Final Jeopardy: The Declaration of Independence (8-4-21)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (8/4/2021) in the category “The Declaration of Independence” was:
The first published announcement of the Declaration was by a Philadelphia paper that reported it in this foreign language
10x champ Matt Amodio, a PhD student from New Haven, CT won $362,400 so far. In Game 11, the challengers are: Kevin Blume, an attorney orig. from Boca Raton, FL; and Nicole Yuen, a environmental scientist from Berkely, CA.
Round 1 Categories: Audible – The 16th Century – Automobiles…Assemble! – Talk to the Hand – 5, Mountain Time – Let’s “EET”
Nicole found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “The 16th Century” under the $800 clue on the 5th pick of the round. She was in second place with $1,000, half of Matt’s lead. She made it a true Daily Double and thought it was the missionary system. That was WRONG.
Launched in 1536, the Portuguese version of this focused largely on pretend converts show
Matt finished in the lead with $9,000. Kevin was second with $2,200 and Nicole was last with $1,200. No clues went uncovered.
Round 2 Categories: Anton Chekhov – 3-Letter Words – Howdy, Sheriff – “C” in Science – The Chosen Few – The Famous Mom
Matt found the first Daily Double in “Anton Chekhov” under the $800 clue on the 12th pick. He was in the lead with $20,200 now. Kevin and Nicole were both in negative territory at -$600 & -$400 respectively. Matt bet $10,000 and he was RIGHT.
In “The Rime of The Ancient Mariner” an albatross gets killed; in an 1896 Chekhov play, it’s one of these birds show
4 clues later, Matt landed on the last Daily Double in “’C’ in Science” under the $2,000 clue. He had $33,400 now. Kevin and Nicole were in the same predicament as before. He bet $5,000 and he was RIGHT.
Numbers 55 and 58 on the periodic table are these 2 elements that differ by a letter show
Matt finished in the lead with a runaway $43,200. Kevin was next with $600 and Nicole was in third place with $400. No clues went uncovered.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
July 4th in 1776 was on a Thursday. On that day, Heinrich Miller learned that an official declaration had been signed renouncing British rule and declaring the independence of “the thirteen united States of America”. This enabled Miller to be the first to announce this news in print because his German language newspaper, “Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote” (Pennsylvania State-Courier), was the only paper that published on Friday. Here is the English translation of the announcement: “Yesterday, the honorable Congress of these Western Lands, declared the United Colonies free and independent states. The Declaration is in English and is now at the Press; it is dated July 4th, 1776, and will be published either today or tomorrow.”
This article on Atlas Obscura has the original German and much more info, such as: “Between 1724 and 1755, tens of thousands of German-speaking settlers entered America through the port of Philadelphia…. By 1754, Thomas Penn, the proprietor of Pennsylvania, believed that as many as 100,000 of these immigrants were living in his colony.”
Nicole crossed out German and went with French. She bet and lost it all.
Kevin came up with Dutch. He lost his $201 and finished with $399.
Matt had French, same as Nicole so he already knew he lost his $37,000 bet. He won the game with the $6,200 he had left. Mind-boggling! Matt Amodio’s 11-day total is $368,600.
A triple stumper from each round:
AUDIBLE ($800) Johnny Depp got the honor of bringing this guitar legend’s memoir to Life: “Mick and I knew each other just because we happened to live very close, just a few door away, with a bit of schooling thrown in.”
“C” IN SCIENCE ($1200) In 1970 these artificial sweeteners were banned for good after they were linked to cancer in rats.
3 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Bridges”
In 1990 the Yalu River Bridge was renamed the “Friendship Bridge” between these 2 nations; one is the other’s best friend show
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I really like Matt. Maybe I’m giving him too much credit, but did anyone else feel like I did, that with about only 6 clues left, and *both* of the other contestants in negative territory, he eased up and let them ring in so that they could continue in the game?
Also, it’s being reported that Mike Richards is in ‘final negotiations’ to become the next host.
I didn’t see it that way, DC, and I usually notice that. The way I saw yesterday’s last 5 clues, Matt missed one and Kevin got it on the rebound, one was a triple stumper. Kevin beat Matt on the buzzer on the Earp brothers clue. I think Nicole already decided to stand pat at $400 so she could play FJ!
You’re probably right. I didn’t review those last half-dozen as well as you have.
Oh, poor Matt for losing all that money! Still, he has won 11 games and $368,600. I think he can make $400K today!
WOW! Matt just gave me more gray hair. I really like him and pray he will keep winning. I would like for him to be the biggest winner ever.. I know Alex would be thrilled with Matt winning.
Yup, I’m old enough to have been required to study US history in eighth grade, and that little morsel has stuck with me all these 56 years. “What is German?” got me my ninth Final Jeopardy “skunk” of 2021. That’s when all three contestants miss it, but you get it right.
Man, that was a gargantuan bet Matt made . . . and lost!
I’m only surprised that none of the contestants got the final question correct. Actually, I knew that the colonists hired German mercenaries to aid them in their fight against the English. With that thought in mind, I went with ‘German’.
I’m pretty sure that the Hessians were hired by the British to fight against the colonists?
Oops! My bad. I stand to be corrected.
Thought for sure this would be so easy FJ and a Triple-Solve. Could not believe no one rang in on simple clues such as what is the name for one day on Mars? — sol. OTOH they did know some obscure info as well. I wonder why the guest host has not stated if the now 11-day winner is a PhD student at Yale University in New Haven CT.
Tough final as we end with another triple stumper. Besides, nobody knows U.S. History.
Matt still won today even though he only had $6,200 to finish with.
Bravo for Matt making that big bet since his opponents were not that tough. He wasn’t bothered at all. I thought he was a goner today but still congrats to him on winning game 11 even though that was a big loss. VJ do you think this is similar to james holzhauer in one of his previous runs? German was my response today.
No, Lou, I don’t see much of a basis for comparison. Matt has missed a lot of clues I think James would have known. By the end of his 11th game, James had over $700K.
Ken or James would wipe him out, if they were ever to meet. Either one of them would have known German, and probably the other FJs he’s missed. I went with German because of the Pennsylvania Dutch (aka Deutsch) who speak a German dialect.
Howard, I think we should make some allowance for Matt that he is younger than Ken (by about 17 years) and James (by about 7 years). I’m sure Matt’s trivia knowledge will be even more intimidating 5 years from now.
Be that as it may, I can’t see him winning the next ToC. I couldn’t believe it when he didn’t get this Tough 3-Letter Words clue last month (This Latin word meaning “thus” begins Virginia’s state motto). After that, it really blew my mind when he said he studied Latin for 4 years in one of the chats!
Go Matt go!
I expected most contestants would go for French in FJ. Alas.
Matt almost had his head handed to him on a platter. That was a huge monetary final clue loss. Fortunately he did not have strong opponents so he could risk it. Whew!
I got to say that 37,000 is the most amount of money lost in FJ! ever. But still congrats to Matt on his 11th win.
Bravo to Matt on the big bet. If you (correctly) think you are more likely to be correct than not on FJ, betting big is the best strategy to maximize winnings over the long run. I hope he wasn’t discouraged by the big loss and kept going with the strategy. I’d say it takes guts, but really it takes understanding the mathematics, at which point it should be obvious.
JP, agreed. $80,000 would have been a nice haul.