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Today was the last day of the Teen Tournament semifinals. The contestants:
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| Kate Wadman |
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| Nikhil Desai (I couldn't help but wonder if he was related to Anoop Desai.) |
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| Raynell Cooper (He looks like a Mii when he rings in. He puts his whole body into it! |
At the first break, Nikhil had 400, Raynell had 4400, and Kate had 1600. Raynell answered the first two clues after the break in Pledges and Oaths, then found the Daily Double there. He wagered 1300 of his 5000 (I'd probably have wagered a little more.) This was the clue: "The pledge written for this kids' sporting organization ends 'win or lose I will always do my best.'" Raynell got it right. I was glad A Short Spell (where contestants spell the responses, which were all five letters or less) wasn't the last category selected (but it was second-to-last). At the end of the round, Nikhil had 3400, Raynell continued to lead with 7900, and Kate had 4800. In Double Jeopardy, four of the five clues in TV Shows by Cast were triple-stumpers for them and me, although they weren't the same four: I got "Smallville" but missed "iCarly." I did sweep the next category, Drama Club Tryouts, where the players named the play described in the clue. Kate found the first Daily Double of the round, in Like a "G"6, where all the responses began with "g" and were six letters long. She had 10400, Nikhil had 7000, and Raynell had 16300. Kate risked 4500 on this clue: "The Greek for 'milk' gives us this word for a large feature of the skies." She got it right. Nikhil seemed like he was looking for the next Daily Double, but Raynell found it in Young Nobel Prize Winners. Raynell had an impressive 17900, while Nikhil had 9000, and Kate had 14900. Raynell risked 3000 on this clue: "Konstantin Novoselov, 36, shared the 2010 Physics prize for his work on graphene, a form of this element." He got it right. At the end of the round, then, Raynell had 20900, Nikhil had 10200, and Kate had 16100. The Final Jeopardy category was Brands. This was the clue: "Jack Odell gave his child a toy vehicle to bring to school inside one of these items, and a toy brand name was born." Nikhil was on the right track but didn't have enough information, and he lost 599. Raynell and Kate got it right. Raynell wagered 11305, which was enough. He will be in the two-day Final, with Kailyn Laporte and Raya Elias-Pushett. My Coryat score today was 27200. Nikhil's was 10200, Raynell's was 19200, and Kate's was 13200.
I take a bit of a risk getting my hopes up for Saturday episodes. They're often pre-empted by sports, and that is what happened today. Golf, in this case. Golf's not my thing, but it looked pretty dramatic, and I'm sure quite a few people were enjoying it. And I didn't mind much because I got to see everything from the contestant interviews on. I couldn't, however, keep score because of that. I also couldn't get contestant pictures at the beginning of the show like I always do. That's why they look a little weird:
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| Dave Castanien |
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| Kevin Wilson |
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| Deb Grehn |
Even though I know I started late, the show seemed to whip by, and I can't really explain it.
At the first break, when I started watching the show, Kevin had 3000, Deb had 1600, and 2400. It seemed like a pretty evenly-matched game.
The Daily Double had not been found yet, so I was lucky there. Dave found it in Nobel Prize Winners. He had 7000, Kevin had 4000, and Deb had 1200. Dave wagered 2000 on this clue: "When the 1973 peace prize was awarded to 2 men, Le Duc Tho declined but this man accepted." I thought this one was a toughie. My dad and I both gave an incorrect response. Dave missed it, too. At the end of the round (which must've been less than a minute later, because Mr. Trebek gave the warning), Dave had 5400, Kevin had 6600, and Deb still had 1200.
Kevin started turning things around in Double Jeopardy. By the time he found the first Daily Double in World Cities, he had 9400, Deb still had 1200, and Dave had 6200. Kevin wagered 2000 on this clue: "Though expanded as a Roman city, it became a capital under the Merovingian ruler Clovis I in 508." I didn't know this one, but Kevin did.
He found the next Daily Double, too, and he was really rolling by then. "Kicking their butts," as I said at the time. He and I were both sweeping 5 Other Senses when he found the Daily Double there. He had 13800, Deb had 3200, and Dave had 4200. Kevin wagered 5000 (probably more than I would've risked) on this clue: "You seem to feel you're owed a lot; you have a real sense of this, the right to guaranteed government benefits." I missed it but Kevin got it right. When the round ended, he had 23200, Deb had 6800, and Dave had 10200.
The Final Jeopardy category was Musical Instruments. The clue had an audio clip. Here it is: "In the early 18th c. Sylvius Leopold Weiss wrote works for these two instruments whose names rhyme." I got it right as soon as I heard the instruments, but you probably don't need to hear them to come up with a correct response. All three contestants got it right, too. Dave wagered everything but one dollar, which I would not have done: Since he could not catch Kevin, I'd have risked enough to beat only Deb had she doubled. Deb wagered 6700. Kevin wagered 2799 and remained the champion.
This is important: I'm interviewing David Madden soon, so let me know in a comment if you there's anything you want to know from him!
