Final Jeopardy: Oscar-Winning Writers (6-2-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (6/2/2014), in the category “Oscar-Winning Writers” was:
Winning for 1999, this New England writer is the last person to win an Oscar for adapting his own novel.
20x champ Julia Collins is a “Girl on Fire”!
She’s beaten Dave Madden’s 19 wins. Her winnings stand at $428,100 and she could beat Madden’s $430,400 today. Here are the first two competitors of the week looking to end Julia’s streak: Brian Loughnane, from Scituate, MA (originally, Ireland); and Debra Walsh, from Morehead City, NC.
Round 1: Julia found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Historic People in Art” under the $1,000 clue before the first break. She was in the lead with $1,800, $200 ahead of Brian in second place. She made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT.
A Book of Psalms from the 13th century shows the 12th century murder of this man. show
Julia finished in the lead with $9,400. Debra was second with $2,000 and Brian was last with $1,000.
Round 2: Julia found the first Daily Double in “Word Origins” under the $1,600 clue. She was in the lead with $14,200, $9,000 more than Debra in second place. She bet $3,200 and thought it was a calculator. That was WRONG.
The Greek for “sand tray” gives us the name of this counting device. show
Brian found the last Daily Double in “Easy Being Green” under the $2,000 clue. After some nice catching up, he was in second place with $8,600, $800 behind Julia’s lead. He bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
This city’s 1997 protocol limits emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide & other greenhouse gases. show
Brian finished in the lead with $12,600. Julia was next with $11,000 and Debra was in third place with $5,200.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
Plans to make John Irving’s 1985 “Cider House Rules” into a film began the year after the novel was published but it over a decade to get the film done. The film garnered 7 Oscar nominations. It won 2 Irving’s Best Adapted Screenplay and Michael Caine’s Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Dr. Wilbert Larch. In an interview with (The Guardian, Irving talks about the challenges he faced in adapting his own novel for the screen.
The article notes: “The Cider House Rules is the most successful film of Irving’s books; the director of My Life as a Dog is, after all, the perfect choice for a tale about the flowering of a young man out of step with the world around him. George Roy Hill’s film version of The World According to Garp kept that book’s epic scale but substituted quirky humour for one-liners; Tony Richardson’s The Hotel New Hampshire was overtly camp. Hallstrom’s film moves the audience in the same way as the book moves the reader, despite the changes in plot and timing.”
Debra wrote down Maine’s own, Stephen King. It didn’t cost her anything and she remained at $5,200.
Julia came up with (Michael) Chabon (born in D.C., lives in CA now). She lost everything she had! No chance to win this one now.
Brian got it right. His $10,000 wager brought him up to today’s winning total of $22,000.
And so ends Julia Collins’ amazing streak, just $2,301 short of totally being second. “Well done, young lady,” Alex Trebek said, when he should have been congratulating Brian Loughnane, the newest Jeopardy Giant Killer, but we’re sure he did off-screen.
2 years ago:: NONE of the players got this FJ in “Word Origins” (coincidentally one of the DD categories today):
From the French for “to set in the woods”, this word refers to a type of attack. show
We may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made from Amazon.com links at no cost to our visitors. Learn more: Affiliate Disclosure.
I knew and expected that Julia lost
‘Jeopardy!’ champ explains how she lost (video)
The TOC doesn’t have to happen in a given season. In fact they’ve been running them, something like, every year and a half for a long time now.
I don’t see any reason why the TOC doesn’t happen sometime September-ish, or perhaps just a tad later. We’ll see.
Anyway, you’ve got to believe that a TOC at this point would be highly anticipated by the fan base, so why would Jeopardy honestly want to pre-empt it all of a sudden?
[I know, to protect Julia, but I don’t buy that idea.]
Last two TOCs were in November 2011 and February 2013 –a year and 3 months apart. But this timing isn’t a precise thing and I believe it varies a bit depending on the various tourney’s held throughout a season, and how the summer break happens to fall vis-a-vis TOCs return.
Did you enjoy Ken Jenning’s ToC? And he had two seasons upon which to qualify.
The question really is: why would they have it?
Well, Jennings actually placed second (behind Brad Rutter) in the “Ultimate TOC”, which ran from early February thru late May in 2005. So Jennings’ not being in a regular TOC is kind of a moot point, I think.
Having just had the BotD tourney, I would “Roger Craig” my bet that the TOC is coming this Fall. That is, as long as Alex is still going strong and I believe he likely will be for his 31st season. What ELSE would Alex really want to do?
