Final Jeopardy: Historic Transports (7-28-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (7/28/2014), in the category “Historic Transports” was:
Its principal mast is at Arlington, its foremast is at the Naval Academy & a monument to it, restored in 2013, is located in Havana.
Our first semi-final match in the 2014 Teen Tournament features William Golden, ($16,200); Jeff Xie, ($19,000); and Sydney Mokel, ($24,001). William and Sydney were the winners of their quarter-finals and Jeff snagged a Wild Card. Their previous scores are shown with links to the quarter-finals they were in.
Round 1: Sydney found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Let’s Visit D.C.” under the $1,000 clue. She was in the lead with $2,400, $1,400 ahead of both Jeff and William, who were tied in second place. She bet $1,600, and she was RIGHT.
Though he (showing statue) didn’t even live to see 1777, he is honored with a statue for his contribution to the American Revolution. show
Sydney finished in the lead with $6,200. Jeff was second with $3,000 and William was last with $2,400.
Round 2: Sydney found the first Daily Double in “Chemical Elements” under the $800 clue. She was in the lead with $7,800, $3,600 more than Jeff in second place. She bet $2,200 and she thought it was xenon. That was WRONG.
The Roman numeral for 100 is also the chemical element for this element. show
Jeff found the last Daily Double in “Stamps” under the $2,000 clue. In the lead with $10,200, he had $200 more than William in second place. He bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
A stamp commemorating the War of 1812 features the Battle of this Lake. show
Jeff finished in the lead with $12,200. William was next with $10,000 and Sydney was in third place with $6,400.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
The Spanish American War Centennial website has an extensive list of where parts of the Maine are on display in the USA. The two places mentioned in the clue are listed first. Naval History and Heritage has photos of the Maine.
In 1925, Cuba erected a monument in honor of the 266 men who lost their lives in the fiery explosion in February of 1898. See the monument’s page on Latin American Studies.org for a look at some of the stuff the monument has been through before its restoration in 2013.
Sydney started out with the “USS M” but crossed that out and was going for the Lusitania when time ran out. She bet and lost it all.
William got it right. His $7,801 bet brought his score up to $17,801.
Jeff also got it right and he also bet $7,801. He finished with $20,001, so Jeff Xie wins the first spot in the finals. Congratulations, Jeff!
Sydney and William won $10,000 each. That’s what they are taking home in case you happen to live in the Houston area and see the KHOU news report that says William won $16,000.
Note from VJ: Sorry I won’t have the final score pics this week. Jeff was so excited to win though, I’d be willing to bet Jeopardy! will upload a youtube of that moment on their channel.
2 years ago:: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Kids’ Business”
The corporate headquarters of this store founded in 1948 is at One Geoffrey Way in Wayne, New Jersey. show
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My real complaint is that the judges didn’t make the call in time for Sydney to elucidate or whatever they call it when Alex “sometimes” allows that and other times does not. Be consistent!…and surely don’t wait until after the break.
I totally disagree with you. Right is right and wrong is wrong. What if someone said, “For Whom a Bell Tolls” or “The Midsummer Night’s Dream” or “Gone with a Wind” or something? It would sound very wrong, and although my interest in this “Secret Life” thing is rock bottom, absolute zero, a title is a title, and if even one letter is wrong — it’s wrong!
If your name were John A. Smith, and someone called you John B. Smith, would you say, “Oh, that’s fine. It doesn’t make any difference.” I doubt it.
You can imagine the screaming and hollering you’d do if you lost a game because someone who got a word wrong was counted right.
And this has nothing to do with Alex Trebek. He doesn’t know his you-know-what from a hole in the ground. He does what the judges tell him to do, the same way the President does what the Pentagon tells him to do.
Now, having said all of this, it’s absolutely certain that reading a good book is a much more valuable way for one to spend one’s time than watching any television show, even Jeopardy. So you do that, with all our blessings.
What if someone simply says, “What is Midsummer Night’s Dream” leaving off the “A”? I believe that the ruling in these types of cases is to rule “correct”.
This stuff can get ticky-tacky, but I agree with vj that the clue in question is borderline at best, and could have just as well have been tossed out by the final arbiter before making it onto the game board.
Yup, we have traveled that road before with The Catcher in the Rye. Just Catcher in the Rye was accepted.
But Tom has a good point that is being overlooked. This was NOT Alex Trebek’s decision. It was a decision made by the writers, judges or whomever. Alex just delivered the news. In the Roman days when someone delivered bad news we all know what happened. We are no longer in those days or are we?
P. S. In fj one contestant wrote “USS Maine” and another wrote “Maine.” Both were rendered correct. Just an observation.
MR CLARK: I am left to wonder if you have a middle name, or if your given name is Thomas? If so, I believe your example, upon which much of your argument hinges, of John A. Smith or John B. Smith begins to hold much less water, for here, you are simply Tom Clark.
I believe that your underlying feeling is that articles have become too decreasingly important in today’s society. Perhaps, however, if this title passes the ears of the judges the first time, it may seem capricious to penalize a teenage girl.
Sydney got totally screwed out of 1600 dollars on the first double jeopardy question when Alex informed her after the break that she used an incorrect article “an” instead of “the” without the the benefit of clarification during the match…this kind of repetitive BS lately has convinced me that Jeopardy is itself BS…after all the years a Jep fan FU Alex…
I’m done….
Jep is no longer worth watching….I’d rather read a
Good book which is what I will be doing from now on. Retire Alex!…
After Alex informed Sydney that she was having
1600 dollars deducted from her score after a
Nit picking incorrect “an” instead of “the”
She had a look on her face like ” you can’t be serious”…I wish she had said it!…
Yeah John McEnroe!..