It feels good to be blogging about an episode again. I've worked every night this week, so every entry's been extra information on past quadruple-stumpers. I hate to admit it but I feel like I need to: There was no post last night because I got hopelessly lost about how "French Sudan" became "Mali." I dare you to try it yourself. And let me know if you have more success than I did. I ultimately decided it was better to not publish anything than to publish something either messy or that I was unsure of. Besides, Wednesday's entry could last much more than two days!
Okay, on to happier things. Okay, one more not-so-good thing: I don't have my Monday Coryat score because the recording was a little messed up and I missed about two and a half categories that day. Here are the Coryats for the other days this week:
2-22: Lindsey Thiesfeld 13400 Idrees Kahloon 25000 Cosi Audi 4400 Me 31200
2-23: Carlee Jensen 3800 Erin Hart 20400 Raynell Cooper 14400 Me 29200
2-24: Raya Elias-Pushett 15200 Idrees Kahloon 6600 Brandon Welch 15400 Me 25800
2-25: Lindsey Thiesfeld 10000 Kailyn Laporte 25200 Erin Hart 8800 Me 25200
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| Lindsey Thiesfeld |
Today's contestants:
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| Erin Hart |
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| Kailyn LaPorte |
Notice the way Lindsey is waving. When Mr. Trebek came out, he said he saw the girls practicing that wave before the show. I thought he then said, "That's messed up," but the closed-captioning said, "You won't 'fess up." He's more likely to say the latter, I think! Just before the first break, Erin, who hails from Michigan, rang in on this clue in U.S. Geography: "In 1847 the Michigan legislature chose this city to succeed Detroit as state capital." She responded with "Michigan"! She quickly changed it to the correct response, but Mr. Trebek had already ruled her wrong. A little embarrassing, but I think everyone understands. At the first break, she had 800, Kailyn had 3600, and Lindsey had 2200. Speaking of Erin, during her interview she said she "always kinda watched Jeopardy!," but she didn't know about the Teen Tournament til her grandmother told her about it! I wonder how much of the show she watches. The Daily Double was finally found by Kailyn in Castles, with one more clue remaining on the board. Kailyn didn't need the Daily Double: She had 6800, Erin had 1600, and Lindsey had 4800. Kailyn wagered 1000 on this clue: "Now a national monument, the Alhambra in this European country was begun by Moorish rulers around 1238." Kailyn got it right. The last clue of the round was a triple-stumper, so Double Jeopardy began with Erin having 1600, Kailyn 7800, and Lindsey 4800. Speaking of the Castles category, how did I sweep that and miss two in Current Music? And how and why did I sweep The Rhinoceros in Double Jeopardy? While I'm at it, why did I miss three in Geometry? :-( I was sweeping Literary Genres when Kailyn found the first Daily Double there. She had 10600, Erin had 2800, and Lindsey had 5200. Kailyn wagered 2200 on this clue: "This word can mean a short prose narrative as well as a preliminary drawing." Let's just say my sweep ended there. Kailyn got it right, though. Lindsey found the next Daily Double in Geometry with four clues remaining. (Thanks for stating that plainly, Mr. Trebek.) She had 7200 to Kailyn's 22000, while Erin had 8800. I'd have wagered a lot more, but Lindsey wagered just 3000 on this clue: "This figure, a quadrilateral with just 1 pair of parallel sides, shares its name with a wrist bone." I really, really shouldn't have missed this one, but I got hung up on the bones and didn't go far enough toward the hand. Lindsey got it right, which makes it all the more painful that she did not risk more. Erin still had 8800 at the end of the round, while Kailyn had 25600 and Lindsey had 11400. Mr. Trebek made a big deal out of predicting that two girls were going to be in the Finals (a female, Raya Elias-Pushett, won yesterday's game), but he should've gotten more specific and predicted that Kailyn would be, as she had a lock on today's game! The Final Jeopardy category was Geographic Terms. This was the clue: "This area that includes several countries got is name because the colonizers spoke Spanish, French, and Portuguese." I didn't get this one. Neither did Lindsey, and she lost 10000 (another odd wager from her). Erin and Kailyn got it right. We'll see Kailyn in the Finals. I expect to be able to blog about tomorrow night's weekend episode. Stay tuned. Good night.
...no, not Superman, but still a hero and legend to Jeopardy! fans: David Madden. What about him? He, like Stephen Weingarten, Ryan Chaffee, and Vijay Balse before him, has graciously agreed to be interviewed for this blog. This is what I do every time I think about it, which has been constantly!:
Madden, who at $432,400 is second only to Ken Jennings in regular-season winnings, and at 19 games has won more of them consecutively than anyone else except for Ken, had his original run in late summer of 2005, when he was studying in Germany for a Master's Degree in International Relations.
Madden certainly has not been resting on his laurels since his Jeopardy! triumph. As you may recall in a " champion update" that aired on Jeopardy! in 2009, Madden hiked from New Brunswick, Canada, to Florida to raise money for the Fisher House, an organization that houses injured veterans for free near military hospitals. Notably, President Obama donated a portion of his Nobel Peace Prize winnings to that organization!
