Final Jeopardy: Business & Industry (6-19-14)

The Final Jeopardy question (6/19/2014), in the category “Business & Industry” was:

Founded in 1908, this big company was removed from the S&P 500 in 2009 after filing for bankruptcy but returned in 2013.

New champ Troy Senik ran away with yesterday’s match and won $28,700. Today he is up against these two players: Angie Rasmussen, from Seattle, WA; and Brian Keele, from Atlanta, GA. Let’s see if he can dominate the board again.

Round 1: Brian found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Places in Colorado” under the $800 clue. He was in third place with $1,000, half of Troy’s lead. He made it a true Daily Double and guessed Pulitzer. That was WRONG.

This city of 95,000 people is named for a New York Tribune editor. show

Troy finished in the lead with $6,400. Angie was second with $1,200 and Brian was in the red at -$400.

Round 2: Brian found the first Daily Double in “Moviemakers” under the $1,200 clue. He was in second place with $4,400, $3,600 less than Troy’s lead. Ignoring the bait from Alex Trebek to go for a true Daily Double, he bet $2,000. Good thing. He said “Danny Elfman” (and not in the form of a question) so he was WRONG.

O, this director of “Trainspotting” & “Slumdog Millionaire”, the pipes, the pipes are calling. show

Angie found the last Daily Double in “& Span ‘D_X'” under the $2,000 clue. With $5,600, she was $5,200 behind Troy’s lead. “No guts, no glory,” she said and made it a true Daily Double. She did the same thing as Brian, forgetting to use question form but she had enough time to realize it and correct herself so she was RIGHT.

This 2-word for a spiral shape dates to 1954. show

Troy finished in the lead with $16,000. Angie was next with $15,200 and Brian was in third place with $6,400.

Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHAT IS GENERAL MOTORS?

General Motors (GM) had been in the S&P 500 since the index was established in 1957 until its 2009 bankruptcy, Bloomberg says, reporting on its return to the S&P 500 in June 2013: “GM’s free float has increased to at least 56.2 percent this year from 44.5 percent at the beginning of 2012…. A minimum free float — the percentage of shares available to the public — of 50 percent is required for companies to be considered for addition to the S&P 500, according to criteria published on the website of S&P Dow Jones Indices….”



Brian got it right. His $6,300 bet brought him up to $12,700.

Angie thought it was AIG. She lost $15,000 and finished with $200.

Troy came up with Sears. He lost $15,500 so he ended up with $500.

My, my, my! What a finish! Brian Keele is the beneficiary of the failed Troy and Angie face-off and he is our new champ! Brian is an architect who works with an international firm specializing in high rises and high-end hotels! He is currently working on two projects in San Diego.

AN IMMODEST PROPOSAL ($2000) ‘Cilla Mullins, it’s the 17th c., baby, & I’m speaking for myself. Come on, li’l mama! We’ll have 11 kids & make Plymouth rock!

A Leon Uris thriller, the basis for a Hitchcock film: “____”

2 years ago:: NONE of the players got this FJ in “UNESCO World Heritage Sites”

Listed in 1983, this complex finished c. 1650 features inlaid semiprecious stones & Arabic calligraphy. show

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58 Responses

  1. Nomi says:

    Hi folks, I’m posting this after reading through the other comments. Without going into the intricacies of game theory, I think a close second should only wager enough to take over if the leader gets the FJ wrong. So Angie only needed to wager $801. That’s what I think. Please correct me if I’m wrong, Eric.

    Trainspotting is a fine piece of cinema and it makes me very happy that I knew both DD’s in the DJ round. But the DD in the J round was too American for me.

    Which brings me to my third comment. I believe the word “three” in the FJ clue referred to the big 3 car companies. When I, a non-American, read it that way, how come two contestants thought of AIG and Sears?

    • jacobska says:

      Nomi, where do you live geographically? Just curious.

      • Nomi says:

        Canada, but came here from a very distant land only a few years ago . That’s when I discovered J! I had always loved quiz shows and no wonder J! charmed me from the start because of its smart concept.

        • eric s says:

          Are you in Nova Scotia?

