Final Jeopardy: Bestselling Authors (1-24-20)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (1/24/2020) in the category “Bestselling Authors” was:

Now in her 70s, this author splits her time between Paris & San Francisco, often writing 20 to 22 hours a day on an old typewriter

2x champ John Cuevas, a slot floorperson from San Marcos, CA, has racked up $52,511 so far. In Game 3, he is up against: Heather Nelson, a middle school math teacher from Lake Oswego, OR; and Ashwin Monian, a data scientist from Hatfield, PA.

Round 1 Categories: 1984 – IKEA Names – This & That – Those Are My Literary Characters! – Hollywood & Line – Post Haste

John found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “1984” under the $800 clue on the 4th pick of the round. At $1,200, he was the only one with money, having answered the first 3 clues correctly. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.

Thousands gathered at this iconic L.A. location for Olympic track & field events. show

John finished in the lead with $7,400. Heather was second with $3,200 and Ashwin was last with $1,400.

Round 2 Categories: Neil Before Me – Geographic Numbers – A Brush With Death – 13-Letter Words – The Royal Society of London – The Grammy Awards

Ashwin found the first Daily Double in “Geographic Numbers” under the $1,200 clue on the second pick. He was in third place with $1,400 now, $6,000 less than John’s lead. He went with a true Daily Double and took a guess with Gettysburg. That was WRONG.

It’s in the middle of the Susquehanna River just south of Harrisburg. show

John found the last Daily Double in “A Brush with Death” under the $1,600 clue on the 11th pick. In the lead with $10,200, he had $5,800 more than Heather in second place. He bet $4,000 and took a shot with Calvary. That was WRONG.

El Greco’s painting of the Virgin Mary cradling her dead son is called this, like Michelangelo’s famous sculpture of the same subject. show

John finished in the lead with $10,600. Heather was right on his heels with $9,200 and Ashwin was in third place with $6,000.

NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHO IS DANIELLE STEEL?

Fans of prolific author Danielle Steel know she has been writing her books on a 1946 Olympia typewriter that she bought at a second hand store for $20.00 since the beginning of her career. In a blog post on her website, she wrote: “My typewriter’s name is Ollie (an Olympia, a German hand made table top manual typewriter, which weighs as much as I do. It is an incredibly fine machine. And I’m happy to say it’s older than I am). They also know she has luxurious homes in San Francisco and Paris.

“Ollie” made it onto Mental Floss’s list of “19 Authors and Their Typewriters”



Ashwin only got as far as “Marie.” He merely bet $1.00 so he finished with $5,999.

Heather thought it was Mary Higgins Clark. (Good guess but Mary is 92.) Heather lost $1,401, leaving her with $7,799.

John thought it was Nora Ephron. (She died in 2012). That cost the champ $7,801. Too much! He landed in third place with $2,799. Now Heather Nelson is the new Jeopardy! champ.

Final Jeopardy (1/24/2020) John Cuevas, Heather Nelson, Ashwin Monian

Two triple stumpers from THOSE ARE MY LITERARY CHARACTERS!

($400) Jason Bourne, a whole lot of people chasing Jason Bourne

($1000) Mr. Sammler, who had a “Planet”; Von Humboldt Fleisher, who had a “Gift”

More clues on Page 2

2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Children’s Lit”

Introduced in 1945, she claimed to have the middle names Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim’s Daughter. show

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10 Responses

  1. Howard says:

    I’m not much of a reader, but I figured out Danielle Steel about halfway through the music. She’s so prolific, it had to be her. Contestants were pretty good tonight, knew many I didn’t, but I still got 6 that either all 3 missed or someone got wrong on a DD. Kudos to Heather, who is from the small city that’s about 3 miles from where I am.

  2. VJ says:

    That “Neil Before Me” was a timely category — Neil Diamond turned 79 years old today.

    “Breaking Up is Hard to Do” is a more well-known song than “Laughter in the Rain” for the Neil who was the answer to that clue.

  3. Ismael Gomez says:

    Tough Final Jeopardy today as we end the week with a triple stumper.

  4. klm says:

    It wasn’t a good clue. It talked about her lifestyle and not her writing style. Something hinting at her genre would have been better. The triple stumper is not surprising.

    • VJ says:

      klm, I took a look at the clues about her on J-Archive and the best hints they have are the ones with “metal” or “metallic” in them. I wouldn’t know any of her titles to be honest.

    • JP says:

      I agree that the clue was not very good.

      After a bit more thought, I think the writers were trying to suggest that the author must be one who publishes many books every year (if she’s working almost around the clock), and Steel is probably most well-known as “The romance novelist who cranks out 6 or 7 books a year”.

      A bit of a stretch.

  5. Lou says:

    I still can’t believe that none of these contestants knew Danielle Steel. The book the long road home talks about how a girl gets abused by her own mother and nearly gets herself killed by a con artist. She befriends a doctor but still didn’t get love from her parents. That should have been a clear hint to point them to the answer. But really, nora ephron? She’s a journalist and not a best selling author. Would you have gotten this one since spy is another one of Steel’s novels, VJ? I wanted a triple solve again today.

    • William Weyser says:

      We’ll get another Triple Solve 1 of these days. Just be patient, and all you need to know about Danielle Steel is that… I’ve never heard of her.

    • VJ says:

      No I didn’t get this one, Lou, because I am not a fan of the type of novels Danielle Steel writes. I consider her primarily a romance novelist. When I was a teen, my mother used to give me books like that to read and I just really never got into that genre.

      Anyhow, when are you going to realize that the players only have the clue before them to work with? The hints were “old typewriter”, “Paris” and “San Francisco” and Bestselling Author in the category.

      How in the world does that equate to “The Long Road Home” as a clear hint in your mind?

      • Lou says:

        Well the only reason why I brought that up was because I saw a bit of this information on Wikipedia and thought that Danielle might have used the typewriter for the book I mentioned since she spent long hours writing. Perhaps she did the same with the romance novels but that’s just my guess. I hope that clears up the confusion. Heather’s math was a bit off when she picked Clark just to let you know.