Final Jeopardy: Philosophers (11-20-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (11/20/2015) in the category “Philosophers” was:
His last name means a type of burial place and in 1855 that’s where he went.
The Final Showdown in the 2015 Tournament of Champions takes place today between Kerry Greene, Alex Jacob and Matt Jackson.
Alex began by saying “This is D-Day. Decision Day. At the end of this half hour one of these 3 players will pick up $250,000. He made no reference to how things can turn around as yesterday’s scores were showing, but noted that the scores would be added to today’s totals.
Round 1: Alex found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “How Many Miles?” under the $800 clue before the first break. He was in second place with $2,800, $400 less than Matt’s lead. He bet it all and he was RIGHT.
One lap of the Daytona 500 is this many miles. show
Alex finished in the lead with $8,600. Matt was second with $5,600 and Kerry was last with $3,200.
Round 2: Alex found the first Daily Double in “How the East Was Won” under the $1,200 clue on the 5th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $11,600 now, $3,400 more than Matt in second place. He bet $100 and he was RIGHT, at the very last second.
Russian caravans got access to Beijing in a 1689 treaty with this dynasty that gave its name to a region. show
Three clues later, Matt found the last Daily Double in “The Executive Branch” under the $1,600 clue. In second place with $10,000, he had $1,900 less than the lead held by Alex. “Sorry, Mom,” he said, “I’m betting it all.” He thought it was the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture but that was WRONG.
Overseeing the FDA is one job of this cabinet department. show
Alex finished in the lead with $18,700 that he didn’t even need to win the tournament. Matt was next with $7,200 and Kerry was in third place with $3,200.
Only ONE of the champs got Final Jeopardy! right.
According to the bio on The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Kierkegaard surname “derived from the fact that his family was indentured to the parish priest, who provided a piece of the church (Kirke) farm (Gaard) for the family’s use. The name Kirkegaard (in older spelling Kierkegaard) more commonly means ‘churchyard’ or ‘cemetery.'” While some agree with that, others insist that the inclusion or exclusion of the first “e” makes the two meanings distinct.
Kerry got it right. Her $1,500 bet brought her total for today up to $4,700. With her $3,400 carry-over, her 2-day total came to $8,100.
Matt didn’t have an answer and he didn’t bet anything. So his $7,200 was added to yesterday’s $3,000 and he finished with $10,200.
Alex used his 30 seconds to write “Thanks to everyone who works on the world’s greatest game show.” He also bet nothing. Today’s $18,700 and yesterday’s $29,600 gave him a total of $48,300.
Alex Trebek told Alex that his performance was the most dominant by anyone in any Jeopardy! tournament ever. “You were DYN-O-MITE,” Trebek added, when Alex joined him onstage.
2 years ago:: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Country Names”
In England in 1933, Choudhry Rahmat Ali coined this name, a country that wouldn’t be formed until 14 years later. show
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I believe Roger Craig was the most dominant performance during a 2-day final before Alex Jacob.
After reading comments where some are glad Alex won and some wanted Matt to win, I can think of two entities that are glad both won 1st & 2nd:
1) The IRS
2) Yale Alumni Fund
3) perhaps, the producers of Jeopardy! ?
Matt ****** up.
****** up real bad.
Hard fj today.. Might be a ts.
Lol. Look at that annoying alex right arm trying to click the button faster after losing that clue to matt in the first round after trebek talks to contestants. He’s desperate and like a psychotic loser.
Maybe I’m too sensitive, but please believe me when I say, with no exaggeration, that I hope I never again have to see another one of those sickening, nauseating, stomach-turning phony performances of this Alex Jacob weirdo during a Daily Double.
It fooled me the first time he did it; it even fooled me the second time; by the third time I was catching on. These last three times (yesterday and today) it was only, as I just said, nausea-inducing.
Here’s the routine. This supposedly intelligent person gets a really stupid, goofy expression on his face; everything comes to a dead halt as he ponders his response; he throws in a sniff, to make him look even dumber; then he finally mumbles an answer very quietly, with a shake of his head so we’re led to believe it’s a wild guess which can’t possibly be right — but it’s right! Then we get another shake of the head, which I interpret as saying, “It’s amazing how brilliantly I figured that out.”
