Posts
Today's J! round categories: OED TOP SOURCES; "AA", "BB" OR "CC"; SCENTSATIONAL!; ALFRED; LORD; TENNESSEAN (I was hoping for a TENNIS category and I bet Jeanie was as well!)
I personally am okay with it, but Richard definitely tried to hop around within the categories at the start of the game today. I'm sure it will annoy many others, though. Not sure if it was a Daily Double hunting tactic or just something to unnerve the opposition, but I bet it'll generate discussion!
I figured we'd see a Lord's Resistance Army question eventually, this one showed up in LORD $1000: "Child soldiers are much of the Lord's Resistance Army revolting against the Musevini government in this African nation" Sadly, it was a Triple Stumper; does anyone remember Stop Kony?
After a large number of Triple Stumpers, Richard found the game's first Daily Double on the 15th clue of the round, under OED TOP SOURCES $800: Richard had $1400, Rene $2600 and Susan $0. Making it a True Daily Double, he saw the following: "William Shakespeare is second; this historical novelist with the same initials is third". He completely blanked on the answer, meaning Rene at $2600 was the only player with money at the first break!
I know that some of the commenters here have noted their dislike of Richard, but I think he's an excellent player and I'm a fan of his mannerisms, personally...
The number of Triple Stumpers early on definitely hampered the round's pace, so 3 clues were left on the board in a low-scoring J! round. Your scores at halftime saw Rene at $3,800, Susan $2,000 and Richard selecting first in DJ! with $800.
DJ! round categories: ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON; HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING AT 11; THE WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL; A REAL COMEDIAN; ANAGRAMS; CROSS WORLD CLUES "P"
A much more competitive first 11 clues was punctuated by the round's first Daily Double under THE WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL $2000. Richard, with $3,600 (against Susan's $6,000 and Rene's $7,000), wasn't about to risk another True Daily Double, so he bet only $2,400. His clue: Biologist Edward O. Wilson told a rapt WSF audience about the chemical "vocabulary" of these colony insects. Richard's correct response tied him with Susan.
Rene switched out of 11, but went back to it and was rewarded with the game's final Daily Double at the bottom of the row. Holding $10,200 to Susan's $7,200 and Richard's $6,000, he bet only $600 and saw the following: "Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty on behalf of Victor Emmanuel III; Cardinal Gasparri signed on behalf of this pope" It appears as if Rene forgot the category (maybe if he'd stuck with 11 he'd have remembered!), but his incorrect response only dropped him to $9,600. I personally only got this one because I knew that there was a Pius IX (they've named a street in Montreal Pie-IX Boulevard after him) in the 19th century and thus figured they reached number 11 by the time the Lateran Treaty rolled around.
I must say, while I didn't get a lot of the long ones (I did get the third!), it is rather cool that DISCOUNTED/DEDUCTIONS, PICOSECOND/ENDOSCOPIC, and IMPERSONAL/MAILPERSON are all anagram pairs!
Scores going into Final Jeopardy!:
Rene $13,200
Susan $10,400
Richard $8,000
FJ! category: PRESIDENTIAL RESTING PLACES
FJ! clue: Only 3 sites have the remains of 2 Presidents: 1 at Quincy, Massachusetts, 1 at Arlington, & 1 in this state capital
Richard $8000 -2400 = 5600
Susan $10400 -10300 = 100
Rene $13200 -8000 = 5200
I've got no problem whatsoever with any of these wagers; Susan was in Stratton's Dilemma; thus, she chose to go big. Rene had to do what he had to do, and Richard's small wager won him the game! Well played, Mr. Block, and I look forward to seeing your third game tomorrow!
Interestingly enough, had Rene remebered the "11" category, the scores going into Final Jeopardy! would have been 14,400 - 10,400 - 8,400. It would have been very interesting to see what all 3 contestants would have done there!
My Coryat today was $25,600 (33 right, 2 wrong), plus the Final. I made an educated guess, using the same "lots of Presidents come from here" logic that Alex suggested.
7 comments:
Rene was the last person from my Tuesday group of contestants.
My Coryat was 26400, also with 33 right and 2 wrong.
I took a wild guess on the Pope name (and remembered the category - I was sad Rene didn't just say "Pius"). In real life, probably would have gotten the final because on my couch I thought of it but then thought it was too obvious and cast about for another option without coming up with anything.
I added up my Coryat just now and was very surprised to see that my DJ score was more than four times what my J round score was! Total 28200.
I did get the Pius clue. My high school was Pius X. :-)
Sorry, one more thing (J!'s starting!): I'll be asking Susan some questions for the blog, if anyone's got anything they want to know from her.
If Rene had offered Susan a tie, he'd have ended up co-champ with Richard. And if Susan hadn't held back the $100, she would have been well-equipped for a tie offer by Rene. I get very detailed about the weird set of strategies this scenario offered on jboard.
Came across your blog. What dedication! Enjoyed your take on the show. Got so focused on the Pius question that I did forget the category. Figured Susan would get FJ and didn't take the time to consider that a tie is as good as a win...those are the breaks. Hey Ursula!
@Stefan - I didn't even think about that! Good eyes, it's been so long for me that I've forgotten to look for the fun situations like that "in the wild"!
@Rene - Glad you enjoyed the blog!