        • Nomi says:

          And I’m so grateful to VJ and all you other folks for furthering my J! education through this site. For example, just this morning Eric mentioned how Ken almost lost out on his very first game and it was so much fun finding it on youtube and seeing how close the world came to never knowing Ken Jennings.

        • eric s says:

          Too personal, don’t answer.

        • Nomi says:

          No, central Canada.

        • eric s says:

          This is going to sound remedial, but I used to love “Little Mosque on the Prairie”.

        • eric s says:

          Wow. You wake up early. Saw the time stamp on your post this morning and thought that the only place it would be dawn was Nova Scotia.

        • eric s says:

          Ken Jennings was Canadian nice. Probably because he grew near Seattle. I lived there for ten years, it was great: nice people and CBC.

        • jacobska says:

          Fantastic. Trebek would love having you on J. You seem to be a bright and energetic young lady eager to learn.

        • Nomi says:

          @Eric: what’s little mosque on the prairie? :). No, I just googled it. Another discovery thanks to the good folks posting here. Yes, I do wake up early…prayers and CotD :).
          @Jacobska: thanks. I think Alex is Canadian too.

        • eric s says:

          I hate to be wrong. I thought that you were in America, in the Northeast (thus early sunrise), figured you were single (you said you had a roommate), considered how snarky this country is about anyone else being here and thought student. Thus, I thought Columbia Law Student. I am like always wrong.

      • vj says:

        is it too personal to say what time zone we are in? I’m in Central. Also as I was telling eric recently, I have the capability to schedule something to be posted at a certain time and go to sleep or go do something else.

        @jacob – I don’t think john b saw your question but I think he sees the show about 3 hours after the review is posted. He told me once that they don’t have daylight savings in Hawaii.

        • eric s says:

          I thought you were watching a movie and we could say whatever we wanted?

        • vj says:

          LOL. I’ve got about a half hour left of it to watch. I recognized Kelly Macdonald by her voice right away. She is (Irish) Margaret on Boardwalk Empire.

        • eric s says:

          I’m out. But just checking that you saw Trainspotting #10 all-time BFI. I did not know that. Hope you enjoy the movie.

        • jacobska says:

          vj, it is not too personal to ask what time zone we are in. For example I’m on Eastern Standard Time. I know that you are one hour behind me. I watch J at 7 o’clock p.m. and on a different channel it is shown at 7:30 p.m. I get two opportunities to watch it.

      • john blahuta says:

        sorry, there was no space for a “reply” tag on yesterday’s question you asked. in hawai’i j is on @ 16:30 (cbs)= 22:30 eastern during dst, 21:30 eastern during the winter.

    • eric s says:

      Yes. You’re right about the 801! She could have stretched it to 2399 if she liked the category. Or gone 800 or 2400 if she thought that the competitor was weak (the devil you know beats the devil you don’t know).
      Also, I think the word “big” was a small clue as well.

      • Nomi says:

        That’s what I meant to write–“big”…not three. There wasn’t any “three” in the clue :).

  2. jacobska says:

    VJ and Eric, I have to get something off of my mind. Professors don’t perform well on Jeopardy to the level of Ken or Julia. My opinion as to why not is they are too specialized in one field. They are not afforded the latitude to venture outside of their area of expertise. This is why I said I would never go on Jeopardy. Professors are expected to conduct research in their field and publish in professional journals in that field and that field only. If you want to publish in another field you won’t be perceived as an expert. This is very limiting in my opinion. You really don’t get a broad cross section of knowledge. I have seen one professor after another go on J and get beat. Here’s the rub. People think because they are smart in one area of life they are smart in all areas and this is not true.

    A person would have to be a generalist and have a well-rounded knowledge base to perform well on a show like Jeopardy on a continual basis. That is show after show like Ken and Julia did. I know some people made fun of Julia but my personal opinion is she had a competitive advantage. Why? Degrees in Art, History, Engineering. That is a breadth of knowledge. Try getting a professorship with a diverse discipline academic background. It won’t happen. Remember the day the category was tv and I posted I had to bet zero if I had been on J. I know zilch about tv shows and pop culture.

    Why did I need to write this? I think it was some artist who sang everybody has their own thing. In other words, this is why some well credentialed people go on J and flop. They think they know it all but they don’t. There are people who are not well credentialed who excel on J because they are smart innately. Intelligence comes from experiencing life.

