Final Jeopardy: 21st Century Thought (7-28-17)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (7/28/2017) in the category “21st Century Thought” was:

The title subject of a 2007 bestseller, it was discovered in Australia where today it’s a state emblem.

New champ Shadi Peterman defeated a 5x champ yesterday and won $6,800. In the last game of Season 33, she is up against these two players: Dan Viafore, from Los Angeles, CA; and Mary Duffy, from Louisville, CO.

To all my visitors and comments: My sincere thanks for your visits and comments during Season 33. I truly appreciate all of you and your comments contribute so much to enjoying the show. If the next 6 weeks go by as swiftly as the last 6, the new Season will be here before we know it, and I look forward to “seeing” all of you in September!

Round 1 Categories: Hello, Sucker! – Stephen King’s Bad Folks – Countries of the World – Toys & Games – TV for Thee – In Vulnerable

Mary found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Toys & Games” under the $800 clue, with 9 clues left after it. She was in the lead with $2,400, $600 more than Shadi in second place. She made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT.

Sales of this game first known as Pretzel got a big boost in 1966 when Eva Gabor & Johnny Carson played it on TV. show

Mary finished in the lead with $9,000. Shadi was second with $2,800 and Dan was last with $1,200.

Round 2 Categories: Words of Wisdom – Medical “E”S – Plan – 9 – From Outer Space – & Other Odd Films

Shadi found the first Daily Double in “Outer Space” under the $800 clue, with 9 clues left after it. (That must be effect of that “9” category) She was in second place with $11,600 at this point, $1,400 less than Mary’s lead. She bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.

The only U.S. Pres. to be present at a shuttle launch, he watched John Glenn’s return to space after 36 years. show

3 clues later, Mary found the last Daily Double in “Plan” under the $1,600 clue. She was tied with Shadi at this point. They both had $14,600, $10,200 more than Dan in second place. She bet $4,000 and she was RIGHT.

Comrade, the first of these was started in 1928 and lasted until 1932. show

Mary finished in the lead with $21,000. Shadi was next with $16,200 and Dan was in third place with $8,400.

NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHAT IS THE BLACK SWAN?

Nicholas Taleb’s book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” is the 2007 bestseller referred to in the clue. In its second edition, “with a new section: “On Robustness and Fragility” (Incerto),” it’s still a best-seller on Amazon.

According to wikipedia, “the black swan is the official bird emblem of Western Australia, although only formally adopted in 1973.” Panique.com tells us that the black swan is the largest water bird of Australia that is “found in estuaries and waterways of Australia…. It was once thought that all swans were only white. The western world was shocked when these birds were first discovered. To them the discovery of a black swan was more astounding than finding a unicorn in their back garden.”



Dan wrote down “Poisonwood.” He lost his $1,201 bet, finishing with $7,199.

Shadi had “The Tipping Point.” That cost her $5,000 and left her with $11,200.

Mary came up with “Australopithicus.” She lost $11,401, dropping down to $9,599. That means Shadi remains champ. Her 2-day total is $18,000. We won’t be seeing Shadi’s third game until Jeopardy! returns from hiatus in September.

Final Jeopardy (7/28/2017) Shadi Peterman, Dan Viafore and Mary Duffy

A triple stumper from each round:

STEPHEN KING’S BAD FOLKS ($800) An encounter with an amoral politican makes a psychic contemplate murder in this work

FROM OUTER SPACE ($400) On TV in 1971 Alan Shepard called one of these “a little white pellet that’s familiar to millions of Americans”

2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Celebrities in Song Lyrics”:

In a song, Weird Al says, “I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows” him. show

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28 Responses

  1. Susan Ikenberry says:

    Shadi is a good player, but I felt sorry for Ms Duffy. She was a prodigiously good player, who deserved a better final Jeopardy! question…Question should have given more –something such as ” this living creature, an iconic symbol of the highly improbable…….”, or at least make it clear that they were looking for some sort of living thing…

    • VJ says:

      @Susan, I agree. By the way, now that the reruns are starting, I thought about your idea of second chance matches. Mary would definitely be a candidate!!!

      • Susan Ikenberry says:

        I can’t figure our how to deliver my idea… I wrote to them, but apparently I got the store, who had no interest in hearing from me unless I was buying something.

        • VJ says:

          @Susan, I’m guessing you used the contact form on their site?? I just looked all over Jeopardy.com for the snail mail address they used to have on there and couldn’t find it, but I found it elsewhere.

          Jeopardy!, Sony Picture Studios, 10202 West Washington Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90232

          But I don’t suppose that means you would get a reply. I forgot that I sent them a suggestion a few years ago that was something to the effect of when Trebek retires, when they narrow their replacements down to three, they should have them host the show for 2 weeks each and let the viewers vote on for the new host. I never heard from them.

          It does say on their Contact Us section that they can’t reply to everyone (under the “I Think I Caught a Mistake”) part.

  2. TaiwanBill says:

    What a convoluted FJ!?! I see I wasn’t the only one who was nonplussed and discombobulated. Hereto now, the only Black Swan I knew about was Odile in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet. The ones in Western Australia are something to see with the nearly white cygnets hitching a free ride on top of its parent. I’d love to hear them bugle and honk.
    Congratulations to Mr. Trebek (does anyone ever call him George?) who miraculously finished another season. I believe his contract runs through 2020. As you know he just turned 77 on July 22nd, and I didn’t hear anyone mention it. I have still have a few years on him, but he’s slowly catching up. He’s in much better shape than I am. If he renews his contract in 2020, he will certainly pass me, ’cause I may not make it. I found out his mother was Lucille Lagacé, which means we might be distantly related. But, I’m related through a great aunt to the Lagacés of Quebec and not Ontario. A surname that is mispronounced and misspelled any number of ways. Thanks for the wonderful and in depth research that you do, VJ.