🙂
Although it would seem redundant to hold the ToC the same year as the UToC, an alternative view would present the UTOC as a no-lose situation: Ken wins and look how great he is or someone else wins and it’s a good thing that we no longer limit the wins (keep watching to see who else may do it). No such scenario protects Julia: having just had a major tournament no epic saviour of yesteryear exists and the villian AChu awaits.
Obviously time will tell, but I would hate to see you lose 10200 twice on this.
You’ll have to excuse Tom, he’s a conspiracy theorist. In this case, I actually disagree with Tom: I think the vast majority of her completion was weak for both sexes.
So Ginny, what do you make of the fact that there doesn’t look to be a ToC this year?
When you look at the semi-final pairings of the BoD, it sure looked like they wanted Ken Jennings and Brad Ritter in the final. It looked like they were going win-win-win with the third pairing: a gambling fan favorite, an attractive woman, and a black teacher.
Perhaps they weren’t happy with the play of Roger Craig. Doesn’t that make a new woman record climber that much more attractive? Now, however, they need to protect her from the evil AChu (or worse, Andrew Moore). If she wouldn’t win the ToC, they would lose a lot of good press. Throw in the history of Ken Jennings not playing in a ToC and it starts to look like they found their poster girl (aka the third of the mighty trinity).
Please understand that I believe that Julia is very talented, I also believe that she was coddled, but probably not in an egregious manner.
I agree with everything you posted, Eric. Julia is knowledgeable, but she was DEFINITELY coddled too.
Dan, there is an easy way to tell when you’re right: when you agree with me.
Really just kidding, I am often wrong (see apology to Tom) and many, many more examples.
To be quite honest, I would like to see Julia narrowly beat AChu and Sarah McNitt.
They are correct. This ‘champion’ was mediocre, and her competitors were chosen to reflect the average…can’t have too many one day wonders.
Tom, I wouldn’t want to live in your head. You have no proof for your absurd theory.
Well, there you go. The rigging is now proved. 🙂
No, see, they achieved their goal of having a woman place very high in the rankings, the second alltime winner. Then there was no longer any need for any rigging; Julia was left on her own; and we see the result.
I saw Julia interviewed on MSNBC tonight, and they pointed out that this year, women have been winning more than in any previous year. It’s as if they ADMITTED there was an agenda to all of this.
Julia also said her women competitors were tough. We must be living in different universes. They were about as tough as cotton candy.
As I’ve said all along, and as this interview tends to prove, there was something fishy about this whole thing. There had been complaints for a long time that Jeopardy champions were too overwhelmingly white males, and I guess they’ve decided to do something about it.
It’s interesting that with no rigging, who beats Julia? A white male. Well, that’s the way it goes.
As I re-read your post, I realize that you didn’t say the female participants (tough as cotton candy) were weaker than the males. I should have known better and I am sorry.. It was an invalid assumption on my part: nowhere in your post did you comment on the strength of the males (although I think that you would say they weren’t worthy of praise either).
Nicely put, Tom. I started seeing Julia’s streak as a fraud in the beginning of week 2.
Congratulations Julia for your marvelous critical thinking on Jeopardy. The last twenty games were very entertaining. You are indeed a very bright young lady. And, you are a very pleasant person as well. Enjoy the vacations you plan to take.
Kyoto as a $2000 DD clue rings alarm bells. That’s so easy that it shouldn’t even be a DD, and certainly not more than an $800 clue. I think they had it in there hoping Julia would pick it up and score big off it.
Sorry if it seems I’m being anti-Julia but the conspiracy theories were started by people much more intelligent than me. And I can’t led slide Kyoto as the response in a clue that included the word “protocol”.
You know we miss a lot by not watching the game. When you look at the archives and you see a triple stumper on something you readily know it is still not as bizarre as seeing baffled participants. It makes you wonder. Now I wonder what will happen to the ToC. If they don’t have it, it will be hard to wonder if they’re protecting the mystique of Julia (I believe they had no ToC with Ken: either year, haha). There is no doubt that she is a bright player, but there is no doubt that they don’t want her to lose to AChu (remember him? ) or anyone else, really.
I hope that it’s a return to the classic game that we all love. Also, especially for Tom, I hope that they begin to sponsor Quiz Bowls.
But they can’t postpone the ToC forever, and surely whenever they have it Julia will have to be in it.
Ken Jennings was never in one. In fact, he has never won a tournament. He is a great player. No doubt. And a wonderful representative.
Eric, Ken Jennings was in two ToCs and lost both to Brad Rutter.
