Final Jeopardy: Bridges (7-25-18)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (7/25/2018) in the category “Bridges” was:
In 1990 the Yalu River Bridge was renamed the “Friendship Bridge” between these 2 nations; one is the other’s best friend
3x champ Dave Mattingly, a director of technology from Pennsylvania, came through with another runaway yesterday, bringing his winnings up to $77,400. In Game 4, he takes on these two guys: Burt Westermeier, a PhD candidate from Connecticut; and Ron Freshour, a copywriter from Texas.
Round 1 Categories: Straight to Billboard No. 1 – Nonfiction – Professional Nicknames – I Want To Go Nuts! – Gonna Paint This Town – “Red”
Burt found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Nonfiction” under the $400 clue on the 16th pick of the round. He was in third place with $400, $3,800 less than Dave’s lead. He bet the $1,000 allowance and he was RIGHT.
This book published in 1611 is the subject of the recent work “God’s Secretaries” show
Dave finished in the lead with $5,000. Ron was second with $4,800 and Burt was last with $2,000.
Round 2 Categories: Capital Letters – World War II Timeline – Animal Planet – Weird Words – Religious -isms – Celebrity Partial Name Changes
Dave found the first Daily Double in “Capital Letters” under the $1,600 clue on the 9th pick. He was in the lead with $6,600 now, $1,800 more than Ron in second place. The triple stumper on the preceding “Capital Letters” clue did nothing to deter him from making it a true Daily. He drew a blank so he was WRONG.
This 7-letter Central American capital ends in the same 4 letters as its country. show
5 clues later, Burt found the last Daily Double in “Religious -isms” under the $2,000 clue. In the lead with $5,200, he had $400 more than Ron in second place. He bet $1,200 and took a guess with “all.” That was WRONG.
The Tao in Taoism is usually translated into English as this 3-letter word. show
Burt finished in the lead with $13,200. Dave was next with $7,200 and Ron was in third place with $4,400.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT ARE NORTH KOREA & CHINA?
The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge spans the Yalu River between Dandong, China and Sinuiju, North Korea. Built by the Imperial Japanese Army between 1937 and 1943, it was originally just the Yalu River Bridge until 1990, when China and North Korea mutually agreed to rename it. According to The Rambling Wombat, “the operating Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge now carries all vehicular and rail traffic between Dandong and Sinuiju. Pedestrians are not permitted to use the bridge. Despite lack of progress on the development of two Special Economic Zones in the Sinuiju area the bridge is no longer able to cope with traffic volumes, not helped by the fact that truck weight is restricted to 20 tons for safety reasons…”
In the above video, YPT No. Korea Tour Mgr. Rowan Beard shows you the Friendship Bridge and the nearby Broken Bridge tourist magnet on the Chinese side.
Ron wrote down “What is the Jeff Bridges? That got him a round of applause and he only lost $1.00, finishing with $4,399.
Dave doubled up and finished with $14,400.
Burt got it right too. He bet $1,201 so he won the match with $14,401. Burt Westermeier is the new Jeopardy! champ.
A triple stumper from each round:
NONFICTION ($600) Lynne Truss bemoans the state of modern punctuation in this bestseller
GONNA PAINT THIS TOWN ($1000) In 1888 Van Gogh gave us “Sunset: Wheat Fields Near” this French city on the Rhone
2 years ago: NONE of the players got this FJ in “20th Century English Nobility”
In Africa on Nov. 26, 1922, he anxiously asked Howard Carter, “Can you see anything?” show
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@VJ Yeah, it means “Land of the Swazis” in their language. King Mswati III is ruling with his mother His father, Sobhuza, died in 1982, after almost 83 years of reign, the longest in any history. He was proclaimed King when he was 5 months old…12/1899..)
Mswati’s mother is co-regent, it is diarchy,her name is Ntfombi Tfwala,born 1950.
Mswati III was born in 1968 and crowned in 1986 at age 18 (not at 5 months of age….)
What a country! HIV and tuberculosis. Almost 26% are infected with HIV and 64% of all deaths are HIV/AIDS related. Life expectancy: 50….Not exactly the place I wanna live. BUT: I learned a lot again!! TB has an 18 % mortality rate,14K new TB cases per year, many people infected with HIV AND TB… Numbers are hard to come by and change annually,depending what access the WHO has.
A few other things I learned, not exactly pleasant. That country must be hell. In 2000 life expectancy was about 61, falling to 32 (!!!) in 2009. At least that’s the available info.