More recently, Madden founded the National History Bee and Bowl and has worked tirelessly on their growth across the United States. (The Bee is for individuals and the Bowl is for teams.) Last fall, Madden posted on the Jeopardy! message boards about the national championships, which will take place in Washington, D.C. on April 16th and 17th. He's making it an unofficial Jeopardy! reunion for former champs. (Fans can attend, too!) I notice that Bob Harris and Dave Belote are on the board of advisors, so I suspect that they will be there. And as you can read in the thread, recent heavy-hitter Roger Craig expressed an interest in attending. No matter what, this event is sure to be to-die-for, and you know I'm gonna be there. I would not miss this!
Furthermore, according to the National History Bowl site, Madden is a soon-to-be-published art historian and professional genealogist.
This is your chance to pick the brain of an interesting and highly-motivated man who knows how to get it done on Jeopardy! What are your questions for him? Leave a comment!
A quadruple-stumper from Friday, February 18th, in Cats and Dogs: "Despite its name, this dog breed began in Germany."
I found out in the course of researching this that there are websites called about-great-danes.com and all-about-great-danes.com. :-) (But I didn't get any information from those!)
Anyway, I've read that it is not unanimous that Great Danes originated in Germany, but they probably began as a cross between the English Mastiff and the Irish Wolfhound. According to the American Kennel Club, Great Danes were originally bred by the Germans to hunt boar. Great Danes arrived in America in the late 1800s.
A quadruple-stumper from Friday, February 18th, in First Ladies' Maiden Names: "Edith Bolling."
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| Edith Wilson |
The contestants didn't take a guess on this one. I guessed "Roosevelt" because I knew Theodore Roosevelt's wife's name was Edith. Turns out her maiden name was "Kermit Carow." Her last name appears to be "Carow," and "Kermit" appears to have come from the name of a brother who died a year before she was born. I noticed that Mrs. Wilson's whole name was "Edith Bolling Galt Wilson." Turns out she was married to a jeweler named Norman Galt from 1896 until he died in 1908 of a liver infection when Edith was only 35. President Wilson and Edith married in 1915 when they were 58 and 43, respectively. It was only about 9 months after they met.
The good news: I got to watch Jeopardy! with my sister and parents tonight. The bad news: When I went to get the tape of last weekend's episode, not only was there no tape in the machine, the VCR was on. (The timer won't start unless it's off.) I'm ready to accept blame for the tape not being there. I probably just did not put it back after watching it in another room of the house. My dad said he was probably the one who left the VCR on. Last week's episode must have been Terry Linwood's last, because this week's returning champion was the guy who beat him.
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| Valerie Vicroy |
Today's contestants:
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| Kevin Wilson |
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| Matt Blackwood (What do you think of the jacket?) |
As the Jeopardy round categories were revealed I noted that Let's Get Biblical would be a good category for my dad. When Self-Indulgent Reality TV appeared as the next category, I said that was my category. And I swept it! I went four for five in the Bible category, missing this one that I shouldn't have: " They're the 2 books of the Bible named for women."
Matt found the Daily Double three clues in, in Tea. He joined the ranks of countless contestants who said they've always wanted to say: Make it a true Daily Double. He had 400 at the time, Kevin had 200, and Valerie had not responded yet. Here was the clue: "Because it's meant to be served on coffee tables, not dining room tables, it's the alternate 2-word name for afternoon tea." Matt missed it. My mom was close: She said "high tea." At the first break, Kevin and Valerie were tied with 2400 while Matt still had nothing. At the end of the round, Kevin had 4600, Matt had 3000, and Valerie had 1400.
Kevin found the first Daily Double of the Double Jeopardy round in Animal Subtraction. (The idea is to form a word by taking a letter away from an animal name. You have to give the animal.) He had 7400, Matt had 8200, and poor Valerie had 600. Kevin wagered 2000 on this clue: "Subract a letter from this noisy bird and you get a list of players on a team." Kevin, my sister, and I all got it right.
Kevin found the next Daily Double, too, in Let's Talk About the Weather. He had 24200, Matt had 8600, and Valerie had 2600. Kevin wagered 4000 on this clue: "Named for the direction from which they come, much of our weather is carried across the United States and Canada by "Named for the direction from which they come, much of our weather is carried across the United States and Canada by these dominant winds, between 30 and 60 degrees latitude." Kevin was not so lucky this time; he missed it.
At the end of the round, Kevin had a lock on the game with 21400, Matt had 9800, and Valerie still had 2600. The Final Jeopardy category was Notable Women. This was the clue: "When Galveston was devastated by a hurricane in 1900, she traveled 1,500 miles to head up the relief effort." I got this one instantly. Valerie shook her head like she missed it, but she didn't. She wisely wagered everything. Matt wrote "Amanda," and Alex guessed (correctly, it seems) that that is his girlfriend. Matt lost 200. Kevin missed this one, too, but of course he had a lock on the game. He wagered 1600. Kevin's Coryat score was 25000, way higher than I think I have seen. I thought mine had been satisfactory at 19400! Kevin had gotten 30 clues right and 3 wrong. I got 36 right and 7 wrong. Matt's Coryat was 10200 and Valerie's was 2600.