    Some reading this may disagree with me. There is an expression that if two people in the same room think the same way one is unnecessary. So different opinions keep the world moving forward. Have at it people. Good night.

    • eric s says:

      Jacob, you are so very bright in many areas. You said that you’ve lived in five or six different continents, so you should have a great sense of geography. You grew up in NYC, so all you guys who experienced cold winters are well read. There is culture everywhere. I grew up around LA man. No winters means no reading. And culture? LA is a strip mall in search of a city.
      Then getting to your background: international business! Man, you have to know about foreign
      governments, languages, all sorts of climates. You seem to know about the subjects that they place with the DDs. Pay attention to VJ’s primers and you’ll be set.

  3. eric s says:

    In 2008, Danny Boyle won the Oscar for Best Director (Slumdog Millionaire). Oddly, he was not even nominated for Trainspotting.

    • vj says:

      That was a cute clue. Going to watch Trainspotting now (I have Amazon Prime and it’s free on there).

      • eric s says:

        That’s good. And you don’t have to finish it to enjoy it. You may want the C.C. though, the Scottish accents are a bit thick.

    • eric s says:

      Trainspotting #10 British Film Institute all-time

  4. jacobska says:

    What a match! Brian played a weak game throughout the match but came through at the end. Angie was not far off with her response of AIG. GM and AIG were readmitted to the S&P 500 index the same year.
    However AIG was taken out of the S&P 500 the year before GM was taken out of the S&P 500. Troy was way out in left field with Sears. It merged with Kmart and became Sears Holding Company.

    The Jeopardy writers did a good job on this FJ clue. They were very specific by interjecting applicable years. No room for rebuttal on Angie’s part.

    I invest like John B. What I have discovered in conversations with people is that they have no clue about the different indices. For example, when the Dow is up or down I hear the market is up or down. No mention of the S&P100 or S&P500. The NASDAQ?
    Sometimes these indices close in opposite directions when the closing bell rings on Wall Street. So I’m not surprised only one contestant got this correct.

    • vj says:

      thanks, Jacob. I was hoping you would explain the AIG and Sears responses. 🙂

    • eric s says:

      Jacob, I’m curious about the term “big company” in the clue. Does that narrow it down, somehow? Aren’t they all big companies?

      • jacobska says:

        Do you mean all of the pubicly traded companies on the stock exchanges? No. Some are startups and have not raised much money from investors. Since GM has been around so long it has institutional investors (mutual funds that handle 401k’s, etc. ), small investors aka retail investors, and day traders.

        GM’s market capitalization (#shares outstanding x stock price) is approximately $58 billion. That is categorized as a big company compared to many smaller companies. Under Armour is a small company compared to Nike. Nike is in the Dow 30 because of its size monetarily.

        This might be more than you requested but I try to be
        thorough and leave no stones unturned. 🙂

        • eric s says:

          Well actually I just wondered about the world “big” in the clue. I feel as it would be correct to infer from what you wrote that all in the Dow 30 are big, but maybe not necessarily those in the S&P 500. I know big is a relative term, it just seemed odd in the clue, unless that is actually a seperate distinction?

        • eric s says:

          I guess what I was really wondering was if the word “big” was like a secondary clue. Like from “the big three”?

        • jacobska says:

          No. Had nothing to do with the big three.

        • john blahuta says:

          to add to that, since i “work” in that area:
          the value of a publicly traded company changes with every move of the stock ticker. if there are BIG news, good or bad, (e.g. when a company misses or exceeds wall street expectations or even more serious), the value of a , say 100 billion dollar company can rise or fall by 10% or more within seconds….
          BRK (warren buffet’s company trades at about $190.000.00 per share….. and i assume there are quite a few shares outstanding. that would make an impact!
          but then BRK is much too diversified for that too happen. however, investors often go by “intuition” rather than by facts. they hear a fly on the wall and the stock goes up or down significantly, although it is not warranted by any facts. the same with currencies. a company or currency is worth what people THINK it is worth. often they are off by quite a bit, when the rumors turn out not to be true.

    • eric s says:

      Also, you mentioned earlier that the government helped GM in their time of need. Have they paid the money back?

