Final Jeopardy: Literary Geography (3-9-16)
The Final Jeopardy question (3/9/2016) in the category “Literary Geography” was:
Shelley subtitled a poem named for this famous geographic feature “Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni”.
New champ Annie Moriondo won $22,300 yesterday. Today she is up against these two players: Bill Patschak, from Frederick, MD; and Katrina Mundinger, from Minneapolis, MN.
Round 1 Categories: Word Puzzles – Details on the Best Picture Oscar Winner – American Literature – Like a Boss – The March of Time – AKA
Annie found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “American Literature” under the $600 clue on the very first pick of the round so everyone had zero. She bet the $1,000 allowance and she was RIGHT.
This book begins “Early in the spring of 1750, in the village of Juffure… a man-child was born to Omoro and Binta Kinte. show
Bill finished in the lead with $6,000. Annie was second with $3,800 and Katrina was last with $1,800.
Round 2 Categories: The Algorithm Method – City Nicknames – My Ex-Wives & Me – Polish History – Mammals – “Tour”ism
Bill found the first Daily Double in “City Nicknames” under the $1,200 clue on the 4th pick of the round. He was now in the lead with $8,000, $4,200 more than Annie in second place. He boldly bet his whole $8,000 and thought it was Thailand but that was WRONG.
Ratnapura in this Asian island country is “the City of Gems” & that’s what its name means in Sinhalese. show
Bill found the last Daily Double in “Polish History” under the $1,200 clue. He was in third place with $2,000 now, $3,800 less than Annie’s lead. He bet it all again and could only come up with Norway and Italy. Obviously, that was WRONG.
Poland lost its independence in 1795 when Austria & these 2 rhyming countries partitioned the Commonwealth. show
Katrina finished in the lead with $11,400. Annie was next with $10,200 and Bill was in third place with $5,200.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“Shelley was just short of his 25th birthday when he began drafting “Mont Blanc” in July 1816. It was published the following year in the volume he and Mary Shelley jointly compiled, History of a Six Weeks’ Tour Through a Part of France, Switzerland, Germany and Holland. While sometimes described as an ode, the poem is more intellectually rigorous than the title implies. A superb, sometimes personified portrait of the Alpine landscape, “Mont Blanc” also traces a journey through philosophical and scientific concepts that had yet to find a modern vocabulary.” (The Guardian)
Bill thought it was the Rock of Gibraltar. True to form, he bet it all and, for the third time, he lost it all.
Annie thought it was the Matterhorn. She lost her $10,000 bet and was left with $200.
Katrina wrote down “Shallott.” She only bet $4,000. That $7,400 she had left made her the new Jeopardy! champ.
The last triple stumper was in “Mammals”: ($1600) – A member of the raccoon family, the coati is also known by this longer name. Annie got it wrong with jaguarundi. Other names for that species include eyra cat and otter cat (just in case that ever comes up).
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “British Royalty,” in the match that put an end to Arthur Chu’s winning streak.
He was the last male monarch who had not previously been Prince of Wales. show
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A fraction is the ratio of a Numerator to a Denominator. A divisor is a number that will divide (with no remainder) a number [e.g. the divisors of 6 are 1,2,3,6]. Denominator is not the same as Divisor … the GCD is the Greatest Common Divisor of two or more integers.
I like this game. It got more of my favorite commentors going than anything since ToC.
Since I love you guys so much, I’ll defend the FJ bet yesterday. So, suppose you meet the other contestants and you think your ability is about average. Thus, you assess your likeliness to win one game at 1 in 3 (two games as 1 in 9, three as about 3%). But, you see a contestant there from LA whom you figure has just got called in (they aren’t usually as good of a player ). So, you figure your odds go up against that player in that game. Now, you assume that the average player (at least the one you would be even with ) will win $12,000 on the average. That means your expected value is $5000 for the next game, about 1666 the next, 560, 190, 80…about $7500 total. Now, let’s say you figure you get 70% right in FJ. You still have an expectation of .7 of the $7500 AND .7 of the $7700 bet on the FJ. You are, roughly, 40% better off.
Not everyone there feels they are a great player. For some, it makes sense to grab the fun while you can.
Thank goodness there were no math categories since none of the contestants was capable of calculating a strategically beneficial wager. It’s been some time since someone so arrogant like Bill appeared on Jeopardy. First, he couldn’t comprehend neither one of the “DD’s” … Thailand is not an island and what part of rhyming does Bill think means? Crazy wagering from all the contestants. He must have believed that he was an authority in both World Geography and Polish History to have wagered everything on both opportunities.