Well, as has happened before, the sound wasn't quite right when I watched Jeopardy! today. (Did that happen to anyone else?) The sound was ahead of the picture on the screen. For instance, the contestant names were off the screen before Johnny even read them. A bummer. I wound up watching it muted with the closed captioning, which, thankfully, was aligned correctly.
First, yesterday's scores on the first day of the Teen Tournament, for those of you keeping track of semi-finalists/potential wild-cards (I didn't keep track of my Coryat.):
Christian Ie 1 Kate Wadman 14400 Brandon Welch 35200
The contestants:
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| Kailyn LaPorte (the youngest contestant in the tournament!) |
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Raphie Cantor (He's wanted to be on Jeopardy! since age 4!) |
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| Steven Ho |
At the first break, Raphie had 3400, Steven had 400, and Kailyn had 1400. I was sweeping Land "Ha" when Kailyn found the Daily Double of the round in that category. She wagered 1400 of her 2200. (Raphie had 3800 and Steven had 1000.) This was the clue: "The Potomac River meets the Shenandoah at this West Virginia village famed for an abolitionist's civil war raid." I got it right and so did she. Then I swept Odd Words! At the end of the round, Raphie had 4400, Steven had 3000, and Kailyn had 6000. Raphie found the first Daily Double three clues into the Double Jeopardy round, in 4-Letter Countries. He had 5200, Steven still had 3000, and Kailyn had 6400. Raphie wagered 1600 on this clue: "In September 1980, war broke out between these 2 countries and would last for 8 years." Raphie missed it. I was sweeping "Op" Culture when Kailyn found the next Daily Double there. (Hey, this Teen Jeopardy is pretty good for my confidence!) Kailyn had surged to the lead with 10800, while Raphie had 3600 and Steven had 4200. Kailyn wagered 2100 on this toughie: "The mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with humorous effect.". Kailyn missed it, and so did I. At the end of the round, the match was quite even. Raphie had 12000, Steven had 12600, and Kailyn had 15100. The Final Jeopardy category was Literary Characters. This was the clue: " His 'story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him as one night.'" I got this one before Mr. Trebek was done reading the clue. I was surprised that both Raphie and Steven missed it. Don't people read this in high school any more? They both lost 6000. Kailyn got it right and added 8000 to her score, making her an automatic semi-finalist. My Coryat score was 30400. Raphie's was 13200, Steven's was 12600, and Kailyn's was 16800. Did you guys see the commercial advertising another opportunity to take the Jeopardy! test? Apparently it's happening at the New York Times Travel Show on February 27th and 28th.
How about this one in Olympic Oddities, from Day One ( February 14th) of the "Watson" matches: "It was the anatomical oddity of U.S. gymnast George Eyser, who won a gold medal on the parallel bars in 1904." This was a weird clue, and I'm not surprised that it was a quadruple-stumper. I wasn't even sure where to begin to find out more about this. In fact it seems there's not much more that needs to be said about it!
It is worth knowing that those Olympics took place in St. Louis, a fact that surprised me. I also learned that Eyser, who was born in Germany in 1871, lost his leg after getting run over by a train. He wore a wooden prosthesis in its place. Look how strong he looks:
Eyser's family moved to the U.S. when he was 14, and he became a citizen in 1894. On the same day mentioned in the clue, he also won medals in long horse vault, rope climbing, pommel horse, all-around, and horizontal bar.
Why haven't we heard more about this guy? In fact, Wikipedia (I know, I know) doesn't even have details about his death. Somebody already tried to do the legwork: You can read more about one guy's search for information on Eyser's life and death here.
This one's pretty straightforward: As requested, more information on a quadruple-stumper from Thursday, 2-10: In The Country That Borders...: "Liechtenstein and Slovakia." (Strangely, the request, my first use of "quadruple-stumper," and the clue itself all came from the same entry on the 10th.)
All I need to do to show why this is correct is to show a map of Europe. But why is it so hard to remember such things while I'm playing at home? I hope blog entries like this will help. Heaven knows I need to look at more maps to study for the show.
As Slovakia and Liechtenstein are on opposite sides of the country, Austria is obviously the only possible correct response.
This quadruple-stumper came from Friday, 2-11: In Down South in South Georgia: "South Georgia is the burial site for this explorer who made a grueling journey across the island after his ship, the Endurance, was trapped in pack ice."
This sounds exciting. What an apt name for his ship! The clue refers to Sir Ernest Shackleton. First, how about another map? Personally, I can never see too many of those:
The island, with the South Sandwich Islands, is that shaded part off to the lower right of South America. James Cook discovered the islands. There is no arable land there, or native inhabitants. The area is slightly bigger than Rhode Island. Except for a brief period in 1982, the islands have belonged to the United Kingdom since 1908, and the Union Jack is on its flag:
As for Shackleton, he stopped on South Georgia in 1914 on his way to crossing Antarctica on foot! Strangely, he was born on this day in 1874! (He died in 1922 in South Georgia on a later expedition.) In the incident mentioned in the clue, the Endurance drifted for 10 months before it was crushed. Then Shackleton and his crew drifted on ice floes another 5 months, until they Elephant Island, 800 miles from South Georgia Island! Endurance indeed. I see that Shackleton wrote about his adventures. I'm thinking I'm gonna hit the library this weekend.
