This week’s contestants:
- Meredith Bateman
- Erik Greb
- Tori Lewis
- Susan Petracco
- Martin Powell
- Keith Whitener
- Sarah Hayden Williams
- Deepa Zavatsky
And today’s contestants:
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| Glenn Fleishman of Seattle WA |
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| Betsy Chisolm of Greeley CO |
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| Tim Callo of Sugar Land TX |
Did you guys think of My Cousin Vinny when you saw Tim’s last name? I only saw the movie for the first time last weekend. My family’s been insisting it’s good, and I finally broke down and saw it with them. It’s too bad I couldn’t find a suitable clip, but in short: Joe Pesci’s character is trying to prove that he’s a lawyer and gives the judge the name of one he’s heard of, “Jerry Gallo,” unaware that this Jerry Gallo has died. When the judge finds out, Joe Pesci’s character says (and I’m paraphrasing), “Jerry Gallo?! I said ‘Jerry CALLO!'”
And did you like how Tim filled his whole screen with his name? I wish I’d done that. I was just worried about my name being neat and evenly spaced, because I’ve been told how bad my handwriting is for as long I’ve been writing.
Glenn had won two episodes and $28,398 coming into today. Will I have to update the ToC list in this entry? He’d have to win today with at least $25,601 to replace anyone on the right side of the cut.
Now this episode was a sticky mess to me, and I don’t mean my own performance (though that was nothing to write home about). Even the categories seemed odd.
Betsy found the first Daily Double in A Galaxy Far, Far Away (the category, that is) after answering this one correctly:
Immediately before that, she’d negged on this one in Here’s 2 “U”! (The correct response must have two u’s in it.): “It’s a riddle involving a play on words, like ‘What’s black & white & read all over?'”
So Betsy was in the hole 200 when she found the Daily Double. Tim and Glenn had each gotten one wrong and 3 right, and had 600 and 800 respectively. Betsy wagered 1000 on this clue: “This nearby galaxy AKA M 31 contains remnants of smaller galaxies ‘eaten’ by the giant central one.” I didn’t have any hope here, but Betsy got it right.
Tim negged once and Betsy got 2 right before the first break. She had 1400 and Tim had 200 then.
Weird but true – I was just this morning comparing in my head the words “heathen” and this correct response, in People of Faith: “Another term for a heathen, originally it meant a follower of ancient religions.”
I was pleased when Tim dove for a 1000 clue after Mr. Trebek announced there was less than a minute to go with 6 clues left. To her credit, Betsy also chose a 1000 clue when she got that one right. There were 2 clues left when the round ended. Glenn had negged 3 times since the break! He’d gotten 6 right though, and had 1400. Tim had gotten 6 right and had 4400. Betsy had gotten 4 right and one wrong and had 3800.
Glenn found the next Daily Double, in 19th Century Female Authors. He’d benefited big-time when he stayed clam and Betsy and Tim negged on this 2000 clue, read by Thomas Friedman, in Breaking News: “In 2002 I broke the story of a peace plan — a return to June 1967 lines & a Palestinian state for a full peace between Israel & the Arab world — proposed by this now-king of Saudi Arabia.” Glenn had gotten 5 right and one wrong since the beginning of the round, and had 5000. Tim had gotten 4 right but 3 wrong and had 4000. Betsy had gotten 7 right, including most of Line from the TV Show, plus the one neg, and had 8600. Glenn wagered all 5000 on this clue: “Amantine-Lucile-Aurore-Dupin was the real name of this ‘manly’ authoress whose love life scandalized Paris.” I was like, Uh oh… when Glenn gave his response. He added an “s” to the name, making it incorrect. Thankfully I got this one. I wonder if Glenn would’ve wagered differently if he knew Mr. Trebek was going to say there was less than a minute left, even with 10 clues available!
Now this is weird but true too: I only last week heard of this correct response, still in 19th Century Females Authors: “The youngest of the sisters, Anne Bronte penned ‘The Tenant of’ this residence in 1848 but died from tuberculosis a year later.” It stood out to me because it was part of the constructor’s correction in a puzzle I was doing. The bummer for me is, I couldn’t remember which way was correct. See the comment I left to that effect on that blog. At least maybe I’ll win the puzzle book, which I really really want! (And while I’m at it: If you have not tried one of those Rows Garden puzzles, I highly recommend them. They are more fun even than crosswords.) The bummer for Betsy is, she added a “d” to the correct response, making her wrong!
Ay ay ay – The next clue was the other Daily Double, which was then Glenn’s. The category was Crime. He had no money having lost it all on the previous Daily Double. Betsy had of course lost 2000 and had 6600. Mr. Trebek noted as usual that Glenn could wager up to 2000, so he did! I’d have wagered like 300 in case I got it wrong, since time was so short. You risk 2000 and get it wrong, you need to get two clues right, and one of them must have a high value. Anyway, here is the clue: “In 2011 a renegade group was accused of doing this to fellow Amish, a heinous crime in that culture.” I was hopeless once again on this one, but Glenn knew it. Thank God because it was the last clue of the round. There were a whopping 7 clues left covered this round, including the entire 4-Letter Fill-in-the-Proverb category. (Probably easy money!) For one thing, Mr. Trebek seemed to take as long as he could to explain that all the Breaking News clues were read by Power Players contestants. Of course those clues probably took longer than most to read, too. And there was a fair number of triple-stumpers.
Mr. Trebek said “Victory is possible for each one of you.” Probably not but I’ll get to that in a sec. The Final category was Kings. I feared getting a clue like this on my Final: “The last British monarch to be buried outside the U.K., he was interred in 1727 in the land where he was born.” It’s widely encouraged to write something on the Final, especially on a clue like this where you can at least pick one of something. Someone like me has plenty of room to make a fool of herself, not knowing where any king lived or when. (Sorry.) Anyway Glenn got it right but wagered 0. Tim got it wrong and lost everything. Betsy got it wrong and lost 1401. In that case she still had enough even if Glenn doubled, and I feel sure Glenn recognized that when he wagered what he did. (Talk about deja vu!) So Betsy wins, and we’ll see her tomorrow!
I might check the archive when this episode’s posted, because I’m
curious about the Coryats. It seems like Tim’s will be the highest. My own was 15800 (19000 without negs).