Final Jeopardy: Latin Phrases (1-30-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (1/30/2025) in the category “Latin Phrases” was:
After Camillagate, a fire at Windsor castle & marriage problems in her family, Queen Elizabeth II dubbed 1992 this
In QF #4 of the 2025 Tournament of Champions, the players are: Champions Wildcard winner Mehal Shah, a software engineer from Seattle, WA; 4x champ Ryan Manton, a systems administrator from Columbus, OH; and 3x champ Will Stewart, a political organizer orig. from Nashville, TN.
Round 1 Categories: U.S. Cities – Homonymble on Your Feet – Fitness – In the Air – Pre-Boots – Let’s Put 2 Things Together
Mehal found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “In the Air” under the $600 clue on the 9th pick of the round. He was in last place with zero. Ryan had the lead with $2,400. Mehal bet $1,000 and he was RIGHT (and tied with Will).
These avians can rotate their wings to generate lift while flopping both up & down, enabling them to hover in the air show
Mehal finished in the lead with $4,200. Ryan was second with $4,000 and Will was last with $2,200. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Counts & Countesses – Filmmakers – Asian History – Communication – Authors – Starts & Ends With the Same Vowel
Will found the first Daily Double in “Communication” under the $1,600 clue on the 14th pick of the round. He was in second place with $7,400 now, $5,400 less than Ryan’s lead. Will bet all of it and he was RIGHT.
The Baltic-Finnic languages include Finnish & this national language spoken due south across the Viro Strait show
On the next pick, Will snagged the last Daily Double in “Authors” under the $1,600 clue. In the lead with $14,800, he had $2,000 more than Ryan in second place. Not wishing to risk his lead, Will bet $100. He was RIGHT and sorry he didn’t bet more!
Sinclair Lewis created this guy, a symbol of materialist conformity; Matthew Broderick played him on stage in 2024 show
Will finished in the lead with $14,900. Ryan was second with $14,400 and Mehal was last with $7,400. All clues were shown.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS ANNUS HORRIBILIS?
As was pointed out in Spoiler Talk this morning, there was another way of knowing this if your Latin was sketchy or you were watching cartoons when Queen Elizabeth II spoke at her Ruby Jubilee in 1992. In fact, the name of Episode 4, Season 5 of the Netflix TV series “The Crown” was “Annus Horribilis”. In the beginning of the video below, the Queen says she feels that 1992 was the worst of her 40-year reign and possibly her life. I started the video at the point where she makes the speech, so start it over from the beginning if you want to see that.
Wikipedia’s “annus horribilis” page has a list of the scandals and calamities that befell the Royal Family in 1992.
Mehal had Annus Horriblis. The missing “i” cost him $7,001. He finished with $399.
Ryan came up with annum no grata. I liked it and I liked that it only cost him $501. He finished with $13,899.
Will had anno terribilis. He lost $14,000 and finished with $900. That wasn’t terribilis for Ryan Manton. It made him the 4th semifinalist.
A triple stumper from each round:
PRE-BOOTS ($1000) Whether it was Roselyn Sánchez in 2021 or Ricardo Montalbán in 1977, your “Fantasy Island” host had this last name
FILMMAKERS ($800) Fresh out of film school, he insisted on directing his screenplay of “Boyz n the Hood”, which starred Ice Cube & Cuba Gooding Jr.
2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “MYTHOLOGY”
Poseidon carried off the maiden Theophane & turned her into a ewe; their offspring was the source of this mythical object show
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Wow, another tough FJ this week, and I am no scholar of Latin. Anyways, I would have certainly given Mehal credit for his response in FJ as it was close enough in my opinion. Gee, I thought that Ken didn’t take off for spelling.
The Latin is Simple website says annus terribilis applies to 1348, the year of the Black Death.
genus terribilis applies to today’s “Let’s Put 2 Things Together” category 🤣
Besides thinking there was a “u” at the end of the word, my mental guess this morning was also missing a syllable. I think I would have written “horriblus” and would been correctly been ruled incorrect as well.
Man, Mehal was missing a syllable and his response was not accepted and it cost him a spot in the semifinals. That response should be added to the spelling list decisions as not accepted.
I agree. That was a bummer.