...The much-hyped three-day "Watson," "man vs. machine" event. Turns out it's actually two games over three days, so that there's time to explain "Watson" and the events leading up to these matches. I thought the explanation segments were similar to the episode of Nova that aired last week. Speaking of that episode, for those of you who watched it, did you notice anything weird about "Watson" giving the same response that Ken did to this clue in Name the Decade?: "The first modern crossword puzzle is published, and Oreo cookies are introduced." I thought this issue was addressed (and fixed): "Watson" answering the same thing another contestant just had. I loved the look Ken gave "Watson" when it did that! I'll tell you what lived up to my own, internal hype: Seeing Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings playing Jeopardy! again. They need their pictures here, but here they are anyway:
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| Ken |
These two could have their own version of Jeopardy! where they played every day, and I'd never miss it. There's an idea: Brad and Ken vs. a new contestant every day. I like that a lot.... Any way we can make that happen? Here is the visual representation of "Watson":
 The pace of the game itself (which matters to me) was slow, and they only got through the Jeopardy round today. There was a commercial break before any clue was even read. Brad selected first because he won a drawing. (Did you wonder, like I did, why Brad was in the third lectern, in that case?) Brad got this first clue right, in Alternate Meanings: "4-letter word for a vantage point or a belief." "Watson" got this next one right in the same category: "4-letter word for the iron fitting on the hoof of a horse or a card-dealing box in a casino." Then "Watson" selected Literary Characters APB for 800, which was the Daily Double. "Watson" wagered 1000 on this clue: "Wanted for killing Sir Danvers Carew; appearance - pale and dwarfish; seems to have a split personality." "Watson" got it right. At the next break, Ken had 200, "Watson" had 5200, and Brad had 1000. But it was clear that it was not like "Watson" knew more than the guys. It just could ring in first. (We were told that "Watson" rings in just like the guys, by pressing a buzzer.) At the end of the round (and day), Ken had 2000 and Brad and "Watson" were tied with 5000. What do you guys think so far?
As promised in a comment to a reader this week, here is more info on this clue in Children's Lit from last Saturday's Jeopardy! rerun that originally aired October 14, 2009: "As the word 'born' in the first sentence of this book creeped people out, E.B. White changed it to 'arrived.'"
The whole first line of the book is: "When Mrs. Frederick C. Little's second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse." The book was originally published in 1945. (I learned that E.B. White lived from 1899-1985! Wow!) Stuart Little was White's first book for children. He came up with the story after dreaming about a boy who acted more like a mouse. He had been a contributor to The New Yorker before that. He's also known for co-writing the classic The Elements of Style with William Strunk.
I read Charlotte's Web, first published in 1952, as a kid but never Stuart Little. And I have not seen the 1999 movie or its 2002 sequel, and I have to admit I did not know anything about the story's plot! Stuart was the couple's second "son." He was fully grown by the age of 7 and was a little more than two inches tall. The book chronicles Stuart's adventures as he seeks his friend Margalo, who had flown north the spring after they had met.
As you may have noticed, I've made some changes to the site. What do you think? I crave your feedback - positive and negative.
I'm rolling out one of the changes with this blog post: I had wished that there was a better way to reveal correct responses to Jeopardy! clues than to list them at the end of the entry. Well...I learned a new little trick from the guy who helped me: From now on, you will be able to put your arrow over a word or words in the clue (which I will indicate with dark red text) and the correct response will appear. (I'll bet web designer champ Paul could've taught me how to do that, too!) Will you let me know if you don't like the change?
Today's contestants:
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| Kate Rowland |
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| Paul Wampler |
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| Sarah Monteith |
Kate found all three Daily Double today. In the Jeopardy round, she found it in A Year Ending in 11. Paul had 200, Sarah had 800, and Kate had 0. She wagered 1000 on this clue: "In a warmup to his assault on Mexico, Cortes helps Velasquez conquer Cuba." Kate got it right.
At the first break, Paul was in the unusual positions of both being in third place and being in the hole, at -800. Sarah had 3200 and Kate had 800. At the end of the round, Paul still trailed with 2600, Sarah had 6200, and Kate had 3600.
I was smokin'-hot in the Jeopardy round today, including sweeping Their Better Half, where you provide the spouse of the person in the clue. My Coryat score in the Jeopardy round was 12000. There were only five clues I didn't answer, plus one I answered incorrectly. But it wasn't to last. Double Jeopardy kicked my butt, and hard. I have to admit I didn't answer anything right in What's the Name of Your Union or Down South in South Georgia (a reference to the country, not the state). BUT, two of the clues in Union category and three in the Georgia category triple-stumped the contestants as well. Here are samples from each: In Union: "The men and women assembling Mustangs and Malibus." And in Georgia: "The island of South Georgia has no indigenous mammals, but reindeer were introduced here in 1911 to provide meat by Captain C.A. Larsen, from this country."