    • rhonda says:

      Taiwan Bill, VJ had a very cute birthday balloon up for Alex on the 21st. She also posted a few photos of his very delicious birthday cake. Perhaps you will be able to find the posts and you will wish you had a slice of his cake, as did I.

    • VJ says:

      Thank you, TaiwanBill. I’m glad you enjoy the info. The birthday balloon and cake for Alex Trebek are on the July 22nd FJ recap.

      Interesting that you may be distantly related to Alex Trebek. Perhaps he was called George during his school days. I know several people who went by nicknames at home before school age, like my brother, Brian. He was always called Gus till he went to school. My father’s name was also Brian but his French aunts always called him Etienne when he was pre-school age. His middle name was Stephen and there was no French equiv of Brian. There was a story of how they made him wear a beret to school and he got punished because he “lost” it. He said he hated it and really threw it away in the road. LOL!

      • rhonda says:

        What a naughty little boy your dad was lol, VJ You brought back memories of my dad, who used to wear a beret in the cooler weather.

  3. Keith G. Knight says:

    That was the freaking WORST Final Jeopardy question EVER!!! Whoever came up with that should be fired, or shot!! Or both!! Don’t EVER come up with such a weird, disconnected, obscure, obverse, bizarre question again, or I will be in your office to replace each & every writer. A hundred chickens, pecking on typewriters, would make more sense than this stupid, ridiculous excuse for a question.

  4. Babs says:

    Alex called Shadi “Shandi” at the start of the show. Final j was certainly a puzzler!

  5. jacob ska says:

    For the final game of this season the contestants get stuck with a terribly written fj. I read the book several times and it has nothing to do with black swans. Title yes. Subject no. The author was a finance professor when he wrote this book. “Black swan” is a term used in business for an event difficult to predict, etc. As a matter of fact I heard the term on Bloomberg today at least 3 times by financial analysts. Shame on the clue writers. 🙁 :-[

    • VJ says:

      @Jacob, it was a confusing clue. Just frustrating as all get out!

      • jacob ska says:

        VJ, so true. I doubt if the clue writers read the book. “21st century thought” implies a new idea or thought. Please!!! Heck, Burton Malkiel wrote “A Random Walk Down Wall Street” in the 1970s. He dealt with randomness as did Taleb in his book. Randomness on wall street is not a 21st century thought. The contestants ought to contest this clue.

  6. Lou says:

    I hope Shadi will make it to the TOC just like Justin Vossler did. This was a great season finale unlike the last few with the leader losing final jeopardy like Tara Anderson, Courtney and Winston Nyugen did in their games at the start of their seasons 32 and 33. Also Shadi dodged a bullet and knows not to bet too much but I thought that Mary would bet lower though since she is a games editor. Do you remember David Leach? Did he make any bad bets during his five game run, Vj? I hope Shadi won’t make too many bad bets when season 34 starts.

    • VJ says:

      @Lou, wow, Dave Leach’s game were a long time ago! As I’ve said before, you have a better memory for players than I do. 🙂

      LINK: 11 more clues from this game

      • Richard Corliss says:

        Dave Leach won 6 games beat Jason Keller (Season 28’s biggest winner) Dan McShane beat Dave after losing his 7th game later Dan won 4 games. Later they met again in the tournament of champions. Keith Whitener and Paul Nelson also met. and Ashok Poozhikunnel and Kristin Morgan met as well.

      • Lou says:

        I know right? Those names came up in my mind although I do remember jared hall kept his games going throughout the start of his season. lets hope shadi will have better luck in season 34 like Jared did. Though I am happy that Shadi kept her cool and played with confidence like Justin Vossler did. Although he did make some bad bets, he won’t worry about doing that in the toc. Also, is black swan some sort of a science fiction novel, VJ? I thank you for sharing this season’s recaps with us. I think we could be the best of friends as long as I visit more often.

  7. rhonda says:

    I thought of you when Liechtenstein came up, VJ!

  8. RT says:

    Felt Bad For Mary that she got stuck with that brutal FJ cause she seem to be TOC Quality.

    • VJ says:

      I’m doing the weekly recap right now and can’t help wondering how it would have panned out if Mary had been in one of Justin’s games. I’d love to know if she knew “The Old Man and the Sea” FJ.

  9. Thad says:

    VJ, did you contest in jeopardy?

    • VJ says:

      No, Thad, I have never had any ambition to be a contestant on Jeopardy! because I stink at math and science categories, not to mention sports 😉

  10. Dalton Higbee says:

    Worst season finale ever.

    • William Weyser says:

      Dalton, it’s not that bad of a season finale, but you and I do know that the 2 players who did get Final Jeopardy right on Monday put a curse on all 3 podiums that no one will get Final Jeopardy! right EVER AGAIN. Let’s hope that on the Season 34 premiere, someone will break that curse.

  11. Richard Corliss says:

    Hope you’ll make it to the TOC Shadi.