Well, actually, the first was an ultimate ToC, the latter a Battle of the Decades. There was that Watson thing (which Madden beat twice in simulations) where Ken actually scored more than Brad (but didn’t beat him since he didn’t win). The notable difference being that, for whatever reason, Ken Jennings was only put into situations were losing was acceptable: that is, his loss would only be to previous tournament champions.
The Final Wager has a calendar showing that the last two weeks of Season 30 will be taken up by the Teen Tournament
I guess that would usually be when the ToC occurs. I mean, it would be harsh to be a champion after.
I guess it’s a synthesis of wanting to bury AChu and wanting the poster girl unvarnished.
It’s just good business.
*probably unTarnished as well. Typing on the phone can be rough: it thinks that it knows better that I. It is only usually correct.
@aaaa
and anyway, since brian got fj it is a moot point. who is the one you should guard against or trying to catch???it’s one of the appealing qualities of j. they did call it jeopardy for a reason and it’s aptly named.
so after all the excitement with the BotD and julia’s run, i guess it is back to business as usual unless brian can mount a streak himself??
I would love it if Brian went on a streak… all of a sudden lots of Irish folklore categories popped up, Irish symbols like Brian Boru’s harp, Yeats poems, Irish drinking songs, Irish holidays. LOL! It would be a riot.
Just kidding, but here’s an Oscar Wilde quote for Brian – he got today’s Wilde clue right off the bat.
“When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old I know that it is.”
Somebody help me out on this one in “Memoirs”
This 18th century Frenchman’s “Confessions” set the template for modern autobiographies.
I thought Rousseau was Swiss.
Wow, so true VJ. Here’s what I read on Wikipedia:
“Throughout his life, he generally signed his books ‘Jean Jacques Rousseau, Citizen of Geneva’.”
All my life I thought he was French.
He died in France and is buried in Paris. Maybe they lay claim.
Does that mean we can start calling Jim Morrison a Frenchman?
Maybe after a hundred years, they figure that you’ve been there long enough.
Ok, seriously, here’s what I found:
from Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius (Damrosch): “… when he became a prominent writer in Paris he signed himself Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Citoyen de Geneve. But by then he had abjured the Protestant faith and thereby lost his citizenship rights in Geneva. Still later his books would be publicly burned there and a standing warrant lodged for his arrest if ever he should return.”
from “Masters and Slaves: Revisioned Essay in Political Philosophy” (Michael Palmer): “Rousseau officially returned to the Protestant religion and regained his Genevan Citizenship (which was afterward again revoked, permanently) on August 1, 1754” — (and that was around 1761 when they banned and burned his Treatise on Education, Emile, and at the same time, the same book was banned by the Archbishop of Paris)
so how does that work? Rousseau himself plainly did not identify himself as French even during the times when he didn’t have the right to call himself a citizen of Geneva.
Don’t you feel that way in texas?
Generally, I think of myself as an American, then, I guess a Jersey girl. I would never refer to myself as a Texan since I was not born here. The 3 top things I miss about NJ are the food, the spring and the fall. The top thing I don’t miss is the snow. :-0
Ah, but you have a texas driver’s license or ID card, I would assume. Logically, they could claim you as their own.
Also, I think that I am located now within 150 miles of you. I am trying to get my Mother’s house ready to sell, but have been sidelined occasionally with a bad back. Thank you, and anyone else reading, for suffering through my extensive posting.
I’ve had back problems myself and know it is an excruciating ordeal so I hope it improves for you.
VJ, my understanding is that Rousseau was French because he was born in Geneva the French region of Switzerland and both of his parents were French. He signed his works as Rousseau from Geneva to emphasize this fact. Someone born in Zurich would be from the German region of Switzerland and therefore German. I know it sounds odd but there is no such thing as a Swiss language. The two dominant languages in Switzerland are German and French. When we lived in Germany and went to Switzerland it was a fascinating diverse cultural experience. The good part? Most people spoke 2 languages. Their regional language and English.
Bottom line? Switzerland has citizens who claim their region as the basis for their ethnicity.
Thanks, Jacob. Some further reading says he was actually stateless after the book burning business. He went into exile in England, then returned to France under an assumed name. The government decided to leave him alone as long as he didn’t try to publish and he stayed there till he died.
This interests me because of another site I work on where I put in 3 people to represent a name and give their nationality. Sometimes I don’t agree with designations I find. Take Lucky Luciano for example– wikipedia calls him an Italian-born American mobster. He was born in Sicily (yes, I know, Italy) and he became a U.S. citizen but he was stripped of his citizenship and deported. So how can you say he was American? I ended up just calling him a Sicilian-born mobster.