Here’s a local article about Bill. Says Alex Jacob coached him for the show. Bill coached another person who already played and came in third. And Bill made the same amount on WWTBAM as he made in this game.
VJ, Let me get my math right. Bill appeared on WWTBAM and walked away with $1000. Bill appeared on Jeopardy and walked away with $1000. Bill walked away with a total of $2000 from both shows.
Bill needs some more coaching. He had a huge lead over his nearest opponent and $8000 when he made a decision to wager it all for no reason other than go big or go home. Well, he got the latter wise!
I’ve seen a bit of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and by the $1,000 dollar question, they’re still asking questions equivalent to “Can you spell your own name?” To pose as a trivia expert because he flunked out when being asked basic general knowledge questions is scarcely truth in advertising, is it?
However, the last paragraph does have a bit of good news. I kind of liked “500 Questions”, so the fact that he was called to audition in January 2016 means that they’re likely bringing it back.
Bill’s wagering was simply going overboard, betting 8000 on the first daily double and then 2000 second time ending up losing it all and then final jeopardy. What was he even thinking? Kaya Chua did the same last year and made irresponsible wagers. Embarrassing as it is, Bill is a trivia writer but has very little knowledge of geography. His arrogance wasn’t going get him the championship
Now that I have watched the show 3 things concern me:
1) ts on Mike Bloomberg’s photo?
2) ts “one step forward two steps backwards?”
3) gcd=greatest common denominator? Surprised it was accepted. Shouldn’t it have been “greatest common divisor?”
@ Jacob, I wonder if Bloomberg is going to get mad about J contestants not recognizing him, like Chris Christie did when they got the clue about him & Cuomo wrong.
I believe denominator= divisor, hence they accepting it. 🙂
@Cece, greatest common denominator does not make mathematical sense. In my Trigonometry and Calculus courses we were taught Euclid’s Algorithm=GCD(greatest common divisor). If you can show me where GCD can be solved using the word “denominator” instead of “divisor” I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Well, obviously my comment was poorly stated. I did not mean “denominator” made sense—I know mathematically speaking GC denominator is not solvable. What I meant to say was because the word denominator and divisor are synonyms (in other senses), Alex and the producers decided to accept denominator, imo.
They’ve been so lenient with what is acceptable lately, that I now tend to try to figure out the “why” behind their leniency on a presumably wrong answer, rather than find it incomprehensible.
I didn’t mean to imply “denominator” should have been accepted. Hope it’s clearer now.
As a math teacher, I’m actually extremely miffed that they accepted “greatest common denominator.” Math education in this country is definitely lacking, and it’s partly because we math teachers get no help from the U.S. culture as a whole, this episode being only one example.
VJ, please tell me I’m reading the recap wrong. Bill wagered all of his money 3x and lost all of his money each of the three times? Then, Annie true to form from yesterday wagered big in fj. No surprise there. What are these contestants thinking? Keith will have a must see “Final Wager” tonight if he can pick himself up off the floor after he faints
Btw, Katrina was lucky. If Annie had been correct and Katrina had been correct she would have lost the game. What’s with these weird wagers lately?
Beats me what they are thinking with their bets. It wasn’t pretty at all watching Bill bet it all on that “City Nicknames” DD esp when the clue before it was a triple stumper ($2000 – the unofficial capital of Flemish-speaking Belgium, it’s “the City of the Madonnas”) I guess he was unnerved after that big loss. That’s the nicest thing I have to offer over that Prussia/Russia miss.
It can nicely be called self-confidence. It can less nicely be called arrogance.
Some of these guys — and it seems to be always men, not women — have seen egomaniacs like Chu do the “bet it all” thing and they think it’s a good strategy for winning.
There’s just one little problem with it. You have to know stuff. You have to know that Thailand isn’t an island, although they rhyme. And speaking of rhyming, you have to know about Russia and Prussia, which was kind of easy.
It’s embarrassing to make a total fool of yourself on your only time on national television, and it’s embarrassing to watch it, and it’s embarrassing to write about it, like I’m doing now, but that doesn’t stop me. I’m pretty arrogant myself, and I admit it — but never to the point of betting it all in a category like “Polish History”!
On “Jeopardy” you’re supposed to prove you have brains, but some guys think it’s an opportunity to prove they have another part of their anatomy. Excuse the crudity there; I’ve been watching too many Republican debates, I think.