Kate found the first Daily Double of the Double Jeopardy round in Act Your "Age." She finally led with 6400, while Sarah had 5800 and Paul still trailed with 3400. Kate wagered 2000 on this clue: "Within a circuit it's calculated by the amount of current flow of 1 coulomb per second past a given point." I thought that was a toughie, and Kate missed it, too.
Kate was just as unlucky on the next Daily Double in Last of the Composers, a category where I managed to get one right. Kate had 10000, Sarah had 8200, and Paul still trailed with 5800. Kate wagered just 600 on this clue: "In 1751, he composed his last all-new composition, the oratorio 'Jeptha.'" She missed it.
There were two clues left, and they went unanswered. So scores were: Paul 5800, Sarah 8200, Kate 9400. The Final Jeopardy category was 1930s Films. This was the clue: "In this classic film, one of the characters tries to quote the Pythagorean theorem but gets it wrong." I thought this was a "no-brainer." (That's a pun you'll get when you realize the answer to the clue.) I was surprised that both Paul and Sarah got it wrong. Paul lost 3601, while Sarah lost everything. Kate added 7001, enough to win even if Sarah had doubled. So, sadly, we say goodbye to Paul. My Coryat today was 17600. Paul's was 5800, Sarah's was 8200, and Kate's was 12000.
Here are quadruple-stumpers from today for your consideration for upcoming blog posts: National Lampoon, Nathanael West, Sholom Aleichem, Teamsters, NEA, elephant seals, toothfish, Shackleton, Bartok, Haydn.
The Watson episodes begin Monday, followed by two weeks of the Teen Tournament.
It's clear to me that the Blogger's "scheduling" so-called capability is a joke. This was supposed to publish about 11 hours ago. I give up, but not without great disappointment. I had planned to use "scheduling" quite a bit.
At any rate, yesterday's contestants:
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| Milind Kulkarni |
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| Paul Wampler |
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| Betsy Stephenson |
Paul swept "Br-r" in the Jeopardy round, where the correct response begins with "br," then has an "r" later in the response. Sample clue: "This two-word name for the type of glass seen here includes a kind of spirit."*
Each contestant found a Daily Double today. Milind found the first one, also the last clue before the break, in State of My Birth. (I swept that category, by the way.) Milind had 2000, Paul had 5000, and Betsy, who appeared to struggle at first with the buzzer, had 400. Milind wagered 1000 on this clue: "Cesar Chavez, Joe Jonas, Barry Goldwater."* Were it not for the "Barry Goldwater" I wouldn't have gotten this one. Milind got it too. At the end of the Jeopardy round, Paul had 6400 and Betsy and Milind were tied at 2400.
Betsy found the next Daily Double, in Peeved Veeps. By then she had gotten the hang of the signalling device. She was still tied with Milind, but this time with 7200. Paul had 8400. Betsy wagered 1200 on this clue: "This veep led the Democratic-Republican attacks against 1798's Alien and Sedition Acts."* That one was kind of a toughie, and I thought Betsy gave a reasonable response, but it was wrong.
Paul, then, found the last Daily Double in The Country that Borders.... It was the second-to-last clue on the board. He was leading (as usual) with 13200. Betsy had 8000 and Milind had 10800. Paul wagered 1200 on this clue: "Iran and India."* I missed the other four clues, but I got this one right, and so did Paul.
No one answered the last clue, so Paul ended with 14000, Betsy with 8000, and Milind with 10800. The Final Jeopardy category was The Law. This was the clue: "Asked in 1966 to write a concise statement for arresting officers to recite, Ca. D.A. Harold Berliner started with these 7 words."* I thought this one was a no-brainer, and all three contestants got it right, too. Betsy added 4000 to her score, and Milind added 5201. Paul wagered enough to win if Milind had doubled, so he is your champion again. Paul is looking really good, horizontal stripes notwithstanding. He's looking like Tournament of Champions material. My own Coryat score today was 24800. Paul's was 14800, Betsy's was 9200, and Milind's was 10600.
There was an abundance of quadruple-stumpers today, to coin a phrase (it's easier than "triple-stumpers that stumped me too"). I'll be writing entries on such questions soon, so if you have a preference from among these, please let me know in a comment: Notre-Dame de Chartres, Austria, Nicaragua, bulkheads, fluke, Cuzco, screech owl, Bulgaria.
Did anyone else watch the Nova episode on "The Smartest Machine on Earth" last night? What did you think? Some of my observations:
- I recognized a few former champions who were warming up "Watson" for the big day.
- I loved it when Ken Jennings said that Jeopardy! is too daunting a task for a computer! You go, Ken!
- I also had to agree with producer Harry Friedman when he scoffed at the idea at first, saying that of course a computer was going to have all the answers. This still makes me wonder what all the fuss is about!
- I found it interesting that "Watson" will not be connected to the Internet. I wonder where he gets his knowledge. But did you notice that later in the program that he found an answer using Internet Movie Database? (I love that site, by the way.)
