Today’s Final Jeopardy – Wednesday, October 25, 2023

15 Comments on "Today’s Final Jeopardy – Wednesday, October 25, 2023"

1. RedRose | October 25, 2023 at 9:26 am |

   I was thinking of someone who had actually reached Asia, and came up with “Marco Polo”. (Also, although he wrote a famous book, I don’t know if he in fact wrote any letters during his extensive travels.) Christopher Columbus made a great mistake. And he didn’t “discover” America—that was done millennia ago by the indigenous peoples already living here (whom he badly mistreated.) He wasn’t even the first European to come here—the Vikings had him beat by centuries. As someone with a bit of Native American ancestry myself, I highly approve of the change of the second Monday in October from the (not-so-heroic-after-all) “Columbus Day” to “Indigenous People’s Day”. (And, I got through this whole post without using that “questionable demonym” this time—less work for Andy, less worry for me.)

2. Lou | October 25, 2023 at 1:23 pm |

   I remember columbus not because of the holiday named after him, but because of his voyage in 1492 and the ships he sailed on. The letters he wrote I have not read, but still though just by looking at his location in Cadiz seemed to help here. My study of explorers still resonates in my mind.

3. Robert J. Fawkes | October 25, 2023 at 6:32 pm |

   This was such a famous letter and infamous mistake that I am shocked that all three contestants weren’t even close. That is pretty much an indictment of our educational system since after the days when I was a schoolboy.

   On another note, I really like the Canadian term “First Nations” for the early populations in North America. This is much better and much more accurate than the term “indigenous people” or “native Americans.” As we know, there were no native Americans or indigenous people of any kind in North America. No one spontaneously appeared in what is now the United States. The earliest peoples here came across a land bridge that no longer exists. I wish the United States would use the term “First Nations” as that much more accurately describes the earliest people who settled and populated the land here.

   • Michael Johnston | October 25, 2023 at 7:31 pm |

     I don’t remember the letter at all 😕 I got it from the port.

     • Ted Mark | October 25, 2023 at 8:54 pm |

       I don’t remember the letter, either.

   • Lisa | October 25, 2023 at 7:51 pm |

     I think it may be better for the United States NOT to use the term “First Nations” because so many of the non-native population are so MILITANTLY white supremacist — not that they should be mollified, but why wave a red flag at them [since they probably don’t know that ‘First Nations’ doesn’t mean “claims dibs on ‘our’ country”]? Down here, they are often officially referred to as “tribal nations”, though.

     I just this week saw a PBS show concerning native cultures, languages, trials and tribulations, etc. At one point they said there had been a survey conducted among multiple tribes and ‘Native American’ was preferred by only a third of them. The rest preferred ‘American you-know-what’. One person interviewed pointed to the fact that their tribe’s own self-endorsed name included THAT word.

4. Bill Vollmer | October 25, 2023 at 7:42 pm |

   The clues in the answer helped me even less than this episodes players. I didn’t even have a glimpse of an idea about who the correct response would be.
   Maybe I’ll do better on the Final Jeopardy from this week’s Celebrity Jeopardy.

   • Lisa | October 25, 2023 at 8:03 pm |

     My first thought was Columbus, but I thought it took him like two months to reach “the Americas”, so I thought it would be someone else actually traveling west. ‘Phileas Fogg’ actually occurred to me but I thought he would have needed to be faster and that the category implied a real person.

5. RedRose | October 25, 2023 at 7:54 pm |

   On Robert J. Fawkes’s note:
   Since humans evolved in parts of Africa, and all populations elsewhere did not “spontaneously appear” in those places, but ultimately migrated there from the original locales of human evolution, this definition of “indigenous” or “native” would only apply to peoples still living in those “evolutionary hotspots” (who themselves might have replaced pre-existing populations!)—far too limiting, IMHO.

   • Lisa | October 25, 2023 at 8:12 pm |

     I don’t see why either of those two terms couldn’t just be used to mean “from pre-history on”. Pre-history doesn’t mean prehistoric, just before written records. [Yes, America’s “natives” did have written records per their petroglyphs and pictorials painted on hides, but they themselves predated those, so “from pre-history”.]

6. Herbal-T | October 25, 2023 at 11:32 pm |

   The real clue was “thirty-third day after leaving Cadiz.” How far could anyone get from Spain in 33 days by any means of transportation back in the Age of Exploration? Not to the Indian Ocean, fo’ shizzle. But they could get to the Americas.

   • Lisa | October 27, 2023 at 6:44 pm |

     Being an “Historic Letter” (the category) did not necessarily mean that it was via a means of transportation back in the Age of Exploration. For example there were people trying to set hot air balloon records long before Richard Branson and some of them could have been famous and written progress letters, just not famous enough for us to have heard of them or their letter. Also yacht racers and other “around the world” type of adventurers. But I do acquiesce that “back in the Age of Exploration” WAS the most likely.

7. RedRose | October 26, 2023 at 7:23 am |

   I wish to add the following to my comment on evolution. Many indigenous peoples, such as some Native Americans and Australian Aborigines, do believe that they did in fact “spontaneously appear” in their homelands—that the Ancestors were created there in the Beginning by gods or spirits, and emerged from the very earth where their descendants still live. While obviously I don’t agree with this, respect for the religious or spiritual beliefs and traditions of these people is part of respect for their culture. For example, I don’t agree with the beliefs of several major religions, but I would never say that I don’t respect people’s rights to hold these beliefs.

8. Andy P | October 26, 2023 at 8:47 am |

   I was thinking there was also a Cadiz in South America and that it was about the correct ocean. Since Magellan never quite made it that far, having been killed in the Philippines, I went with Drake. He could have stopped at a port he found even if it was under enemy control, but given that last part I wasn’t confident. The Marco Polo responses surprised me nonetheless. I didn’t recall him going so far south since his intent was to meet with the Khan of China (Kublai at the time – China was still under Mongol control then) to make a trade deal, not find a route to an ocean.

   All this over-thinking and it never occurred to me that it could have been someone who was just wrong.

   • Lisa | October 26, 2023 at 5:33 pm |

     I was sort of similar to you, but I’d thought I remembered Cadiz as a place in the Middle East (sort of a Cairo/Giza mash-up, I guess), so someone could have been heading west from there — not necessarily even sailing as it could have even been overland (like Marco Polo, whose first stop was in the Holy Land, i.e., in the Middle East) and still “reach” the Indian Ocean. So, I don’t find the Marco Polo responses surprising, though I had not come up with that. [Actually Marco Polo DID sail in the northern portions of the Indian Ocean but it was on his return journey eastward toward home.]