Final Jeopardy: Novel Quotes (3-13-19)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (3/13/2019) in the category “Novel Quotes” was:
A boy at the end of this 1952 novel says to the main character, “Say it ain’t true, Roy”
New champ Barton Wong, a senior trading associate from Toronto, Ontario, won $23,200 yesterday. In Game 2, his challengers are : Adrian Goldstein, a technical writer from Oakland, CA; and Sam Corbett, an assistant office manager from New York, NY.
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Round 1 Categories: The Dry Tortugas – Notable Women – Children’s Lit – Architecture Terms – “Ph” does not equal F – Hollywood Memorabilia
Sam found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Notable Women” under the $800 clue on the 13th pick of the round. He was in second place with $2,200, $600 less than Adrian’s lead. He bet $1,200 and he was RIGHT.
In 1952, this pioneering writer on the environment was the first woman to win a National Book Award for nonfiction. show
Sam finished in the lead with $5,000. Adrian was second with $4,400 and Barton was last with $1,000.
Round 2 Categories: The Wet Tortugas – The Pulitzer Prize – Trending at Merriam-Webster – Expensive Stuff – The Best “of” TV – World Leaders 1919
Barton found the first Daily Double in “World Leaders” under the $1,200 clue on the 3rd pick. He was in third place with $2,200 at this point, $2,800 less than Sam’s lead. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
Billy Hughes spent WWI advocating this wartime practice, which split Australia as it later did the U.S. in the 1960s. show
Barton found the last Daily Double in “The Pulitzer Prize” on the 11th pick. In the lead with $10.000 now, he had $3,400 more than Sam in second place. He bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
The editorial board of the New York Daily News was prize-worthy for helping to save this theater in Harlem. show
Sam finished in the lead with $17,400. Barton was next with $16,400 and Adrian was in third place with $6,000.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
The boy saying the line in the clue is speaking to Roy Hobbs, the main character of Bernard Malamud’s first novel, “The Natural,” and actually comes from the 1919 Black Sox Scandal when it is claimed that a newsboy said those same words to Shoeless Joe Jackson. The book was made into a film in 1984 starring Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs. There are significant differences between the novel and the film. If you want to find out what they are, check out Richard Warren Field’s Book-to-Movie blog post on “The Natural.”
From 1998: AMERICAN LITERATURE ($600) The title character of this Bernard Malamud novel is Roy Hobbs of the New York Knights
Adrian got it right. She bet $4,000, raising her score to $10,000.
Barton got it, too. He bet it all and finished with $32,800.
Sam came up with “The Gunslinger.” He lost $15,401, landing in third place with $1,999. So Barton remained champ with a 2-day total of $56,000. “American money, not Canadian,” said Alex Trebek.
A triple stumper from each round:
CHILDREN’S LIT ($1000) According to the title of a book by Giles Andreae, these animals “Can’t Dance”
THE PULITZER PRIZE ($2000) Chris Hamby won for showing how doctors & lawyers worked to deny benefits to miners with this disease gotten on the job
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Airports”
This city’s international airport is named for Antonio Carlos Jobim, who co-wrote a 1964 hit song. show
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The 1 thing that I want Barton to do tomorrow is be in the lead going into Final Jeopardy!. If he doesn’t, the law of average is going to get him.
So the champion, trailing by $600 with seconds to play in Double Jeopardy, chooses a $400 clue, which means he is guaranteed to not take over the lead with a correct response, and will likely have to compete with both other players on the buzzer because it will be an easy clue. The only strategic reason I could see for this would be if really, really doesn’t like the category that has higher value clues remaining.
I guess a more charitable interpretation would be that he was not paying attention to the scores because of the stress and dynamics of the game, and after the fact may have realized he did not select clues optimally. Although it’s a lesson for prospective contestants that you should make a conscious effort to always be aware of the current scores and choose the clues accordingly.
Why was Dec. 7 1941 ruled incorrect?
@JD, because he gave too much (like he did with the eavesdrop thing, too).
The clue was “Every year on this date, the phrase ”a date which will live in infamy'”
They just wanted the date.
I believe that just “Dec 7” was required. Adding “1941” made the answer incorrect, I believe. I think Barton got rooked when the show declared him wrong on that question, but he won in the end so there isn’t any real controversy.
No, Albert, he didn’t get rooked on that. The clue clearly said “every year” and Dec 7 happens every year but Dec 7 1941 only happened in 1941.