It was all fake, an attempt to stall for time, I guess. But it’s so obvious. A wild guess that’s miraculously right might happen once or twice a year — but not every single time with the same player!
And what’s with his not even bothering to answer Final Jeopardy!? How can he know so many obscure things during the game then become a total dunce at the end? — and that happened many times during his appearances.
I’m sorry to be so blunt, but he’s the way he is and I’m the way I am and that guy just flat-out nauseated me. I just don’t handle “weird” well.
It may have been a strategy, who knows? But to be so virulently upset about it is silly when Matt Jackson was so incredibly grating. Smart yes. But the coolness of Alex was inspiring and he seemed so genuinely moved to have won. No theatrics, no mugging, just confidence and focus.
Surprised how much pop culture themed questions there were in the tournament. Obviously a strong suit with Alex. That said, that not one contestant knew PENNY DREADFUL is gobsmacking given it is one of the best series on any premium cable channel.
Admittedly, I am ignorant about car racing, but can’t see what would possess Alex Jacob to add the half to a guess if he didn’t know the Daytona 500 answer. If I’m wrong, somebody please enlighten me but, watching that made me see all his self-deprecating gestures (that I interpreted as “golleeee, that was close”, “geez, I have no idea where that came from”) as an act.
VJ, this may sound odd, but he actually may have been trying to visualize the infield, or compare it’s size to a horse track. Math majors are a different sort.
Yes, adding that “half” was a dead giveaway! I meant to mention that, but I was so emotional, I forgot.
As for my overreacting, if there’s one thing I hate in this world — and, yes, I hate millions of things — but if there’s one, it’s phonies!
Nascar tracks are most commonly 1&1/2 miles in length but there are some bigger tracks that top out at 2&1/2 miles. Daytona is known as a big, high speed race track.
Correction: Talladega is the largest Nascar track at 2.66 miles. In any case, knowing the length of the Daytona race track certainly qualifies as arcane knowledge amongst the typical Jeopardy cohort!
I mean seriously, how much crossover is there from fans of Nascar to fans of Jeopardy?!
All in all, a very good “get” by Alex.
So very glad to see this post! I hope you are well!
For what it’s worth, you have been missed.
Tom, you shouldn’t apologize for being blunt; that’s one of the things I admire most about you. Incidentally, the “Quote of the Day” on today’s Spoiler Talk was “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ~ George Orwell. I’ve only known it for 5 years or so and it’s my favorite quote ever (despite it’s author).
That said, while I’m not as passionate as you are on your view of Alex’s antics, I do agree that it’s all an act. Also an act is his self-deprecating demeanor, as VJ pointed out in her comment. And the humble air? C’mon! That is why I wasn’t rooting for him.
Yes, Matt is also weird and irritates some people, but I don’t think he is acting, so I like him. And wouldn’t this world be a drag if we all liked the same things/people.
Alex will be invited to other tournaments; all we have to do is not watch them if his antics bother us that much.
Oh, I won’t watch. I’ll never subject myself to that weirdo again.
He has a Wikipedia article now. Look at his picture as of 2007. We all have our prejudices, and goofy hair is one of mine, so now how do you think I feel about him?
Also, he was a professional poker player. That’s all about psyching out your opponents with misleading facial expressions. Now he’s supposedly a currency trader. I could write thousands of words about them, and not one of them would be favorable.
He’s made a very large amount of money from playing poker and Jeopardy and trading currencies — in other words, by not providing one single worthwhile product or service to society, but only to beat out other people and accumulate as much money as possible for himself.
Now we know everything we need to know about him, and anyone who still doesn’t believe his DD performances were 100% fake probably also believes that Donald Trump loves the Bible, because he says so.
Tom, why exactly should he give information about his knowledge strengths away needlessly?
Tom, you can rest assured that you will see him play Brad Rutter. I’m sure the producers are salivating already.
And the salivating producers can rest assured that I won’t subject myself to it.
