Final Jeopardy: Literature & Mythology (1-30-18)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (1/30/2018) in the category “Literature & Mythology” was:
The “very name embodies the idea of flight”, says one analysis of a 20th century novel in describing this main character.
New champ Ryan Fenster won $20,999 yesterday. In his second game, he takes on these two ladies: Brandey Chandler, from Lee’s Summit, MO; and Emily Lewis, from San Diego, CA.
Alex opened the game remarking how everyone was in the hole for most of the first round of yesterday’s game. He said a prayer and Ryan turned things around. After expressing optimism about this game, all 3 players gave wrong answers to the first clue and went right in the hole so Alex said another prayer. Hilarious!
Round 1 Categories: Logo a-GoGo – TV Comedy Adjectives – Not to Be Confused – “Say” You Will – Write, Patterson – Air Force Base
Ryan found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Air Force Base” under the $600 clue on the third pick of the round. He was in the lead with $200 and the only one with any money. Ryan switched from true DD to the $1,000 allowance when Alex reminded him about it, and he was RIGHT.
Since the 1950s the USAF & this air force have shared a base at Mildenhall in Suffolk. show
Brandey finished in the lead with $5,200. Emily was second with $3,000 and Ryan was last with $2,600.
Round 2 Categories: French Scientists & Inventors – Throwing Shade – History – Two-Handers – Every Year – This Is “TH” Place
Ryan found the first Daily Double in “History” under the $1,200 clue on the 5th pick. He was in the lead with $7,000 at this point, $1,400 more than Brandey in second place. History is his wheelhouse so he bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
A 20-kiloton A-Bomb was dropped on this atoll in a 1946 test, the first in peacetime. show
2 clues later, Brandy found the last Daily Double in “Every Year” under the $800 clue. In second place with $6,000, she had $5,000 less than Ryan’s lead. She bet $3,000 and she was RIGHT.
In France this annual religious observance is known as “Mercredi des Cendres” show
Ryan ran away with the game again, this time with $27,000. Brandey was next with $8,600 and Emily was in third place with $4,600.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
The analysis referred to in the clue comes from SparkNotes’ Motif section on James Joyce’s 1916 novel: “In the context of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, we can see Stephen as representative of both Daedalus and Icarus, as Stephen’s father also has the last name of Dedalus. With this mythological reference, Joyce implies that Stephen must always balance his desire to flee Ireland with the danger of overestimating his own abilities—the intellectual equivalent of Icarus’s flight too close to the sun.”
On CliffNotes, in Joyce’s Biography, it says the Stephen Dedalus character came from a novel Joyce drafted in 1904 called “Stephen Hero” (pub. posthumously in 1944): “In September 1907, Joyce began to transform Stephen Hero into A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, retaining ‘Stephen Daedalus’ for the protagonist’s name. It was a name which Joyce himself had already used as a pen name, and it was also a name which linked the first Christian martyr (Stephen) and the mythic Greek maze-maker (Daedalus), a man known for his cunning and skill…. Later, Joyce changed the spelling of the hero’s last name — ostensibly, in order to deemphasize the autobiographical nature of the book.”
Emily just had a question mark. She bet and lost her whole $4,600.
Brandy got it right. (The mythological spelling was fine). Her $3,401 bet brought her up to $12,001.
Ryan went with Icarus, the one who went splat in the myth. He lost his $6,000 bet so that brought today’s win down to $21,000. His 2-day total is $41,999.
A triple stumper from each round:
WRITE, PATTERSON ($1000) Patterson’s young adult series about siblings Wisty & Whit Allgood is titled “Witch &” this
TWO-HANDERS ($1000) This A.R. Burney 2-role play saw Molly Ringwald paired with Andrew McCarthy & Linda Hamilton paired with Ron Perlman
2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Etymology”
This word referring to someone who is not an expert is from the Latin for “love” show
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Rhonda & VJ, you’re welcome. It was totally my pleasure.
Which one contains dairy? Sherbet or Sorbet?
The triple stumper clue in This is “Th” Place was the $1200 clue, not the $2000
“Th”anks 🙂
Brandey would have won the game if she’d gotten the $2000 clue right that she buzzed in on and got wrong on the third to last clue in DJ!. It would have $25k-$12600, and a wager of $12200 or higher in FJ! would have won her the game assuming Ryan wagered $201. Not everyone picks the high value clue or even tries to guess on it in a situation like that.
Or she could have went for a true Daily Double when she had the chance — that was an $800 clue
I was looking up Brandey’s DD answer to find out if they capitalize both words (sometimes they don’t capitalize mercredi). On French wikipedia, it says there was an old tradition to name girls born on Ash Wednesday “Cendrine,” and there’s about 3 people famous enough to be in wikipedia with that name. None of them were born on Ash Wednesday, though.
LINK: 10 more clues from that match
I knew something looked funny to me, VJ! It threw me off to see mercredi capitalized. Were you able to find out if both words are capitalized in that clue?
As best as I can figure out, Rhonda, it’s only capitalized when it’s the first word like on a list (Calendrier chrétien 2018), but in an article or sentence, you would write or say “le mercredi des Cendres.”
Maybe Cece knows the definitive answer.
Thanks, VJ, that’s what I thought, too.
Yes, you ladies are absolutely right. One word Holiday use: capital initial, obviously: Pâques, Noël
More than one word Holiday: use capital initial only on the specific word which describes the Holiday e.g, le jour des Morts, mercredi des Cendres, etc.
I think the J writers just capitalize words in foreign phrases the same way they do it in English. To the horror of the French. 🙂
Thanks, Cece — though to be fair to the J! writers, I was the one that capitalized mercredi when typing it out for the recap because I saw it with a capital on lists and thought it looked weird in quotes without a capital M. LOL! The clues are always in all caps.
One more question on it, though — how about Vendredi Saint? I’ve seen that with both words capitalized, just vendredi capitalized or just saint capitalized. (I got the impression that French Catholics tend to capitalize both words)
There is a whole set of rules for phrases with ‘saint’. Here are just a couple of them:
It’s le Vendredi saint, le Jeudi saint, etc (in this case, the specific word of the Holiday is the day of the week). Also, in ‘La Semaine sainte’—the word “week” designates the Holiday.
Compound names are treated as a unit, so use capital initials on both words e.g., ‘la Saint-Sylvestre’. However, compound names that designate an animal, no capital initials, like, saint-bernard.
I know, it’s complicated—just like the French 🙂
And, of course, not everyone knows and/or follows these rules, so all over the internet you will encounter usage errors.
Thanks, Cece, I appreciate it 🙂
Thanks so much, Cece, such great explanations!
Well,.glad Ryan won with 21000, but still though he could,have bet nothing and still win , right VJ?
Icarus and dadelus my favorite mythology. What were some of your favorites, VJ?
Agreed, Lou. I thought Ryan should have gone with a $2K bet so he’d keep $25K, no matter what.
My favorite story is “Baucis and Philomen.” I read it in a children’s mythology book when I was little and when I was older, I came across a poem that Jonathan Swift wrote with the same title, but he says “saints.” In the mythology books, it is the Greek gods, Zeus and Hermes, who visit the old couple
In ancient time, as story tells,
The saints would often leave their cells,
And stroll about, but hide their quality,
To try good people’s hospitality.