FDR said dec.7 1941
I remember being stunned at the ruling on this clue back in 2017. It was a daily double on the $1200 clue in the category “In The First Place”.
The clue was:
“This area in the title of perhaps the most famous WWI novel saw the war’s first major gas attack on April 22, 1915”
And the contestant responded:
“What is ‘All Quiet On The Western Front?'”
To which Trebek responded:
“You gave us the title of the book, and the correct response is ‘the western front’. You included the correct information. That’s right.”
I cannot see a way to square that ruling with today’s ruling. Perhaps there is some subtle difference between the clues that I’m missing that could adequately explain the difference in the rulings.
I should add that I can see a good argument being made on both sides of the issue. I just think there should be a consistent, understandable standard.
I know if I had answered “Dec. 7 1941” in today’s game and they told me it was wrong, I probably would have thrown a fit and said ‘What about that western front clue back in 2017!? You’ll be hearing from my lawyers!’ OK probably not, but I’m curious how they would respond to such an incredibly specific protestation from a contestant…
LOL, JP, you cracked me up with “you’ll be hearing from my lawyers” 😆
I think they would tell you to take a look at the category and this article
Never heard of the movie, nor read the book. Barton made risky DD and Sam tried to win in FJ, but risked too much. I guess Adrian or Barton may have heard of the novel, but there’s a lot of possibilities there.
@JCA
Sam had to wager that much in order to cover Barton, if he doubled up and was right (both things happened). But Sam got it wrong, so FELICITATIONS encore une fois , Barton!! Nice haul today.
Thanks for the encouragement and support, everyone. I appreciate it.
I was surprised that one DD turned up in Notable Women today after they had one in Women Authors yesterday. Congrats to Barton on his big win today, though I have to say I felt kind of bad for Sam. He played a great game when you consider that he only made $1,200 off his DD and finished in the lead.
And, JJ, you know how sometimes they keep the rabbit clues coming? Apparently, this week is Grape Week. They had another one in
EXPENSIVE STUFF ($1000) Just 2 years old, in 2017 a bottle made from this “most renowned grape variety” for fine red wine sold for $350,000
Also, last line today on this book. In 2018, they had
FIRST LINES FROM NOVELS ($1000) 1952: “Roy Hobbs pawed at the glass before thinking to prick a match with his thumbnail”
LINK: 8 more clues from the game
Well hot-diggity-dog! First Cousin Zin and now Brother Cab! So far its been a great week for “The Planet of the Grapes”… Woo-HOO!
Two days in a row for you!
I never read the book but I got this one as well since the hint baseball came to me. I also appreciate your hard work on here VJ. Congrats to Barton once again and to Adrian getting this right. As for the gunslinger, that is mostly a cowboy movie and has nothing to with baseball. John and VJ when did you guys watch The Natural?
My internal dialogue on FJ went something like: “‘Say it ain’t so’? That was Shoeless Joe Jackson, not some guy named Roy. But hmmm… maybe still baseball related … was the guy from ‘The Natural’ named Roy? I don’t think so. Besides, I don’t remember ‘say it ain’t so’ ever being said in that movie, and can’t think of a time that line would have even made sense. But I guess ‘The Natural’ is the best I got. Probably a 10% chance that’s right.” I’m curious if anyone else went through the same line of reasoning.
On another note: VJ, I hope that you are not discouraged by the ridiculousness in the comments this morning. This site runs like a well oiled machine (apparently even more reliably than Jeopardy/New York Times!) and hope you know that your work is much appreciated.
@ JP – That is EXACTLY the sequence of my thoughts when I first saw the clue. I never read the book, but I had seen the movie a few times so I did pick up on the “Roy” portion of the hint, so it was “Baseball + Roy (Hobbs) = ‘The Natural'”!
And BRAVO! to you, my friend, for your words of encouragement toward our Lady VJ! We are spoiled by her hard work and dedication to keep this amazing ship floating as smoothly as it does. Her devotion to this project is remarkable and you don’t need to have earned an MBA from an Ivy League school to realize that she ain’t getting rich off of this – she obviously must look upon it as a labor of love for all of us to enjoy!
This serves as a valuable reminder to me that I need to thank and praise her more often…
Yes, VJ, I couldn’t agree more with what everyone has said far better than I could.
I so appreciate all of the amazing work that you do for us and am always so grateful to you for all that you do! You have no idea how much you and your site mean to me. You are one fantastic lady!
Thanks so much, Rhonda
You’re very welcome,VJ!