Final Jeopardy: Literary New York (12-3-19)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (12/3/2019) in the category “Literary New York” was:
An insider described the scene there: “Just…loudmouths showing off, saving their gags for days, waiting to spring them”
3x champ Alex Damisch, a data scientist from Chicago, IL, has now won $33,549. In Game 4, she is up against: Stephanie Sumulong, a middle school social studies teacher from Fort Collins, CO; and Theodore Conrad, an urban planner from San Francisco, CA.
Round 1 Categories: What’s for Breakfast? – Classic Novels – Motorcycle Makers – Words & Their Meanings – Broadway Names – State of the Lotto Scratcher
Theodore found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Classic Novels” under the $600 clue on the 7th pick of the round. He was in third place with $800, $1,200 less than Alex in the lead. He bet $400 and had no response so he was WRONG.
Esther Greenwood is a college student & aspiring poet in the 1950s who suffers a mental breakdown in this autobiographical novel. show
Stephanie finished in the lead with $3,600. Alex and Theodore were tied in second place at $3,000 each.
Round 2 Categories: Not-so-easy Kids’ TV – Doppelhangers – When I Was Secretary of State… – Animal Maladies – All About Eve – In Extremis
Alex found the first Daily Double in “All About Eve” under the $1,600 clue on the 16th pick. She was in third place with $4,200 now, $2,000 less than Theodore’s lead. She bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.
In genetics, this “Eve” named for part of maternal DNA refers to the last common female ancestor of all modern humans. show
Stephanie found the last Daily Double in “Secretary of State” under the $800 clue, with 10 clues left after it. She was in a second place tie with Alex at $7,200. They both had $200 less than Theodore’s lead. She bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.
I opposed slavery & got us what would be an entire state, though no one appreciated it at the time. Hurtful! show
Stephanie finished in the lead with $15,000. Alex was next with $8,800 and Theodore was in third place with $5,400.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
The Algonquin Round Table was an elite and exclusive group of literary luminaries who lunched together for about a decade (from 1919) at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. Their members included well-known wits of the day, such as Dorothy Parker, Herman Mankiewicz, Robert E. Sherwood and Harpo Marx. The partial quote in today’s clue comes from Dorothy Parker’s assessment of the Round Table in her later years in an AP interview: “People romanticize it. It was no Mermaid Tavern, I promise you, these were no giants. Think of who was writing in those days–Lardner, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Hemingway. Those were the real giants. The Round Table was just a lot of people telling jokes and telling each other how good they were. Just a bunch of loudmouth showing off, saving their gags for days, waiting for a chance to spring them….” Parts of that were used in the dialogue of the 1994 film “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,” starring Jennifer Jason Leigh as Parker.
That brings up the point (albeit moot today) of whether “the Vicious Circle” would have been an acceptable response. I’d vote yea.
Theodore had the Apollo and didn’t quite get all of Theater in there. He lost his $5,300 bet and had $100 left.
Alex thought it might be a Gatsby party. She lost her $6,412 bet, dropping her down to $2,388.
Stephanie came up with “Saturday Night Live.” She only lost $2,601 and won the game with the $12,399 she held on to. Stephanie Sumulong is the new Jeopardy! champ.
A triple stumper from each round:
STATE OF THE LOTTO SCRATCHER ($800) Break Fort Knox
NOT-SO-EASY KIDS’ TV ($1000) This German shepherd was a kids’ favorite in the ’50s & returned as a “K-9 cop” in an ’80s & ’90s show
2 years ago: NONE of the players got this FJ in “19th Century Europe”
This 1814-1815 gathering of leaders prompted Beethoven to compose the cantata “The Glorious Moment” show
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What did Stephanie say she was afraid of? When Alex interviewed her.
@Pat, Stephanie said she is afraid of horror movies because she watched the video Thriller when she was 7.
I was sort of like that myself till my twenties at least. I’d get nightmares if I watched anything scary.
I thought “The Algonquin Hotel” made the most sense as an answer given the wording, and I think both that and “The Algonquin” should have been accepted if they occurred.
For the first daily double, I was lost until the word ‘autobiographical’, after which, there was only one good guess. I’m guessing that’s how the writers intended it. I like those clues that give you two (or more) avenues to the correct answer.
I can’t even believe no one knew the Algonquin round table. Although I thought that the contestants had participated in literature clubs but I guess not. Also didn’t the bell jar appear as a final jeopardy previously that no one got last time VJ? It’s great to see it again. Let’s see if Stephanie can build up on her wins.
Well, it would have been easier if they at least established the time period by naming a personality connected to it. Obviously, they felt that naming Parker would be a dead giveaway and, yeah, it would have been.
LINK: more clues from the game
“Literary” was in the clue so Saturday Night Live and the Apollo Theatre should have been eliminated immediately. It feels good to nail a Triple Stumper, but the Congress of Vienna from 2 years ago stumped me.
VJ, do you think they would have accepted just “The Algonquin”?
Only if they had their Trix this morning, Silly Rabbit! lol. Just kidding. I honestly don’t know but the clue does say “an insider described the scene there” and the scene did take place at the Algonquin, right?
Remember this morning, I was wondering if they would just take “Round Table”? Dorothy Parker just said “Round Table” in the sentence before the quote they used.
In short, who knows what they will or won’t accept unless we see it happen.
P.S. Julie got that “Not So Easy” Kids TV Paw Patrol clue when I asked her “what TV show has a boy named Ryder” 🤣 That one was very easy for a 4-year-old (and Rin Tin Tin was easy for the older set)
LOL VJ, and I am a Silly Rabbit!! I guess we’ll never know if they would have accepted it or not.
Yay for Julie on the Paw Patrol clue!