- Has Brad Rutter really never been beat before?
- I had to wonder whether the writers knew that their clues were going to be for the "Watson" episodes...? It seems like that could make a difference.
*brandy snifter, Arizona, Thomas Jefferson, Pakistan, "You have the right to remain silent"
Tonight, for the second consecutive night, instead of keeping track of my score during Jeopardy!...I ate pizza. And it felt good. I did keep score on Monday, and got what may be my highest score ever:
Coryats: Erin Beach 9000 Paul Wampler 17200 Roger Mueller-Kim 12000 Me 28600
And there's still plenty to blog about: Tonight at 9 p.m. Central, the "Smartest Machine on Earth" episode of Nova will be on PBS. This is all about "Watson" and the matches between it and Ken Jenning and Brad Rutter. I plan to watch and take notes. I hope you'll watch too!
Even more exciting - MUCH more exciting for some of us - The Jeopardy! online tests are happening this week! I'd like to do one hundred exclamation points, but I guess I won't. Anyone else taking the test? I took mine tonight. The Jeopardy! message boards have a transcript with answers, so I know that I got 39/50, but possibly up to 41 depending on whether or not a couple of my last-second partial answers were accepted. Thirty-five is widely believed to be the cut-off, so...I DID IT! How did you guys do? I'd love to hear about it.
Triple-stumper from Saturday, 2-5 (originally 10-14-09): In Columbus Discovers the New World: "Thirty-four days into crossing the Atlantic, Columbus quelled a small mutiny on October 10th; just two days later on October 12th, he changed history forever by coming ashore on the island he gave this holy name."
Here's a map (because maps help me and I figure they help you, too!). I tried to take a picture of a map from my books with my camera, but it proved too difficult. Incidentally, I didn't know that San Salvador is considered part of the Bahamas, and I didn't know it is also known as Watling Island.:
The event in the clue happened in 1492, as you might have been able to guess, or as you might well have known! Apparently Columbus proved by finding San Salvador that the world was round. The "small mutiny" mentioned in the clue seems to have come about because Columbus' crew was beginning to lose faith in him. (The point of the journey was to find a westward route to the Indies.) Fears grew that they would all be falling off the edge of the world. Columbus convinced them that they had not gone as far west as they thought.
Triple-stumper from Saturday, 2-5 (originally 10-14-09): In World of Dance: "Bossa Nova." (You provide the country of the dance's origin.) The contestants guessed Spain and Cuba before Mr. Trebek revealed that "What is Brazil?" was the correct response. I love to dance myself, and I'm curious now about this dance and its origins. And just because I love it, here is a video of "Soul Bossa Nova" from Just Dance 2 for the Wii (I dare you not to get up and shake it!):
All I knew about bossa nova was the line "Blame It on the Bossa Nova," which my mom used to sing. For fun, here is a clip of the song, which it turns out is sung by Eydie Gorme and was a top-ten hit released in 1963.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find much about the bossa nova in my books. (I wonder if I should pick up a set of encyclopedias at Goodwill or something?) One of my good ol' dictionaries, a very beat-up yard sale copy of The New Lexicon Webster's Dictionary of the English Language Encyclopedic Edition, provided more information for me than I had before: "sophisticated Brazilian version of the samba, sometimes with strong jazz influence." My bigger, usually better dictionary (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) does not have "bossa nova" at all. So, I've had to break down and utilize the Internet, which I'd rather not do for these entries.
I didn't know that the song "The Girl from Ipanema," which I'm only sort of familiar with, is also in the bossa nova style. It was the first internationally known bossa nova song, and possibly the best-known. I also didn't know that Elvis Presley sang a song called "Bossa Nova Baby." In additon, the Black Eyed Peas, who of course sung the half-time show at the Superbowl this weekend, recorded a bossa nova song in 2006 called "Mas Que Nada," which was on a Sergio Mendes album.
I read that the bossa nova dance and music, both originated in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The term means "new trend." Its exact origins are uncertain, but the word "bossa" (in 1950s Brazil, anyway) referred to any fad.
I was lucky today, in that I caught up on the past two weekends of Jeopardy! Here are my Coryat scores from last week's episode and the one two weeks ago:
Terry Linwood 12600 Nathan Murphy 8600 Tammy Queen 12800 Me 21400
Terry Linwood 17200 David Garcia 8000 Abra Belke 11000 Me 19200
These were the contestants for the episode airing today:
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| Joey Johnson |
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| Carin House (She actually pronounces her name "Ca-RINN," and yes, it's weird.) |
At the first break, Terry led (no surprise, as this was his fifth game) with 2600, while Carin had 800 and Joey had 1000. Terry found the Daily Double in the Jeopardy round, in Children's Lit. He was still leading, with 4000. Carin had 1800 and Joey had 1200. Terry risked 1500 on this clue: "A book by Laura Ingalls Wilder's great-grandson is appropriately called this 'on Rocky Ridge.'"* Terry got it right. Play didn't seem particularly slow, but there were two clues remaining at the end of the round. Terry had 6700, Carin had 2400, and Joey had 3000. Like yesterday's episode, this one had a theme round. It was television this time.