Swaziland is way better than eSwatini. I mean, if they change that, many could cause confusion.
@John, how do you manage to miss the point of my comment so often? It was simply why is the “e” in eSwatini lowercase.
FYI I read the wikipedia page on Swaziland years ago and I even put up a post about his oldest daughter in 2013: Princess Sikhanyiso: The Royal Rapper
After Tuesday’s game I thought Dave would be a 20 game winner. Jeopardy is truly a baffling and humbling game.
Indeed, Albert. We haven’t seen anyone who can surpass Julia Collins or Ken Jennings.
btw, I also meant to post a link to this article, The Friendship Bridge misnomer, when the Friendship Bridge was in the news last November, after Kim Jong Un snubbed a delegation sent from Beijing in Oct 2017
Thanks for the interesting youtube video, VJ.
You’re welcome, Rhonda. Who knew, right?
@VJ
I never told you this, but I also appreciate the links VERY MUCH! When you see the right answer in writing then it sticks really a lot more than when you just hear it. Plus, your links often lead to other links I’m interested in. So I learn a lot everytime. THANK YOU!
You’re welcome, John, and yeah, that is what I believe: when you read some extra info about a clue, you “know” it that much better. That is precisely why I do it .
@John Christian
OK then!!
Aloha from Maui, Hawaii!
John
Well I can say that I.am not surprised about Dave’s runaway bets becoming his undoing but still he has what it takes to try again in the toc later on. Furthermore I loved that jeff bridges response since there is comedy here after all. Also VJ what were some of your takeaways in today’s game? I wonder if Burt misread that clue in the DD about religious philosophy of Tao?
@Lou, it was a pretty good game for me. I thought Dave would have landed on the right DD response in time if he started from the bottom of Central America with the capitals of Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
In the “Paint This Town” category, I was thinking “good, they’re not going to have a Van Gogh clue,” never dreaming they would stick one under the $2,000 one and wow, was I surprised no one got that!
@VJ
did you read the part about the “last 4 letters…” didn’t we have something like that not too long ago????
@John, there’s this State Capitals one from last November and this Countries of the World FJ from last October.
And remember the Landlocked Countries clue from July 2017? That wouldn’t fly anymore now that one of the countries has a new name
@VJ
Yes, it was the Switzerland/Swaziland one! But since April 18 it is now called Kingdom of Eswatani. I thought it was just 4 months ago or so , but that’s it .THANK YOU for checking!!, I knew the last 4 letters were involved!
@John, it is eSwatini — at least whenever I see it they are spelling it that way like eBay or something. I don’t get it — a lot of things are called Swati — the language is Swati or siSwati and I would say, hey, maybe that’s it. Anything before Swati has to be lowercase but the King is Mswati
Anyhow the name change is not going over too well
So, Dave’s runaway streak came to an end with Burt. That means that he could be the last champion for the season and we have to start the countdown all over again.
I heard of the Yalu River in the BBC documentary 20th Century Battlefields where South Korea’s forces are looking for its victory over the North but the Communist forces held fortified positions to that river. In the FJ clue given, it’s called the “Friendship Bridge” because the response to the question are allied to each other, North Korea is allied with China.
Well, Dave is gone. His undoing was the DD. Had he gotten it right, he would have won the game. I think we will see Dave in the ToC anyway.
Is it deja vu or did we have the same or a similar clue with last or first 4 letters of a country not to long ago???? I am almost 100% sure there was something with “last 4 letters” being the same…..
Found the “Jeff Bridges” answer cute.
And to answer your question from yesterday: Yes , I did read the question but it escaped my mind that the Viceroyalty of Granada included more than Colombia. I focused too much on that country. Plus I had a couple of really hectic days. MUCH better now!
@John Have you read my response that I’m from the Philippines? Besides, what a “blip” on today’s game.
@John Christian, Yes to both.
@John, yes, New Granada, that is why the map was necessary to that clue. Besides, if I didn’t think it was necessary, I would not have put the image up.
“Jeff Bridges” was a good one and very funny but my favorite clue today was the one about the Chinese man and the “pups.” Ron’s “rhino” answer was priceless!! I had to go look up what a black rhino calf looks like. I guess it could be mistaken for a dog for a while.
LINK: 11 more clues from the match
@VJ
Gotcha! I loved that “Jeff Bridges too and so did Lou!