  5. eric s says:

    SIMPLE RULE: if you are in 2nd place in FJ, and a range exists where you can both take the lead AND eliminate the person in third, you must choose a value in that range. Yes, same as below.
    In today’s game, Angie should have bet between 800 and 2400 (inclusive or exclusive depending upon desire for ties). If you are going to be a contestant,
    please understand this: Game Theory (at least the
    simply examples that I illustrate), is, by far, the most important subject you can master for Jeopardy.

    • eric s says:

      Think of it this way: an entire category of a subject, if it comes up, is worth 6000 (if you get every obe of them right), maybe more with a DD. Today poor game theory cost Angie at least 12,800 and the chance to play again.

    • john blahuta says:

      the next step in fj wagering 101….

      i wonder, do contestants not think about this? “what if i am in a so and so position?” one should have a strategy for each possibility ready (unless of course it is a runaway or you have no chance to catch up. at least one should think so….

      • eric s says:

        They would have to be pretty unprepared not to. At least AChu raised the awareness regarding game theory.

      • eric s says:

        But alas, apparently not. How else could you explain bright people doing such stupid things.

  6. eric s says:

    Trainspotting was the funniest heroin addict film that I have ever seen.

  7. john blahuta says:

    and yet another champion.
    the third dd was easy for me, #s 1 and 2 – no clue.
    since i supplement my income by stock trading, fj was a gimme.

    it seems to me they are now “cleaning house” by using all the “stand-by” candidates. so hopefully there will be an online test soon!!!

    • eric s says:

      I believe your observation about the remaining candidates, except for a few, may be astute. Hopefully the faithful will be rewarded with a least two reasonably good players from here on (do you hear that Tom?), accompanied by a commensurate increase in the difficulties of the clues. At home Coryats may be lowering.

  8. vj says:

    what about Troy’s bet, Eric? I was just thinking he could have taken a chance Angie would be wrong. She came up with a couple of strange answers imo.

    And, no. I don’t mean her reply to the Dylan Thomas fill in the blank “Do not go _____ into that good night.”

    In the category Literary Gems, where all the replies were gems, for John Steinbeck: The ____, she said The Red Pony. It wasn’t like it was the first clue picked either — it was the fourth and all the other replies had been gems.

    • eric s says:

      The answer to your Troy question is not as simple as you may think, but yes, if he stays put or thereabouts, she is the only one who can beat him. The #Final Wager would say that he should cover her double (with at least a tie), but that, as we see here, opens him up to two players. That is one reason why I don’t always agree with the Final Wager. However, the way of the Final Wager insures that if the leader gives the correct response, they return. This is usually the way repeat champions play.

      • vj says:

        OK I understand. FYI, the category where that Dylan Thomas blank came up was “A Soft Touch”. Angie said gently, Brian said softly. By that time, Troy had recalled it is gentle and he got it.

        If you ever get a chance, listen to that poem reading online by both Dylan Thomas and Richard Burton or Anthony Hopkins. I think you will agree no one can read it better than the author. (He wrote it to his dying father — Rage, rage against the dying of the light).

      • eric s says:

        *simple as ONE may think*
        it was not meant to be personal

        • vj says:

          no offense taken. I put the link in your comment below. Keeping it simple, if not real. LOL!

    • eric s says:

      Further, that’s a pretty ….business friendly resume (link) he has. He probably liked the category, or at least felt that he should have.

  9. eric s says:

    SIMPLE RULE: if you are in 2nd place in FJ and a range exists in which you can take the lead and cover the double up of the person in third, ALWAYS choose a value in that range. Of course, you may choose to change it by $1only to play for a tie.

  10. eric s says:

    This is exactly what I was talking about yesterday. Angie, after a beautiful Roger Craig DD, COMPLETELY blew it!!! As illustrated by yesterday’s example, all she had to do was limit her range from 801 (to take the lead) to 2399 and she completely eliminates Brian’s chance to win: none! This is why GAME THEORY is so very important. This is more stupid than Nostradamus, or any response than I can possibly fathom.

    • will k says:

      Shhhhhh!

      No need to broadcast it so loud, eric. If we ever make it onto The Show we might as well content ourselves that at least we have a leg up on all of the nonhackers who simply don’t have a clue at the most critical moment in the game!

      😀