Final Jeopardy: 20th Century Newsmakers (3-8-19)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (3/8/2019) in the category “20th Century Newsmakers” was:
In 1982 a probate judge in his home state of Michigan declared him legally dead
3x champ Dana Wayne, an educator from No. Hollywood, CA, has won $64,002 so far. In Game 4, she takes on these two fellows: Josh Stephens, a journalist from Los Angeles, CA; and Conor Murphy, a graduate student from Thorofare, NJ.
Click here to leave well wishes and prayers for Alex Trebek. There’s also a link to where you can make a donation to pancreatic cancer research in his honor.
Round 1 Categories: Are You Shakespearienced? – A Measured Response – Billboard’s Greatest Hot 100 Singles – Verb “End”-ings – I Yield to… – The Senator From Illinois
Josh found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Are You Shakespearienced” under the $400 clue on the second pick of the round. He got the first clue in that category so he had $200 and everyone else had $0. He bet the $1,000 allowance and thought it was Brutus. That was WRONG.
This man says, “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him”, but he’s not being quite truthful. show
Conor finished in the lead with $6,000. Josh was next with $4,000 and Dana was last with $3,400.
Round 2 Categories: FBI Agent Non-Disqualifiers -The Humanities – Geograph”EE” – Plant-ed Evidence – Spanish-Language TV – Swap the Vowels
Josh found the first Daily Double in “Geograph’ee'” under the $800 clue on the 7th pick. He was in second place with $6,000 now, $1,600 less than Conor’s lead. He bet $1,600 and he was RIGHT.
It was the northernmost part of ancient Palestine. show
Dana found the last Daily Double in “Plant-ed Evidence” under the $2,000 clue, with 14 clues to go after it. In third place with $5,800, she had $3,400 less than Josh’s lead. She bet $1,800 and she was RIGHT.
Ancient Egyptians got a lot out of this water plant: cloth, mats, sails and oh yeah, material on which to write. show
Dana finished in the lead with $17,600. Josh was next with $13,200 and Conor was in third place with $9,200.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
One-time Teamsters President James Riddle Hoffa went to a meeting with associates on July 30, 1975 at the Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield, Michigan. He was never to be seen or heard from again, giving rise to many wild stories of how he was the victim of a mob hit and what became of his corpse. Interest in the case has been rekindled recently due to the upcoming Martin Scorsese film “The Irishman” due out on Netflix in the fall of 2019. It is based on the book “I Hear You Paint Houses” by Charles Brandt and involves the deathbed confession of Hoffa’s bodyguard Frank Sheeran (he’s the Irishman), who claimed he was Hoffa’s killer. The film boasts an epic cast with Al Pacino as Hoffa and Robert De Niro as Sheeran. Harvey Keitel, Joe Pesci and Stephen Graham, among others, play mobsters.
From 2003: A HOOSIERS WHO’S WHO $800: He was first seen in Brazil, Indiana in 1913; he was last seen outside a Michigan restaurant in 1975
Conor got it right. He bet $400, bringing him up to $9,600.
Josh thought it was Jack Kevorkian (died in Michigan in 2011). He lost $10,001, leaving him with $3,199.
Dana didn’t have a response and lost $8,801. That left her with $8,799 and made Conor Murphy the new Jeopardy! champ.
A triple stumper from each round:
THE SENATOR FROM ILLINOIS ($1000) A senate office building is named for him, Senate Republic leader from 1959 to 1969
THE HUMANITIES ($2000) Nijinksy tugged at the heartstrings as the tragic title puppet in this 1911 Stravinsky ballet
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “TV CHARACTERS”
Oxford Dictionaries lists his name as a verb meaning to “make or repair (an object) in an improvised or inventive way”. show
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This has been a week of a pattern for $ winnings. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we had small paydays. On Tuesday and Thursday, we had big paydays.
@VJ
No. I watch it because I learn something new every day, Plus, yes. I like it when there is a strong player who can win 5 or more games and I can root for. Does that answer your question??? That the # of ToC players is dwindling over the seasons is just a fact that puzzles me. If YOU know the answer, PLEASE share it with us!
@John, I don’t really worry about how the ToC pool is coming along, tbh.
What did you learn that was new today?
@VJ
For instance about Rihanna and a few more things I don’t have time to list. Do YOU know all 61 answers or do you learn something new as well every day????
PS I also learned that some players don’t even have an idea about the most basic power struggles in the Roman Empire……You learn positive and negative things. I prefer the positives one though, since it widens my horizon, even if I’ll probably never will use it . I am the type who wants to know everything, e.g. I wish I could speak all the languages in the world….Unfortunately an impossible thing.
No, of course, I don’t know all 61 answers. I didn’t know that ballet TS for one. Now I do, but remembering it is a different story.
That’s why I like to look things up because it helps me remember something when I read or see something about it besides the clue. But even that doesn’t always work because some topics are in one ear and out the other for me.
Eh, I’m willing to bet that our contestant today wouldn’t have come up with “Brutus” if the clue had been on a written test with more than a 5-second time limit. Mental lapses are bound to happen under the kind of pressure the contestants are facing, which is hard to imagine when you’re shouting out answers at the TV from the comfort of your living room.
See my response below about why long streaks are rarer now than they were a few years ago. It’s quite deliberate on J!’s part.
I believe the online test made the game waaaaay more competitive. 100,000 people take the online test every year so the show can choose from the very best. The very best playing against the very best every show means tougher competition, which creates more turnover.
At least Team Colby got revenge on Roger Craig last week.
And Alan Lin beat Buzzy Cohen & Austin Rogers, as he hoped.
And you’re not born with anxiety.
