Final Jeopardy: Animals (10-2-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (10/2/2025) in the category “Animals” was:
This 4-legged celebrity was named by his owner’s employee, who once worked for a diplomat at the League of Nations
New champ, Lisa Mueller, an anthropologist from Rochester, MN, won $17,600 yesterday. In Game 2, her opponents are: Alan Rosenberg, a high school teacher from Baltimore, MD; and TJ Fisher, a marketing specialist from San Francisco, CA.
Round 1 Categories: Non-English Place Names in English – Relative-ity – A Potable of Potency – Peanuts – Ways – Means
Lisa found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Non-English Place Names” under the $800 clue on the first pick of the round. Nobody was on the board. Lisa bet the $1,000 allowance and she was RIGHT.
This city that’s no longer an African capital: Lakes show
TJ finished in the lead with $7,200. Lisa was in second place with $2,800 and Alan was last with $2,400. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Historic Letters – Prequels & Sequels – She’s a Saint – HBCUs – Generational Talents – Contronyms
TJ found the first Daily Double in “Historic Letters” under the $1,200 clue on the 10th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $12,000, $6,800 more than Alan in second place. TJ bet $2,400 and he was RIGHT.
In 1805 this ex-Veep wrote to his son-in-law that he would “seek another country” due to his legal problems show
TJ got the last Daily Double in “Contronyms” under the $1,600 clue on the 15th pick of the round. In the lead with $14,000 now, he had $7,600 more than Alan in second place. TJ bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
Watchful supervision or care, as by a congressional committee, or an inadvertent error or omission show
TJ finished in the lead with a runaway $24,400. Lisa was second with $6,400 and Alan was last with $6,000. All clues were shown.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS SECRETARIAT?
Born on 3/30/1970, the chestnut colt with 3 white socks and a star on his forehead was destined to became a horse racing legend. Due to losing a coin toss, Penny Chenery became the colt’s owner. Secretariat was actually the last of 6 names submitted to the Jockey Club, which has strict rules for thoroughbred names. The first 5 — Royal Line, Something Special, Games of Chance and Deo Volente — were rejected. Elizabeth Ham, Penny’s father’s secretary, had worked under diplomat Norman Davis at the League of Nations Secretariat. It was she who suggested Secretariat, the 6th name that was approved and registered, and the rest is horse racing history.
Alan thought it was Benji, a fictional dog. He lost $1,200 and finished with $4,800.
Lisa went with Toto, another fictional pup. She lost $5,700 and finished with $700.
TJ came up with the talking mule Francis, also fictional. He lost but won the game with the remaining $15,089. TJ Fisher is the new champion, and we’ll have to tune in tomorrow to see if he breaks this week’s streak of 1-day champs.
A triple stumper from each round:
RELATIVE-ITY ($1000) Often called the first programmer, Ada Lovelace was the daughter of this poet who was “mad, bad & dangerous to know”
HISTORIC LETTERS ($2000) To Lord Alfred Douglas: “I feel that it is only with you that I can do anything at all”
Lisa Mueller, Alan Rosenberg, TJ Fisher
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “GLOBAL GEOLOGY”
In this nation of 360,000 people, you can walk along the boundaries of the Eurasian & North American tectonic plates show
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3/3 on DDs. The first was a challenge till I remembered that I recently learned that nation had a different capital. Got Final in about 3 seconds. Didn’t hurt that I grew up in NYC and visited the UN, or that I attended the 1973 Belmont in which Secretariat clinched the Triple Crown by 31 lengths and set a world record for 1.5 miles.
You had to be a real sports junkie to know Jerry Rice’s HBCU (the QB who threw him all those passes was Willie Totten). Other stumpers were nasty, although I knew the Chinese way from crosswords.
I was surprised they all went for fictional animals. I thought of Checkers and Rin Tin Tin before it dawned on me that it was a horse, of course.🤣
I went to a Catholic school that was named for the Peruvian saint. Last night, in fact, I was telling my granddaughter how the entire third grade in that school lived in mortal fear of Sister Vera.😲
I, too, went with “Rinnie” (Rin Tin Tin) , after first thinking Lassie, them realizing it was too early for her.
Me, personally, thought that this FJ was lacking some information, or, put another way, a little too esoteric. Maybe I’m just a little dim!