Good day, Jeopardy! fans! This week’s contestants:
Carlo Abulencia, Chatsworth, CA
Glenn Fleishman, Seattle, WA
Shaanti Kapila, Washington, DC
Ricky Leiter, New York, NY
Meredith Lowmaster, Quincy, MA
John Matthews, McLean, VA
Erin McCready, Brooklyn, NY
Matt Oldani, St. Louis, MO
Abby O’Reilly, Clinton, NJ
Jan Walkenhorst, Lincoln, NE
And defending champion:
Stephanie Jass, Milan, MI
John Matthews and Ricky Leiter are the challengers today (Ricky’s last name is pronounced with the first E silent (differently from former Major League pitcher Al Leiter, in fact). Will Stephanie make it six?
J! round categories: THE TOOL SHED; DR. SEUSS TITLES BY INITIALS; SING US A SONG, YOU’RE THE PIANO MAN; STUPID FOOD ANSWERS; PLURALS; THE ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Surprisingly, Stephanie went to STUPID FOOD ANSWERS. If I were an American History teacher, I would have gone to Lincoln, personally. It seemed as if John had his buzzer mojo to open, but Stephanie picked it back up pretty quickly. At the end of 15, your scores:
Stephanie $5,000
John $1,400
Ricky $400
Based on my Googling of Matt O’Donnell, it appears as if went to Queen’s University — was released by the Bengals between taping and airing, and now plays for the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL – it also appears as if I should cheer for John simply from having attended university in Canada!
Meanwhile, Ricky Leiter’s interview speaks of attending Upper Canada College. Two Canadians!
It should come as no surprise that the Daily Double was in ABRAHAM LINCOLN, being that it was an video category (all presented by Alex at Ford’s Theatre)! It was under $600, and Stephanie saw it with the following scores:
Stephanie $9,200
Ricky $1,600
John $200
Her bet was just $800. Her clue: Illustrating the difference in memories, some people said that Booth shouted this Latin phrase right from here, center stage, others said “no, it was from the box”; Booth himself wrote that he spoke the words before shooting Lincoln; perhaps he said these words more than once. Stephanie, understandably, knew the answer, and put her score to an even $10,000. I can’t have helped but think she should have gone huge and tried to put the game out of reach now.
Negging on the $800 clue put the scores back to where they were before the Daily Double, and that’s how the round ended.
DJ! round categories: ART TERMS; “SIN” FULL; CITY FOUNDERS; TV CHARACTERS; GET YOUR DUCKS; IN A ROW;
Unsurprisingly, it was Stephanie who saw the Daily Double under “SIN” FULL $1600. Scores:
Stephanie $11,200
Ricky $2,000
John $200
Stephanie went back to her old standard of $2,000 here. Her clue: Astronomical term for a place in space where matter is infinitely dense. Having no clue, her guess was amusing but incorrect. Her score dropped to $9,200.
Ricky and John were doing most of the ringing in after the Daily Double; but has always seemed to happen, Stephanie gets control back, and then finds the next wagering clue! This final one was under CITY FOUNDERS $800. Scores:
Stephanie $10,800
John $4,600
Ricky $2,000
Her bet: just $1,000. Her clue: In 1839 John Sutter established the colony that became this state capital. I believe this was similar to a recent LearnedLeague question that I missed; I didn’t miss it this time! Stephanie got it too, and her score was now $11,800. I can’t help but feeling she’s missing some prime opportunities to put the game out of reach! Buzzer timing is a fickle mistress…
Buzzer timing was on Stephanie’s side the back half of this game, though, as she nearly doubled her score over the final dozen or so clues!
Scores going into Final Jeopardy!:
Stephanie $21,000
John $2,200
Ricky $2,000
FJ! category: FICTION
FJ! clue: A proposed title for this novel sounded too much like a Vegas heist movie, so the number in the title was doubled
Ricky 2000 – 2000 = 0
John 2200 + 1900 = 4100
Stephanie 21000 + 4000 = 2500 (6-day champion, $123,970)
I came up with this instantly, but almost dismissed it because I’d heard of stories surrounding other numbers as well with this title!
Stephanie goes for Win #7 tomorrow!
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 $123,970 (6 wins)
5. Joel Pool $116,800 (6 wins)
6. Dave Leach $98,054 (6 wins)
7. David Menchaca $115,503 (5 wins)
8. David Gard $84,700 (4 wins)
9. Dan McShane $62,001 (4 wins)
10. Patrick Morrison $80,701 (3 wins)
11. Francis Lansangan $78,401 (3 wins)
12. Matt Samberg $61,402 (3 wins)
13. Andy Baggarly $60,402 (3 wins)
14. Stephanie Fontaine $54,500 (3 wins)
15. Joey Falco $53,999 (3 wins)
—
16. Erin Zweiner $53,399 (3 wins)
17. Beau Henson $51,203 (3 wins)
18. Margaret Swanson $48,000 (3 wins)
19. Claudia Gray $45,202 (3 wins)
20. Dan Adkison $37,400 (3 wins)
21. Jacob Silverman $35,998 (3 wins)
22. Jessamine Price $26,803 (3 wins)