You’re too funny, vj. I bet you throw some very interesting parties. Remember when McCain was running for president and some opponents said he was born in Panama and not a U. S. Citizen? Then it was determined he was because children of American citizens born abroad are U. S. Citizens. Proper paperwork has to be filled out with the State Department. But I digress. Our minds go in all directions don’t they? But, I think this healthy. It keeps us alert.
A clue about Cider House Rules was a $1600 clue in DJ! on 7/5/2013: Michael Caine and John Irving won Oscars for this 1999 movie, Irving for writing, or something to that effect.
Thanks. I knew FJ sounded familiar from last year. You have assured me.
yes, aaaa remembers correctly — I was looking it up:
On 7-5-13 – This was the $1600 clue in From Book to Film. “John Irving & Michael Caine won Oscars for this 1999 film– Irving for adapting his own novel.” Alice Kelly got it right. It was Ben Ingram’s 5th win. Not linking to recap because clue won’t show up, but if you want to see that game, it’s still on here (you just put 7-5-13 instead of 6-2-14 in the URL)
The year before on 10-31-12 – in John in His Own Write: “He also wrote the screenplay for the movie version of his novel ‘The Cider House Rules'”. Hillary Meyer got it right. This was Keith Whitener’s 6th win (recap also still on here – I decided to take them down after 2 years).
First time John Irving has been an FJ answer. The book never has been an FJ answer.
it was “best adapted screenplay” for irving.
If Brian hadn’t gotten John Irving, Julia would have lost due to inoptimal FJ! wagering. Wagering less than $600 would have guaranteed a win on a triple stumper assuming Brian wagers optimally.
I have to admit that I am confused by your calculations. I get that by “Brian wagers optimally”, that does not include him betting zero (where he wins simply if Julia misses), so it must mean that he has to cover her if she is correct. What amount then fulfills “wagering optimally”?
I understand that the 600 guarantees that her losing equals Debra’s most (on a double stumper).
I guess that I am wondering what amounts (or range) you would advocate for each player?
i am glad brian won since he was the only one getting fj right. a deserved win. otherwise debra would have won by a triple stumper/default.
as for the last dd: i am sure that A LOT of cities have the same regulations as kyoto……somewhat of an ambiguous clue imo unless i missed something spoken, since i have not seen the show yet (it’s only 2.43 p.m. here, j wont be on for almost another 2 hours. (the price you pay for living in hawaii….)
all in all, congratulations to brian and julia. one # 2 ranking out of two is not too bad, i wish i had that record!
There is no doubt that phrase “hindsight is 20/20” is classic. Through the years, though, I have tried to change it to “20/10”. Ted Williams had it, it seems fair for hindsight. Just saying.
Anyone may feel free to use it without quoting me. Haha.
Congratulations Julia on a good run. It now comes down to more money for Julia through endorsements and special appearances. I was surprised that she got the final Jeopardy incorrect. Bill, I owe you a virtual beer. VJ, can you check and see if the FJ clue was used on Jeopardy within the past year? It sounds very familiar. The other thing I noticed is that Julia wrote her name slanting downwards. I don’t know if that was her being tired or whether it was prophetic.
The Irish side of me is glad to see Brian win though. Brian, go for win 2 tomorrow. Eric, we were correct on the CotD. I’m convinced that clue was on Jeopardy last year. VJ, help me. I know my memory serves me correctly.
You’re too kind. I said that Julia would get it right and thought she would. But thank you, anyway.
Correction: “slanting downwards.” Never heard of “slanting downloads.” That will teach me to use tablets to speak rather than use the keyboard.
I fixed that. So funny! When I first read it — I read downloads as downwards.
VJ, thanks.
a virtual latte. 🙂
I don’t like beer.
🙂
By far her to challenger, though not a genius, Julia lost easily. She just had too many women during all the wins.
Wow. I’m guessing that Nicky isn’t short for Nicole? There have been and there will continue to be many great women players. Further, it wasn’t like she didn’t beat eighteen guys. That, in your world, would be nine wins: really not too bad. So, say that she was helped by easier opponents if you like, but please leave your sexism in your man-cave.
Man, that is sexist. Hope you don’t say that in a room full of females.
VJ hits the exacta: Brian wins, Julia misses. Good calls.
Did you see her GMA interview on youtube, Eric? Sadly, they only gave her 2 questions from Facebook.
Just saw it. Thanks. I knew that my question wouldn’t get in. I did not know Utah, but I guess with the salt water it makes sense.
I love the Irish…:):):).