Final Jeopardy: 21st Century Books (11-19-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (11/19/2014), in the category “21st Century Books” was:
Set in the Great Depression, this 2006 novel has an epigraph from “Horton Hatches the Egg”.
The winner of the last match of the 2014 Tournament of Champions will determine the final line-up in the 2-day finals. Today’s player are Ben Ingram, semi-finalist $16,801; Joshua Brakhage, semi-finalist $16,206; and Sandie Baker, wild card winner $15,500.
Round 1: Ben found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Literary Characters” under the $800 clue. He was in the lead with $1,800, $1,000 more than Sandie in second place. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
This Kipling character first appeared as an adult in the story “In The Rukh”, then as a boy in “The Jungle Book”. show
Ben finished in the lead with $7,400. Sandie was second with $4,200 and Joshua was last with $2,200.
Round 2: Ben found the first Daily Double in “Classical Radio” under the $1,600 clue. He now had a helluva lead with $11,400, $7,600 ahead of Sandie in second place. He bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
These call letters of a Boston PBS TV station first hit the airwaves with a 1951 classical radio concert. show
Ben found the last Daily Double in “A Massive Aggressive Attitude” under the $1,200 clue. At $18,200, he now had a $14,400 lead over Sandie in second place. “Lookin’ good, Ben,” Alex teased, “Wanna make it a true Daily Double?” Ben declined and bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
In 1968 fighting was fierce in Hue during this event called the turning point of the Vietnam War. show
Ben had the game in the bag with $29,800. Sandie was next with $5,400 and Joshua was in third place with $2,600.
Only ONE of the players got Final Jeopardy! right.
I meant what I said, and I said what I meant …
An elephant’s faithful – one hundred per cent!
(Theodor Seuss Geisel, Horton Hatches the Egg, 1940)
“The choice of a childish rhyme from a children’s book as an epigraph for Water for Elephants is an interesting one. After all, this is definitely a book for adults that engages with very adult themes, language, and subject matter. So what gives? The Dr. Seuss quotation is about “faithful[ness],” a quality elephants have in spades (“one hundred per cent,” in fact!). The question of faithfulness comes up again and again in Water for Elephants.” (Shmoop: Water for Elephants Epigraph)
Joshua didn’t know so he left a personal message for his Mom & Cami: “thanks for clapping for me”. He lost his $6.00 bet and finished with $2,594.
Sandie blanked out after “What is”. She lost her $5,000 bet and finished with $400.
Ben got it right but there was no need to bet anything and he didn’t. He remained at the $29,800 that had already won. Ben is the one joining Julia Collins and Arthur Chu in the 2-day final.
Good luck to all the finalists. $250,000 is a nice payday for 4 games! In regular play, it took Julia 13 games to surpass the TOC prize amount. Arthur passed it on his 10th game.
If it’s Ben, he will win more for 4 games than he won ($176,534) in his 8 winning games. He also got an extra $1,000 for finishing 3rd in his 9th game that Mark Japinga won.
2 years ago:: NONE of the players got this FJ in “Opera”
In 1900 the first La Scala performance of this opera was conducted by the man whose last name began with the opera’s title. show
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Wow. We’ve got three phenomenal finalists. Arguably the three best players coming into the tournament.
So often, Ben would look surprised that he came up with the correct answer, as if it came from some supernatural source. I’m rooting for Julia all the way
While I have you: It seems Jeopardy! hasn’t posted the Post-Game chat from Tuesday, which was Chu Day.
The ones I’ve watched lately have Trebek saying he doesn’t think jumping all over the board is a good strategy, and he says why. From what he said today, it seems he said it to Chu who responded with something along the lines of, “Well, that’s the way I play the game.”
There must be a reason they skipped over Tuesday’s Post-Game Chat, and of course being no fan, I’m thinking it has to do with Chu.
It’s going to be tough to sit through the next two games, but we gotta do what we gotta do.
Thanks for the reminder about the post-game chat, Tom — put today’s in the recap.
Maybe they skipped yesterday’s because the first one they did last week was in Chu’s game and they had skipped Ben’s. Who knows?
LOL on Ben’s surprise at his own answers. It was rather funny.
just wow! congratulations! that’s being on a roll you wish you were when you are in vegas..finding all 3 dd clues AND being right did not hurt either. if anyone can beat arthur, then ben. should be a good final, and who knows? julia might surprise us all. i really hope for 2 good games, without any ambiguous fj clues, borderline judging calls and the like.
the contestants are top notch. i hope the j crew can match that by not spoiling everything.
Yes. I agree. Should be interesting 2 days. I think Ben has a chance of winning it all.