Final Jeopardy: Historic Calendars (10-6-21)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (10/6/2021) in the category “Historic Calendars” was:
Following Messidor, this summer month in the 18th century French Revolutionary Calendar had a name meaning “heat gift”
35x champ Matt Amodio, a PhD student from New Haven, CT has now won $1,400,801. In Game 36, he is up against: David Garcia, an IT communications strategy team lead from Troy, MI; and Casey Brown, a marketing manager from Long Beach, CA.
Round 1 Categories: 1800s U.S. History – In that Bible Book – ____ & ____ – Get a Hobby – We Are TV Family – Double the Same Vowel Words
Matt got the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “1800s U.S. History” under the $1,000 clue on the very first pick. Nobody was on the board yet. Matt bet the $1,000 allowance and he was RIGHT.
The economy crashed when this type of financial crisis with a 5-letter name hit the U.S. in 1837. show
Matt finished in the lead with $9,800. David was second with $3,000 and Casey was last with $2,000. No clues went uncovered.
Round 2 Categories: Peninsulas – By a One-Named Writer – So Very Cold – Colleges & Universities – The 1991 Grammys – Interplanetary Words
Casey landed on the first Daily Double in “By a One-Named Writer” under the $800 clue on the 4th pick. She was in second place with $3,200, $9,800 less than Matt in first place. She made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT.
A complete list of the mononymous Euripides’ works would include his play about this monocular creature. show
Matt got the last Daily Double in “Peninsulas” under the $2,000 clue on the 7th pick. Now leading with $15,400, he had $9,000 more than Casey in second place. Matt bet $6,000 and he was RIGHT.
This Russian peninsula with strategic importance in the board game Risk is home to over 300 volcanoes. show
Matt finished in the lead with a runaway $38,600. Casey was next with $7,200 and David was in third place with $3,000. No clues went uncovered.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
From The Etymology Nerd: “Thermidor was named after the Greek words therme, meaning “heat”, and doron, meaning “gift”, which reflects the month’s position between July and August, the hottest time of the year.” He was actually examining Thermidor in connection with Lobster Thermidor, which was named after the Victorien Sardou play “Thermidor”. The play itself was named after the month of Thermidor. For an amusing look at the French calendar, check out The Crazy Calendar of a Revolutionary Republic
This is fun: Put your birthday in on Windhorst.org’s calendar converter to see what day in the French Revolutionary Calendar you were born on. (I was born on 1 Thermidor. No wonder I looked like a lobster if I stayed out in the sun too long!)
One last note: Some sources note that “Fervidor” was another name for the month of Thermidor. Collins Dictionary gives the same etymology for Fervidor as Thermidor
David just had a couple of big question marks. He didn’t bet anything so he stayed at $3,000.
Casey thought it was August. She lost her $1,000 bet and finished with $6,200.
Matt had the same response as Casey. That cost him a whopping $22,000 but he still won the game with the remaining $16,600. His 36-day total is $1,417,401.
Reversal: GET A HOBBY ($800) Flower arrangers know to cut stems at this angle for longest life – David response of “bias” was rejected, as was Matt’s “90 degrees”. They were looking for 45 degrees. The judges found that 45 degrees is also called bias and gave David $1600. Matt’s wrong answer was treated as though it never happened and he got $800 back.
A triple stumper from each round:
GET A HOBBY ($1000) Aim to get better at this game; its PDC World Championship in 2021 included throwing a 180 & winning three legs on the trot
PENINSULAS ($200) In 1985 the Supreme Court said this 118-mile-long piece of land forming part of NYC is a peninsula
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Animal AKAs”
It’s also called the czar fish show
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According to Matt’s comments on Twitter he misread the clue. Imo what the final outcome of tonight’s game demonstrated to me was how important having a lock going into fj is just in case you misread a clue and get it wrong. In other words, when contestants get daily doubles they need to try to capitalize off of them and not just depend on fj to win. I’ve seen many contestants wager small on daily doubles and go all in on fj only to end up with a big fat zero. Not a good strategy imo.
Did not like the final phrasing of the last question. One would have a better chance if they had said the “republican” calendar….given the Gregorian calendar had been in use since the early 1500’s . I like tough questions, not devious ones…and the host seemed thrilled that Matt didn’t get it right. very disappointed with the writers and the host tonight.
Me neither. You know what, I’m going to start rating FJ’s because there were so many of them that did not get phrased correctly. There has to be a better FJ! somewhere in this diddly darn world sometime for the rest of this week.
I don’t see anything devious about the clue or how using French Republican Calendar would have changed anything. The association with the French Revolution was better imo.
I also don’t see how the contestants could possibly have thought August was correct with the hints “heat” plus “gift” in the clue. The word “august” means distinguished, respected, impressive.
Sorry as I don’t know that much French. Anyways, I chose ‘July” as the final question, but it was wrong nevertheless. Wow, that was a tough finale.
We had our Triple Stumper for the first time this season, and it seems that no one knows the French Revolutionary calendar, I believe.
Glad that reversal helped Matt and David today even though no one knows about calendars. But still Matt might bounce back tomorrow and hopefully recoup his loss. Hopefully this will be the last triple stumper in fj. We should get more triple solves soon. Since I was born in June vj what would that be in French on the calendar?
Lou, you have to click on the link in the recap to the calendar converter and put in the month day and year you were born yourself if you want to know what your birthday was on that calendar. I can’t tell ya.
VJ, that calendar converter is a great find. and your “sunburn” reference was funny though I know firsthand that sunburns are not funny.
My May 12th birthday came out as 22 Floréal
Yes, VJ, the calendar converter is awesome.
My birthday is 26 Frimaire.
Rhonda, you and Nikki are close — hers is 14 Frimaire 😃
@Sammi, yeah, I had some vicious sunburns when I was a kid. That’s why I was so fanatical about making my kids wear white tee shirts to cover up their shoulders when we went swimming down the shore or at lakes
That’s so fun that Nikki’s is close to mine, VJ! Thanks for telling me.
@Rhonda, I just found out that Matt Amodio’s birthday is December 4th, same as Nikki’s, but on the calendar converter, his birthday comes out to 13 Frimaire because he is a few years older 🤣🤣🤣
That’s so funny, VJ, and so crazy that your birthday depends upon the year that you were born.
I hope so, too, Lou. By the way. my birthday came out as 24 Brumaire.
Nice mine is 21 prairial on the French revolution calendar.
For the first time this season, we had our first triple stumper of FJ! When was the last time we had a triple stumper in FJ!
And as always, William Weyser would say darn thos FJ!’s.