Final Jeopardy: 19th Century Notables (1-7-19)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (1/7/2019) in the category “19th Century Notables” was:
When he died in Samoa in 1894 his obituary said, “He loved Samoa better than any other place, except Scotland
4x champ Jonathan Dinerstein, a composer from Los Angeles, CA, won $93,301 last week. In Game 5, he takes on these two players: Meredith MacVittie, a marketing strategist from Ambler, PA; and Zorn Pink, a policy analyst from Ottawa, Ontario.
Round 1 Categories: Musical Collaborations – Promotion – Nursery Rhymes – Pagan Lore – 2 Can Play That Game – Rejected Superheroes
Meredith found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “2 Can Play That Game” under the $800 clue, with the other 4 clues in the same category left after it. She was in the lead with $6,200, $3,000 more than Jonathan in second place. She bet $2,000 and thought it was Mandala. That was WRONG.
It’s time to start this ancient Asian game played with 361 pieces on a 19-by-19-line board. show
Jonathan and Meredith finished in a tie for the lead at $4,200. Zorn was hot on their heels with $4,000.
Round 2 Categories: Moving the Capital – Actors & Their TV Roles – Words From the Malay – European History – A Bird – In the Hand
Jonathan found the first Daily Double in “Words from the Malay” under the $1,600 clue on the 15th pick. At $9,800, he was in a tie for the lead with Meredith. Zorn had $4,800. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
A word from the Melee as well as the Malay, to “run” this way is to be wild & frenzied. show
Zorn found the last Daily Double in “A Bird” under the $800 clue with 8 clues to go after it. In second place with $9,600, he had $3,200 less than Jonathan’s lead. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
Lewis Carroll included himself in “Wonderland” as this bird, a childhood nickname he got for stuttering his real last name.
show
Jonathan finished in the lead with $16,400. Zorn was next with $13,400 and Meredith was in third place with $8,200.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
RLS is not that well known for his travel books these days, nor are his connections to Samoa. He and his wife, Fanny, chose to move there in 1889 for medical and other reasons. The RLS website has a timeline of his life in Samoa from 1889 until his death and Frommers vividly describes what life was like at his mansion, Vailima.
From 2000: AUTHORS ($400): The Samoans gave him the title “Tusitala”, or “Teller of Tales” (The guess on that was James Michener).
Meredith thought it was Gauguin. She lost $2,198, finishing with $6,002.
Zorn went with Gauguin, too. That cost him $6,000 and he had $7,400 left.
Jonathan went with Captain Cook. He lost $10,401, landing in third place with $5,999. That made Zorn Pink the new Jeopardy! champ.
2 triple stumpers from the last round:
WORDS FROM THE MALAY ($800) A Malay word for a weight gives us this small storage container for your tea
A BIRD ($2000) This man’s 414 B.C. comedy “The Birds” features a chorus of them that directly addresses the audience
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “19th Century Notables” (the same category as today!)
Calling him a red-headed madman, in 1889 a group of his neighbors signed a petition to ban him from his home in Arles, France. show
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I also meant to post a link to Steve Trussel’s website, where he has an awesome collection of Samoan stamps honoring RLS, as well as stamps from other countries. There’s even a 1994 Scottish banknote marking the 100th anniversary of RLS’ death.
He also has a collection of Sherlock Holmes stamps, if you look at the links at the bottom of the RLS page, and a lot more on the home page
Sorry I missed today’s prediction, I was already asleep when I usually post. I would probably have gone with either 0 or one, so TR got it. I was not surprised, after all we are talking TWO different countries, no hint at the profession (author).
CONGRATULATIONS to Zorn, though we started the week with a TS which leaves Jonathan in a precarious situation. Currently at #13 overall he and everybody below him will drop a spot after the TT in May, I guess we will have 2 TT winners in the next ToC, Larry being one of them. Mary Ann will then go to #15 and be on the cusp,
Just a short PS to the answers today. Both were in the Pacific, so not THAT bad, but G, was was closer geographically, but he covered the 20th century as well (died 1903). Cook lived and died in the 18th century, being killed by native Hawaiians on the Big Island, simply called “Hawai’i”, like the state. Also wrong century, but sort of close, all 3 players.
Pretty good scores, so I guess not many TSs during the game. Zorn’s bet could have resulted in a tie (!???) but won him the game eventually since J. did bet something and was wrong as well.
A Triple Stumper ended Jonathan’s streak, and crowned the very FIRST Jeopardy! champion of 2019. How awful.
Exactly, and I had high hopes that Jonathan Dinerstein would be our 1st 5-time champion since Alan Dunn. Instead, a Triple Stumper got in the way. GAH! I HATE TRIPLE STUMPERS!
William, I had high hopes for Jonathan too. Well maybe next time. 🙂
Maybe, Zorn Pink will be a 5-time champion. I don’t know.
Obviously Meredith hasn’t heard of Japanese chess games like shogi or go or obviously she never watched Hikaru No go the Japanese animation based on the game GO. We now have six four time champs and barely any five time champions since Alan Dunn. But still now that all the three time winners are out, this evens the playing field but we do need another five time winner and soon. Also Gauguin is actually a French post impressionist artist and not a travelling author. By the way VJ and John have you ever played Shogi or go?
@Lou, I’m not playing nothing that comes with 361 pieces. 😀
There was nothing in the clue to point to an author. When they had the same category on this same day of the week 2 years ago, it was an artist.
LINK: 10 more clues from the round
Thanks my friend. Also that other comment from that user saying that I am unable to talk to normal people here, that was so not needed. It was really unfortunate that someone could waltz in here and just attack me out of the blue with a comment that has nothing to do with the game itself. I am glad you removed that comment because whoever that user was, she shouldn’t have said that to me. I do have to apologize for those who are affected by that.
@Lou, well, I did not even know that comment published. It was in moderation when I saw it. If someone doesn’t like something you said on here, he or she should address you directly about it and say why he or she finds it offensive.
That’s 4 times in a row that we had a possibility of a 5 or more time champion that just didn’t happen either because a tough Final Jeopardy! clue got in the way, a champion didn’t find any of the Daily Doubles, the 2 opponents got Final Jeopardy! right & the champion didn’t, the champion got tired, or 1 of the 2 opponents scored a runaway, and the champion couldn’t catch up. We haven’t had a 5-time champ since Alan Dunn, and we need more than 9 definite Tournament Of Champions, so that we can get closer to the field, and we’ll have our 15 TOC Players.
I read your comment about Lee Tucker getting defeated by Joyce Yuan and Keith Williams. He got no answers correct in Double Jeopardy.
Really? I don’t know that. Poor Lee.
Or having another lady since Rachel Lindgren.
We’ll see if that holds up.