 1
Joanna 7200 + 7200 = 14400
Sara 29800 – 5000 = 24800
Oh well, a very strong performance thus far from Sara nonetheless, and she’ll be back tomorrow to defend her title! Jeanie’s got tomorrow’s recap, I’ll be back Thursday, hopefully I’ll get to do a ToC standings update!