Will Keith Whitener make it 8 wins today and move up one more notch on the ToC list? Here he is with his opponents:
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| Ariane Helou of Santa Cruz CA |
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| Keith Whitener of Charlotte NC |
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| Paul Nelson of Iowa City IA |
Ariane has agreed to answer questions for us. So if you have any, please leave a comment!
Mr. Trebek said he was going to be “very brief so that Ariane and Paul will have a good opportunity to try to replace him, but Keith could win again. ” Is that a reference to Keith’s slow selection of clues? I didn’t notice that the contestants were slow today, but you had to pay extra attention today if you were keeping track of your Coryat – I made a couple of mistakes marking my sheet at first because the contestants hopped all over the board so much. I suspect the tape had to be stopped a time or two when a contestant made an unexpected move.
The game kicked off with a triple-stumper, in Words That Should Rhyme: “An explosive device & a hair accessory.” I don’t know about you but I don’t consider the latter a “hair accessory.”
Mr. Trebek said all three contestants were off to a good start, but Paul had answered 9 correctly (and one incorrectly) and had…[ominous music] 4400! Ariane had gotten 3 right and had 2400. Keith had gotten 2 right but it seemed like more, and had 1200.
Did you guys think Ariane was negged for adding an “‘s” to her response to this, in Crosby?: “Crosby won a 1944 Oscar for his role as singing priest Father O’Malley in this film.” Turns out the neg was mine.
Keith found the Daily Double in the round, in Crosby. He’d gotten 4 right since the break and had 3600. Ariane had gotten 2 right and one wrong, and still had 2400. Paul had gotten 4 right and had a huge lead with 6600. I found myself telling Keith to make it a true Daily Double, but he said “Let’s just do 1000.” Keith’s attitude was a little different today. Sort of reminded me of Ken Jennings on his last day. Here is Keith’s clue: “The answer to this TV question of the 1980s was Kristin Shepard, played by Bing’s daughter Mary.” Now, I knew this one. And I’m not old, so I went “HEY!” when Mr. Trebek said to Keith, “You’re too young to remember…!” Mr. Trebek: But he got “Bob Hope” only a few minutes ago?!? Come on now! Now if this is true I wasn’t born yet when the episode originally aired, and I don’t know how that can be. My mom was a big fan of Dallas. Anyway there were four clues left at this point. Paul got 3 and Keith got one. They had 7800 and 3000 respectively. I swept Nosh and Trios in the round.
Ariane, no surprise, went to European Literature first, although she said she studies Renaissance and classical literature. She got this first one right and seemed pretty excited about it: “The continuation of ‘Orlando Innamorato’ is this Ariosto work in which Orlando goes mad.” Curious – Did anyone else get this one?
For that matter, did anyone get this one in Science “C” Stuff?:
Paul had gotten 3 right and had 11400 when he found the Daily Double in Science “C” Stuff. Ariane had gotten the one right and had…4400. Keith had gotten 2 right and had 6200. Paul wagered 5000 on this clue, one of the few easy ones of the round: “This pigment comes in different letter types; the C version is found in algae.” Paul got it right.
Now check this out: Paul still led with 15200 when Keith found the next Daily Double, even though Paul had negged 4 times since his Daily Double, and gotten 3 right. Keith had gotten 3 negs and 4 right, and had 7000. Ariane had gotten 4 right and had 9600. Mr. Trebek helpfully pointed out that there were 7 clues left after this one (and still no time warning). Keith wagered 6900 on this clue in 19th Century America: “On March 1, 1803 it became the 17th state & the first created from the Northwest Territory.” Nebraska became a state on a March 1, but it was many years after this. Keith got the right response but I didn’t. He surely didn’t regret his wager, like he said he might! And he didn’t need any TOM!
There were 5 clues left when Mr. Trebek gave the less-than-a-minute warning, and one was left covered. When was the last time we’ve seen the last 4 clues of a round in the top row? Anyway Keith managed to end the round in the lead with 16300 after getting 3 right since the 19th Century Daily Double. Paul had gotten one wrong and had 14000, and Ariane had gotten one right and had 10000.
The Final Jeopardy category was, hey, College Football Team Nicknames. This was the clue: “The team known as these since 1895 plays its home games on top of the Hayward seismic fault.” I knew Hayward was in California without the “seismic fault” TOM. But I said what Keith did, and we were wrong. And Berkeley had even crossed my mind, but I didn’t know their team name. Ariane got this right but she wagered nothing! She even wrote “Go Bears.” Paul too wrote a personal message (“Thanks Mom and Dad”), and I don’t know how they could’ve possibly missed being hit over the head by the contestant coordinators: “NO PERSONAL MESSAGES!” Anyway Paul wagered nothing too! Mr. Trebek said this is a strange ending. Indeed: Keith lost 11701. We’ll see Paul on Monday. I kinda like the guy!
These were my triple-stumpers, all in Double Jeopardy:
- In Ends with 2 Vowels: “In the names of tasty Morningstar Farms products, this word precedes ‘corn dogs’ & ‘burgers.'”
- In 19th Century America: “In 1872 this party had its first Natl. Convention & nominated James Black for Pres.; We assume no booze was served.”
- In Who’s That Girl Director?: “‘You’ve Got Mail’ & ‘Sleepless in Seattle.’ (She also wrote both.).” I am surprised Ariane didn’t get it, since she knew Angelina Jolie directed “In the Land of Blood and Honey.”
What a game today.
My Coryat was 17000; 26000 without negs.
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. Keith Whitener $148,597 (7 wins)
6. Joel Pool $116,800 (6 wins)
7. Dave Leach $98,054 (6 wins)
8. David Menchaca $115,503 (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)
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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)