Final Jeopardy: World Leaders (10-9-18)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (10/9/2018) in the category “World Leaders” was:
He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice & the Literature Prize 7 times, winning for the latter in 1953
New champ Alex Schmidt, a writer & comedian from Pasadena, CA, won $20,798 yesterday. In Game 2, he takes on these two players: Jen Aronoff, an attorney from Chicago, IL; and Greg Antoine, a programmer from Miami, FL.
Round 1 Categories: A Book by Its Cover – Greek Letter, Please – What Tree Am I? – TV for Short – Fill in the Phrase – Christiane Amanpour
Alex found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “What Tree” under the $800 clue on the 9th pick of the round. He was in second place with $600, $2,600 less than Jen’s lead. He bet the $1,000 allowance and he was RIGHT.
The Algonquin Native Americans made canoes from the bark of me, a fast-growing tree of the genus betula. show
Alex finished in the lead with $10,000. Jen was second with $4,800 and Greg was last with $2,800.
Round 2 Categories: The Facebook of Job – People in Science – Before & After at the Mall – Crossword Clues “Y” – Other Constitutions – The American Music Awards
Jen found the first Daily Double in “Facebook of Job” under the $1,200 clue, with 11 clues to go after it. She was in second place with $10,000 now, $6,400 behind Alex’ lead. She bet $2,500 and she was RIGHT (and just as surprised as Job was).
Job added a “surprised” gif when he posted the Lord’s info that Behemoth “can draw up” this river into its mouth. show
4 clues later, Jen landed on the last Daily Double in “Constitutions” under the $2,000 clue. In second place with $12,900, she had $3,500 less than Alex’ lead. She bet $4,000 and guessed Armenia. That was WRONG.
This country: “Amharic shall be the working language of the Federal government” show
Alex finished in the lead with a runaway $18,800. Jen was next with $8,900 and Greg was in third place with $6,800.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.” From The Churchill Project: “His private secretary, Anthony Montague Browne recalled that day. ‘Churchill deeply wished to be remembered as a peacemaker…. I remember vividly his early and touching joy, which turned to indifference when he learned that it was for Literature and not for Peace.'” The site also has the details on the two times Churchill was considered for the Peace Prize.
Here’s an FJ clue from 2012 that was a triple stumper: NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS: Among the many books he wrote were “The World Crisis”, “The Second World War” & “Painting As A Pastime”
Greg wrote down “Weisel.” He lost his $2,101 bet, leaving him with $4,699.
Jen didn’t have a response. She lost $4,701, finishing with $4,199.
Alex got it right. He bet $81 winning his second game with $18,881. His 2-day total is $39,679.
A triple stumper from each round:
GREEK LETTER, PLEASE ($200) Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is aka this Canis Majoris
PEOPLE IN SCIENCE ($1200) In 1948 in Africa she made her first big discovery– the partial skull of an ancestor of both apes & early humans
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Geography & Language”
The world’s busiest container port, its name is also an English verb with criminal overtones. show
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@VJ
Absurd indeed. Many historians still debate who was the greater monster. Hitler had at least mental illness as an “excuse”. Stalin was a cold blooded, calculating murderer. I wonder how many mass grave there are in Russia and former USSR countries that will never be found.
If Stalin had gotten the Nobel Peace Prize then Nobel would still be rotating in his grave.
Was Churchill really a WORLD leader?
Yes, indeedy !!! I’ve read that Churchill was an asshole. For example, when the phone rang Churchill would bark, “State your business !!!” That is strictly asshole behavior.
Yes, Anne. FYI, the CIA puts out a directory entitled “World Leaders.” It includes every head of state of every country of the world and a lot of other officials. Here’s a link to the current page on the U.K. You may not consider Queen Elizabeth II a world leader but they do.
Sorry VJ, didn’t see your post. I was still typing when you posted. Hope I did not interfere. And as I said: it’s often in the eye of the beholder (Elizabeth II etc.)
Sometimes you really don’t know until a situation comes up where it shows if somebody is a world leader or just a figurehead with a million titles but no real power. Some would even say that Noriega was a world leader. He certainly had a lot of impact on U.S. policies in Central America, policies that changed. First the CIA helped him to power and looked the other way even with all the major drug trafficking , then we invaded Panama and threw him in the slammer. Sometimes you wonder what’s worse: war or politics. In war you at least know your enemy…..
@John, that’s okay, your response is fine. As you say, circumstances change. On that Churchill Project page I linked to in the recap, it mentions that Stalin was one of those considered for the Nobel Peace Prize at the same time as Churchill was in 1945. It says that seems absurd in retrospect
I would say so. There is no ONE world leader, but every president, prime minister, monarch i.e. most or very influential political leader of a country of significance (U.S.,Russia,U.K.,France,China etc ) I would consider a world leader, i.e. a leader of importance IN the world . It’s of course in the eye of the beholder. I would e.g. not call the leader of Latvia or a small African country a “world” leader. But things change. SHOULD e.g. Russia go to war (officially) over Syria, then Assad would be/become a “world “leader because of his involvement. Many consider him already a world leader, many just a dictator and murderer.
@John, in that CIA directory, former Swaziland is now listed as Eswatini (not eSwatini)
That decides the question of whether the E is upper or lowercase for me.
At least the triple stumpers are decreasing now, but still though that miss on the daily double really hurt Jen a lot. That bet by Alex was truly humorous. But still Eli Wiesel is a novelist that wrote about the Holocaust since it has nothing to do with Winston Churchill. Also Congrats to Alex on his second win though I really hope he can break the leader curse like Kyle Jones did back in september. Its been two weeks now so I really hope Alex can get a streak going. Also Vj has Wiesel met with Churchill at all during the war times?
@Louis
I doubt it. In 1945 Eli was only 17 years old. When the Luftwaffe Blitz started to hit London, he was 12.
Triple Stumpers are starting to decrease slightly, but Jen’s DD clue miss meant that Alex made a runaway game. How cunning!
I have to say that the triple stumper rate has decreased dramatically this week. I’d say the average per game is 7 but there have been very few this week.
Nevertheless, I put up 12 more clues from the match, including 2 categories. One is the Before & After in which they made use of the Bobby Darin song I was gonna use for my Friday song clip. (Oh well, back to the drawing board)
En ce qui le premier paragraphe: Merci mon Dieu pour ca!
Hooray again for Alex for winning #2. Yesterday he covered against #3, but today’s wager? He could have made more and you never know when even 1 buck might make the difference of being on the ToC list or not. MY basic rule:milk it for all you can, even if it seems greedy. Tough, BooHoo. But nobody pays you a farthing if you miss out by a buck….
Will he break the 1/2 game winning jinx? He got yesterday’s FJ too and it was tougher than today’s, imo. But then I like and know quite a bit about WWII, history, leave alone Britain. Capitol: not so much really…. And I am fascinated by Sir Winston! What a tough guy! Tell me one politician of Churchill’s qualities being in power today! The only one that comes to mind is Putin….Unfortunately he is sort of on the other side of the fence.
Jen’s miss on the DD cost her dearly (a swing of 8K). But in the end it did not matter.