Final Jeopardy: Colleges & Universities (9-24-19)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (9/24/2019) in the category “Colleges & Universities” was:

The 1862 Morrill Act gave states Federal acreage to sell for school funds, leading to the creation of 69 of these

17x champ Jason Zuffranieri, a math teacher from Albuquerque, NM, is closing in on that half million mark. He brought his winnings up to $472,096 yesterday. In Game 18, his opponents are: Karen Bland, an online English teacher from Myrtle Beach, SC; and Ian Torres, a video game developer from Redwood City, CA.

Round 1 Categories: 1939: What a Year in Movies! – “Gen” Knowledge – Read Any Bestsellers Lately? – Festivals – The Land Down Under – The Physics of Taekwondo

Jason found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Bestsellers” under the $800 clue on the 15th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $6,000, $4,800 more than Ian second place. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.

Baseball writer Tyler Kepner took an in-depth look at 10 types of pitches in a book with this single letter as its title. show

WHAT IS “K”?

Jason finished in the lead with $12,200. Ian was second with $2,200 and Karen was last with $1,800.

Round 2 Categories: That’s Old News – Allusions – Ted Talk – Who Are They? – Word Origins – Parody Songs on Sesame Street

Jason found the first Daily Double in “That’s Old News” under the $2,000 clue on the 3rd pick. He was in the lead with $15,000 now, $12,800 ahead of Ian in second place. He bet $4,000 this time and took a shot with Napoleon. That was WRONG.

The National Intelligencer, July 23, 1804: This man “disavows all motives of predetermined hostility” show

WHO IS AARON BURR?

Jason found the last Daily Double in “Word Origins” under the $1,600 clue on the 7th pick. In the lead with $14,600, he had $12,400 more than Ian in second place. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.

Partly from the Greek for “eating”, this type of coffin was made of stone ancients thought was able to eat bodies. show

WHAT IS SARCOPHAGUS?

Jason finished in the lead with a runaway $27,600. Ian was next with $12,200 and Karen was in third place with $2,200.

TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHAT ARE LAND-GRANT COLLEGES (or UNIVERSITIES)?

The Morrill Act of 1862 (aka the Land Grant College Act) was originally introduced into Congress in 1857, seeking to help establish practical fields of study, primarily agriculture, as opposed to the classical studies and general sciences curriculum. The Act passed Congress in 1859 but was vetoed by President James Buchanan. Vermont congressman Justin Morrill, its author, “amended the act to include the teaching of military tactics in addition to agriculture and engineering, and he resubmitted it to Congress in 1861. The act was passed and signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. At the time of its passage, the act excluded Confederate because of their secession from the U.S. The Morrill Act was extended to include those states after the end of the American Civil War.” Learn more from WiseGeek

From 1988: COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES ($400) A land-grant college must, by the Morrill Act of 1862, offer courses in the mechanical arts & this

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Karen got it right. She added $200 to her score to finish with $2,400.

Ian began to write agricultural, but decided to go with charter universities instead. He lost his $1,337 bet and was left with $10,863.

Jason also got it right. He bet $2,400 and won the game with an even $30,000. That was enough to put Jason over the half million mark with an 18-day total of $502,096.

A triple stumper from each round:

THE LAND DOWN UNDER ($1000) Down under Slovakia
(Trebek’s category explanation: the land with the longest land border south of the country we name)

ALLUSIONS (42000) Like the phoenix, this wounded “king” of Arthurian myth is associated with resurrection

2 years ago: Only ONE of the players in Austin Rogers’ first game got this FJ in “Fictional Characters”

At the women in I.T. Awards in 2017, the head of MI-6 said today the real version of the character known by this letter is female. show

WHAT IS Q?

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