Final Jeopardy: Historic Names (11-15-17)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (11/15/2017) in the category “Historic Names” was:

In 2013 the village of Belrain renamed the last street in France that bore the name of this hero who became a traitor.

Here are the 3 champs in the last Semi-Final of the 2017 Tournament of Champions with the last chance to get in the Finals: Alan Lin (QF #3)Pranjal Vachaspati, (QF #1) and Tim Aten (QF #2).

Round 1 Categories: Steppenwolf Theatre Alumni – A Triangle Scheme – State Symbols – Giraffes – Presidential Nicknames – From A to Y

Pranjal found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “State Symbols” under the $800 clue on the 3rd pick of the round. With $200, he was the only one with any money. He bet the $1,000 allowance and thought it was Delaware. That was WRONG.

Created at its Toll House restaurant, the chocolate chip cookie is this state’s official state cookie. show

Alan finished in the lead with $3,400. Pranjal was second with $3,000 and Tim was last with $1,200.

Round 2 Categories: Baltic Beliefs – Their Main Musical Instrument – Compound Words – Book Smarts – Working Women – Recent TV Episodes

Alan found the first Daily Double in “Book Smarts” under the $2,000 clue, with 9 clues still to go after it. 2 were $2K clues, 2 were worth $800. The rest were in the top row. He was in the lead with $15,400 at this point, $4,800 more than Pranjal in second place. He bet $5,000 and he was RIGHT.

This Thomas Keneally bestseller was originally published with “Ark” as the 2nd word in the title. show

3 clues later, Alan got the last Daily Double in “Baltic Beliefs” under the last $2,000 clue. In the lead with $21,200, he had $8,600 more than Pranjal in second place. He bet $4,000 and thought it was the Teutonic Knights. That was WRONG.

(Jimmy from Bornholm Island, Denmark) Of the few round churches in Northern Europe, 4 are here on Denmark’s island of Bornholm, leading some to theorize a visit from this religious order of knights, whose churches were all round. show

Alan finished in the lead with $18,000. Pranjal was next with $12,200 and Tim was in third place with $3,200.

TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHO IS MARSHAL PÉTAIN?

Philippe Pétain was a World War I hero, aka “The Lion of Verdun,” awarded the distinction of Marshal of France in 1918. In World War II, Pétain fell from grace for selling France out to Adolf Hitler. He was put on trial in July 1945 for treason at age 89, convicted and stripped of all titles and honors, except Marshal of France. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was exiled to the Ile d’Yeu off the Western coast of France. He had his sympathizers but his name eventually became synonymous with traitor in France.

Apparently, the French thought they got rid of all streets named “Rue de Maréchal Pétain” by 2011 (Forward.com), but the Belrain street came to the forefront after a fellow who lived on it announced his child’s birth in the local paper. The change was approved by the village council 3 years later. (I got this info from a LeParisien article (Apr. 2013) English translation here).



Tim got a big laugh with “who was just too old and too slow?” He only lost $13.00 and finished with $3,187.

Pranjal got it right. He bet nothing so he remained at $12,200.

Alan also got it. He added $6,401 to his score and won that last Finals spot with $24,401.

So it’s Buzzy, Austin and Alan heading into the 2-day ToC Finals for the big money. As Alex Trebek reminded us in the intro, Buzzy’s real name is Austin. All their names really start with A and we’re sure they will all bring their “A’ game.

Final Jeopardy (11/15/2017) Alan Lin, Pranjal Vachaspati, Tim Aten

A triple stumper from each round:

GIRAFFES ($800) If a human baby has done this, he’s positioned for birth; if a giraffe baby has done it, 6′ to the ground, he’s been born

RECENT TV EPISODES ($800) “Better Call Saul” & “Our Man in Damascus”

2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Space Exploration”

The first man to travel into space began his journey on that fateful day in what is today this country. show

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17 Responses

  1. Albert says:

    What bothers me is that yesterday’s Final Question and today’s Final Question were related to France. Yesterday’s Final = Waiting for Godot. Today’s Final = Petain. Why is France such a big deal? In all the countries in all the world, Jeopardy has questions related to France two days in a row. Tooooo much France.

    • VJ says:

      En garde, Albert! Just kidding, but we’re always gonna have French stuff because of Alex and when we don’t, we’ll have clues with the word “genre” in them. Oops! We had one of those today too 🙂

      Also coming soon: Oscars and Shakespeare

  2. aaaa says:

    It’s a 2/3 game, where second place has a little over 2/3 of the leader, and wagering zero keeps third place from having a chance to win and wins on a triple stumper.

    • EricS says:

      If third place has over half of what second place does (e.g. a little over1/3 of the leader or more) then a zero bet by second does not freeze third out (if third provides the correct response and the leader does not). Also, this assumes the leader wagers to cover the double up by second (usually expected)

  3. Lou says:

    I never heard of marshal petain before but was he a part of the royal flying Corps and credited with gunning down german fighter planes before hitler took power in Germany, VJ? Also I was wondering if Rene fonck or Georges guynemer ever worked with petain during the first world war?

    • VJ says:

      @Lou, Petain was the head of the French army toward the end of WWI. I suppose he knew about those guys, maybe even met them.

      LINK: 11 more clues from the match

      • Lou says:

        That’s for sure, I found out in wikipedia that Marshal Philippe Pétain wished to use the Göring – Fonck relationship in order to meet Adolf Hitler and thus gave Colonel Fonck the order to talk to Göring. A meeting was planned at Montoire but after discovering evidence about the pro-Nazi politics of Pierre Laval, Fonck tried to convince Pétain not to attend. Initially Pétain appeared to heed Fonck’s advice, but for some reason Pétain eventually decided not to follow Fonck’s warnings and he met Hitler at Montoire on 24 October 1940. Fonck’s loyalties were thus questioned by the Vichy regime, and thus he returned home to Paris where he was eventually arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the Drancy internment camp. So initially Fonck realized that Petain was a traitor and he ended up getting framed by Petain, is that true? If so I am guessing Petain should have listened to fonck before siding with hitler. After alll the victories he won during the first world war, he becomes a traitor? What was petain thinking, vj?

        • VJ says:

          I have no idea what’s true and what’s not true about that whole situation, Lou. Even today, whether or not Petain was a traitor or a scapegoat is a topic of heated debate.

      • Richard Corliss says:

        Which champions had flashback reactions after winning?

  4. EricS says:

    Can anyone explain why Pranjal bet zero? Besides aaaa, of course

  5. Richard Corliss says:

    And then there were 3.