Congrats to Conor! I’m sorry to see Dana go, but she’s in very good company. Here’s something interesting: since the last TOC, 33 contestants have won 3 games or more, and the days on which they lost are as follows:
Monday: 4
Tuesday: 4
Wednesday: 5
Thursday: 5
Friday: 15
I know, I know, I need to get a life. But – having lost on a Friday myself! – I’m pretty sure I know why this happens. Friday is always the fifth and last episode filmed on any given shooting day, and if the champion has already played three or four games on that day, he or she is probably *exhausted.* The champ has virtually no downtime all day, and – as there are 61 clues per game and at least that many in the practice rounds – by your fourth game you’ve already faced over 200 clues under those bright studio lights. Unless you have some pretty superhuman stamina, your head is pounding and your buzzer speed is shot. (Personally, I played the most *boneheaded* game on Friday, making mistakes I’d have thought I wouldn’t have made in 1000 years – but fatigue can do funny things to you.)
Even more interestingly, of the 7 players who have won 5 games or more, all but one started on a Wednesday. (Alan Dunn was the only one who didn’t, starting on a Friday.) That makes total sense to me, as it’s the middle day of the week and so to get to 5 you never have to win more than 3 games in one day. So, to any prospective players who might be reading: if you want to make it to the TOC, try to make sure your name comes out of the hat for Wednesday’s game!
@ AM
Be that as it may, on March 18 it will be FIVE months that we had the last 5 game champ,
There were earlier seasons than 35 and 35 and players started on a Friday and still won 6,8,10 or more games. The last 2 seasons? Idk WHAT is happening. Is the level of players more even, so that nobody can dominate for a long time? Is it going down? We have seen players dominate 1,2 games only to crash terribly the next time. are the clues different, is the “generation thing” an issue, so that players only retain the last 10,20 years. On average I have to say thay older players seem to do better. Maybe younger people don’t find it necessary to remember – or learn – what happened 30,50,100 leave alone 2000 or 3000 years ago?? Overall the average # of wins seems to go down.
PS
We have only about 4 months to go in this season (interrupted by the TT whose winner will not replace anyone, just filling Larry Martin’s place) and we still have 6 4 game winners on the ToC list. I don’t see a sudden turnaround with 6 5 or more game winners emerging in the next 16 weeks (minus the TT ). There will probably be a College T. as well, so then there are only 12 weeks left. At least the CC gets a ToC spot, so that’s 1 player in 2 weeks. What if this trend continues? No ToC in 2019 either?
@John, I just have to ask — is this the only reason that you watch Jeopardy! — to see the ToC pool fill up?
I realize that you have not actually seen the game when you comment off the recap, but really, we don’t have to talk about whether there will be a ToC or not “at this rate” every day till one is announced, do we?
@John
Actually, J! *is* deliberately trying to even the playing field – by giving the challengers more time to practice their buzzer skills. The practice rounds are now much longer than they were just a few years ago, which cuts the champion’s buzzer advantage pretty severely. Given that 80-85% of clues are buzzer battles, with all three players attempting to ring in (we were given those statistics on taping day), evening out the players’ buzzer experience makes a world of difference. We won’t ever see another 74-game streak for that reason.
Wow, AM, that is really something when you see it laid out like that. As you say, it takes superhuman stamina to make it through 5 games as it is, so we could say anyone who makes it past that has ultra stamina!
Dana played a great game today and I was sorry to see her go too. But I was glad that she won over $30K yesterday after that low-scoring game the day before. I hope that the same thing happens for Conor on Monday – a big haul!
I never saw that whole 1992 movie with Jack Nicholson as Hoffa. Just parts of it but I’ll probably see this one that’s coming up just for the actors. There’s a bunch of Boardwalk Empire actors in it and there’s a rumor that Leo DiCaprio will have some cameo appearances as RFK.
LINK: 10 more clues from the match
Hey, VJ—no biggie but, on Dana’s DD you wrote ” In third place lead…”
There’s a Brazil, Indiana? Of all places! 🙂
Thanks, Cece. Yeah, that’s where Hoffa was born and he disappeared in Bloomfield, Michigan. There’s a Bloomfield in New Jersey, too. That’s where I got my first apartment when I was 21. So now, we can say we can both connect to him in less than six degrees, right?
Right! Even though I only know him as some dude who disappeared, lol.
We started the week with the finals of the Jeopardy! All-Star Games, and ended with a new Jeopardy! champion. On Monday, all Eurovision entries are revealed to the public, and this NF season is a rollercoaster with Albania and Spain off to a fiery start, then some controversy in Italy, France, Romania, and Ukraine, and will end in Sweden with the finals of Melodifestivalen. As @John B./I. said, “the last shall be first again”, so maybe the finals in Stockholm can save it or hurt it even more. Have a great weekend, everybody, and good luck to all Melfest acts.
Really Brutus? I guess Josh isn’t up on his Shakespeare literature. Another week closed with no streak winners but I hope Conor can build on his win. Plus John and VJ, isn’t Jack Kevorkian a doctor that does assisted suicide? And also who exactly murdered jimmy hoffa? That was a cold case never solved.
@Lou
Shakespeare??? He’s not up on history. Mark Antony later forged an alliance with Cleopatra and got defeated by Octavian at the battle of Actium. He and Cleopatra committed suicide. Roman history 101.
Brutus was one of Caesar’s assassins. “Et tu, Brute?” is not just Shakespeare, it signifies an expression when somebody is betrayed by someone s/he never expected. Like your best friend elopes with your wife or the CFO has his hands in the company kitty…LOL
And yet another week comes to a close and another 5 game winner prospect bites the dust. October 18 was the last one…. (Alan).Go figure, The Last Supper: everybody gets it and HOFFA (they are still looking for him and you have at least 3 or 4 “special investigations” on TV per year….just one. And the last shall be first again.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYBODY!!!!!
PS
Can’t help it: but BRUTUS????