Jeopardy has been ruined for me by the recent trend of people (always men, did you notice?) that won’t just play the game but need to “play games” and psych out their opponents. If you know a lot and ring in fast, you’ll probably win. I think the rest of it speaks of insecurity and a need to always win, even ruthlessly. It’s not good.
Tom, I 100% agree with you. I’m not one to get way worked up over contestants. I disliked Chu, simply because he seemed so smug, but I didn’t actively get really worked up over him. I have always liked Matt… there is something about him that makes him different than the usual contestants that can grate on my nerves. I can understand why some wouldn’t like Matt…but if they didn’t like Matt, then they most certainly shouldn’t like Alex! I didn’t get some of the people on the J! FB page that were rooting for Alex so hard because they hated Matt so much. Sorry, but I’ve never come across such an annoying contestant. And there’s been A LOT of them in the past. I got sick of his “aw shucks” DD spiel, also. It just sickened me. I believe he does do it to try and stall…thinking it’ll run out the clock on his opponents… and they won’t get through with all the clues. He did this in his regular games. He always acted out of it, and took forever to select clues. Sorry, but that’s just horrible sportsmanship IMO. I also noticed he doesn’t even dress up for his appearances. He always looks like he just rolled out of bed, and acts like he’s been drugged. How anyone could root for him over anyone, is beyond me. But I’m sure he has his fanbase…so does Satan… LOL. And I’m def not comparing him to satan haha.
If you had to choose one contestant that you would be forced to root for, would it be Arthur Chu or Alex? I know for me, it’d be Chu…bar none…no contest.
I honestly thought Matt had this in the bag, and I was looking forward to Alex’s impending butt-whooping. Then, I turned on the TV Thursday in the middle of DJ!, saw the scores, and turned it off…dumbfounded. Could not believe it. This was kind of a boring tournament, IMO. One of the weakest ones I’ve seen. But after the exciting one we had last year, it’d be difficult to top that one.
@Tom, I think that social media is behind this trend more than anything else and, most likely, it’s here to stay.
Dead Solid Perfect.
4 matches: 4 run aways.
Lol. He just did Brad a huge favor.
Almost as great for Yale as winning the Frozen Four.
Congratulations Alex! This is the most outstanding performance you have given in jeopardy so far. Kerry and Matt deserve Kudos for their stellar performance
@VJ, Am I correct in that Matt has won a little over $500,000 in his total appearances (regular+TOC) on Jeopardy?
If so, that’s not bad for a 23-year old. The IRS is going to like him next year. I think Alex’s total is about $399,802. Again, unsure. Go Yale!!!
I came up with $401,802 for Alex – (6-day run $149,802, Day 7 2nd place – $2,000, TOC $250K)
for Matt $513,612 – (13-day run $411,612, Day 14 2nd place – $2,000, TOC $100K)
Alex thanked his Twitter supporters, among others, today. Ironically, his FJ response of Twitter in his 7th game is what ended his run.
@VJ, thanks. That’s good money for 2 young men. Education definitely pays. 🙂
Now for the dig. How can a Philosophy major (Matt, so he said) miss this fj clue? Or was he so shocked he had no chance of 1st place he had brain freeze?
Well, idk if he had brain freeze or just didn’t know it, like he didn’t know that DD. (Ouch!) All I can say is I am glad this ToC is over and I hope that we don’t get a parade of players who decide to copy the playing styles of Alex and Matt.
After Matt got that DD wrong, he went on a raging tear, talking so fast I thought his head was going to explode. As for Alex and his DDs and FJs, blech.
My congrats to Kerry on getting to the finals and on today’s FJ get.
If only Kerry had earned an extra $201 before FJ, she could have bet it all (3401) and would have beat Matt by $2.00 since she knew Kierkegaard!
Yep. Kerry deserves kudos. She was a calm, bright, and knowledgeable contestant.
Congrats Kerry!
Matt met his Waterloo in Alex. Congrats Alex!!
Richard, Alex has just made your day hasn’t he?
Mm-hmm
Congrats, Alex! My favorite moment from your Jeopardy! appearance was your chat with Alex when you said, everybody wanted to be an astronaut and cowboy when they grew up. You were just game show contestant. Just priceless!