Joey found the first Daily Double of the round in Nip/Tuck. He had 7400, Carin had 7200, and Terry continued to lead with 16700. Joey wagered 4000 on this clue: "Repairs to the paws of this over 4,000-year-old structure started around 1400 B.C."* Joey got it right.
Carin found the next Daily Double, in The Sandra Day O'Connor Chronicles. She had 8400, Terry had 17900, and Joey had 11800. Carin wagered 3000 on this clue: "In 2000, O'Connor attended the dedication of the federal courthouse named for her in this state capital."* My dad knew this one, as did Carin. I didn't, but probably should have!
That Daily Double wound up being the last clue of the round. There were three remaining! At the end of the round, Terry had 17900, Carin had 11400, and Joey had 11800.
The Final Jeopardy category was Poets, which didn't please my dad. This was the clue: "In a 1921 letter, this American-born poet had 'a long poem in mind...which I am wishful to finish,' and he did at 433 lines."* Carin and Joey incorrectly guessed the same thing, Walt Whitman, even though he died 30 years before. Terry got it right, which left my mom marveling again at how smart he is! His wager, of course, didn't matter because the other two got it wrong, but he did add 5501 to his score. (Joey lost 11400 and Carin lost 10000.) My Coryat score was 17000, not bad after a HORRIFYING Jeopardy round of 3800. (I got 10 right, 5 wrong, didn't answer 13, and 2 were left covered.) Terry's Coryat score was 17400, Carin's was 10000, and Joey's was 9400.
I had another idea while I was typing this entry: You know how I decided to seek explanations of triple-stumper clues, and blog about them? Well it seems that each day there are several to choose from. How would you guys like to decide which ones I write about, given the correct responses? I'd like to do my next entry tomorrow, since there is no Jeopardy! episode. Here are tonight's triple-stumper responses (that stumped me too), and you guys tell me what you'd like to know more about: San Salvador, Stuart Little, bossa nova, major-domo, and Underwood. I look forward to reading your responses!
*'Little House,' the Sphinx, Phoenix, T.S. Eliot
Today I got an e-mail from the publisher of Stephen Baker's Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything. (You may recall that the book was one of the prizes in my contest that ended two weeks ago.) Attached was a "kit" to make the experience of watching those episodes complete. The kit includes badges indicating whether you support "man" or "Watson," cut-out Trebek-like moustaches (I kid you not), "Watson"-themed Valentines, facts about "Watson," and more. Here's the kit. Let me know in a comment if you use it! The "Watson" episodes of Jeopardy! air February 14-16.
Today's contestants:
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| Kristi Springer |
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| Fred Cofone |
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| Roger Mueller-Kim |
A golf theme was a highlight of the Jeopardy round. Did you guys notice that there was triple-stumper both today and yesterday that was the same response? Yesterday's clue was in TV Personality Marriages: "Anna Torv and Mark Valley played lovers on this eerie Fox show & married in real life in 2008."* Today's clue was in Golf: "The closely mowed ring of grass around a putting green is called an apron or this out-there name."*
Fred found the Daily Double of the round, in Greens. He led with 6000, Roger had 2800, and Kristi had 1200. Fred wagered 1200 on this clue: "The name of this element comes from the Greek for 'light green.'"* I might have gotten it right, but my dad, who I had the pleasure of watching with today, answered quickly. (He's a chemistry teacher!) Fred got it wrong. At the end of the Jeopardy round, he had 4800, Roger had 4000, and Kristi had 3000.
Kristi found the first Daily Double in the Double Jeopardy round, in Poets' Monograms. She had earned the lead with 6600, while Fred had 6000 and Roger had 2400. Kristi wagered 2000 on this clue: "He was the 'ploughman poet': RB."* My dad got it right immediately, again! (I tried to get him to keep score today. I might try again tomorrow, because we'll be able to watch the weekend episode together.) Kristi got it wrong. Noteworthy (and a hint): Mr. Trebek did not say the correct response in his usual way, with a funky accent.
Fred found the other Daily Double, in Complete the Oxymoron. He had 8800, Roger had 4000, and Kristi had 4600. Fred wagered 1800 on this clue: "These diamonds are stolen! Or, in criminal slang, that's some hot..."* I knew this one, and so did Fred.
At the end of the round, everyone was in pretty good shape (at least score-wise): Fred had 17000, Roger had 10400, and Kristi had 8600. The final category was British Business. This was the clue: "For decades, Rolls Royce also owned this luxury brand named for its founder; now both are produced by German companies."* My dad threw out the correct response, then changed it. I missed it, and so did Kristi and Fred. Kristi lost 5000. Roger added 7001, so with Fred's miss it was clear he would not win today. He lost 4000. A very happy-looking Roger is your new champion! My score today was 18200. Fred's Coryat score was 17600, Roger's was 10400, and Kristi's was 10600.
*Fringe/fringe, chlorine, Robert Burns, ice, Bentley
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