Thanks for bringing that up, Dale. That was a tough break for Sydney and I personally don’t think that they should use a title like that “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” for a response myself. It was a long-running and popular show but after a while it was commonly referred to as “Secret Life”, and it would be too easy to forget if the actual title had “an” or “the” in it.
Of course, as a recapper, I know that the show had an acronym SLOTAT but so what — still an unfair clue imo.
i wonder what they would do, if a contestant – in a tournament, otherwise they could somehow “lose” the show – would say ” YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING !” and walks off?????
just curious.
At the rate that viewers get pissed off at Trebek, over the course of 30 years, they must have had at least a few who reacted badly to a decision by the judges.
William should have bet 2801. If correct, he would beat Sydney if she doubled up. He would win if Jeff was wrong and probably win if it was a triple stumper.
Even though I had picked Jeff for the win, I found myself actually rooting for William! And I was hoping he would get the last DD. I wonder if he knew it.
yup. my sentiments exactly. it was william’s only chance. since jeff was right and bet the necessary amount, it became a moot point.
Anyone find it odd both guys bet the exact same $$$ amount $7801? Seems fishy
Seems a bit odd, perhaps, but not exactly “fishy”, methinks.
😉
@Jim, I did find it coincidental but not fishy.
william could have ended up with 20.000. so jeff’s bet was logical and basically mandatory. his 12.200 plus 7.801 = 20.001= winning thje game. williams bet made no sense whatsoever, at least not to me.
anticipating that jeff would bet 7.801 and had 12.200, jeff could have ended up with
4.199, if wrong. so william shold never have bet more than 5.800 (10.000 minus 5.800 = 4.200, he would beat jeff by a buck. but then sydney could have caught him. 2 x 6.400 = 12.800.
so william was in a no win situation. his hope was that jeff would be wrong, but he wasn’t. so, since jeff did make the “mandatory” bet, it was curtains for william.
p.s.
in order to guard against sydney, all william had to do was bet 2.801. as i said before, w. was between a rock and a hard place. if jeff would get fj and bet as needed, w. had no chance. still, w.s bet was strange, to say the least.
This was said by Marilyn about a half- hour before, but is a significant improvement over the theory which you first proposed. I found it a bit confusing, but I think that you meant that William’s only shot of winning was for Jeff to miss, and of those choices, leaving a dollar more than Jeff’s perceived downside ($12,200-7801=$4399), was the maximum bet ($10,000-4400=$5600). You were correct, of course, to revise and agree with Marilyn, as her analysis took into account Sydney.
@ Advanced
yes, that’s why i put in the “p.s.” since i figured not everybody would think through all possible outcomes.
Then we should probably put a P.P.S. to take Sydney’s best options into account. To me, her best bet is $800, so she, if correct, can cover William’s minimum downside (his $7199 to her $7200) and still have a better chance to win on a triple-miss (if William over bets). Of course, we can’t think through all of the possible outcomes. In this scenario, if William believes Sydney is only going to bet $800, he may only wish to bet just enough to cover Jeff, maybe $ 2,201. These “head games” go through many scenarios. Too many to cover now. The Final Wager does a good job of this, though.
Congrats to Jacob on his prediction of 2 right for FJ.
It did look like Sydney might prevail for a while there today. It was shame that she got mixed up on her Roman numerals, too, because she had given carbon as a wrong answer not too long before she got that DD.
Thanks vj. Sydney fizzled in the 2nd round which was surprising for a senior. William as a 7th grader showed more confidence. I liked that in him and Jeff’s enthusiasm. Too many triple stumpers.
Congrats on your pick of Jeff to win, vj!
I hope we get at least one girl in the Finals group though.
I’d like to hear thoughts on how the gameplay went for today’s game.
Thanks Bill. The last 3 clues were the bottom 3 in that Stamps category and William was in the lead. He picked the $1600 clue. Jeff answered it correctly, giving him a $200 lead. Then he went for the $2K — the DD. Sydney then answered the $1200 clue correctly.
Thanks for that clarification, vj. Interesting game for sure.
It looks like Jeff had a “Holy Grail” DD in his possession –i.e. he uncovered the final DD right at the end or very near the end of the Double Jeopardy round.
If that was the case, instead of betting the 2k he chose to wager he might just as well have gone big, as in really big and wagered 10k. Always an interesting position to be in in any case, and he would have won however he chose to go about it as it turned out.
It seems as if your analysis is close, but not quite complete. If Jeff found the DD on the last clue, his $2,000 bet was horrible. All wagers/investments or economic decisions should weigh the risk versus the return. In this case, missing would put him below William’s amount, whereas a correct response would not increase his chances of winning at all. Thus, he was risking a lead while not improving his chance to win. In this case, his choices would be zero (?) to $199, or $9801 to all.
As I re-read your post, I believe it was your intention to say that instead of betting the 2k he chose to wager, he should have either gone very big, or very small. In this case, we agree. It was the ” might just as well” that threw me.
@Bill, my opinion is that the game had too many triple stumpers. William held his own for a 7th grader and the youngest contestant in the teen tournament. Sydney started out strong in the first round but began to fizzle in the second round. Not a good performance from a senior up against a 7th grader and a Junior. Jeff was a solid player and as vj’s recap shows he had the lead going into fj. You and vj correctly picked Jeff for today’s win. So kudos to you and vj my friend.
One has to love Jeff’s enthusiasm. He tweets live during the airing of the show @jeffenomenom. Very appropo twitter account name I must say.
We shall see what tomorrow will bring in the 2nd semi-final game. Btw, Sydney had USS M__ then crossed it out. She was heading in the right direction. But she had second thoughts which cost her everything.
I agree about the triple stumpers Jacob. I was pretty surprised that Sydney did not know Mrs. Duhamel is Fergie