Final Jeopardy: The Supreme Court (11-4-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (11/4/2014), in the category “The Supreme Court” was:
After Washington & FDR, he is, perhaps fittingly, the president who appointed the most Supreme Court Justices.
New champ Casey LaPlante won $5,000 yesterday. Today she is up against these two players: Caitlin Malcuit, from North Reading, MA; and Jason Newell, from Chicago, IL.
Round 1: Caitlin found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Trademarks” under the $600 clue before the first break. She was in second place with $2,000, $200 less than Jason’s lead. She bet $500 but did not know so she was WRONG.
This gum brand gets is name from a Spanish word for gum. show
Jason finished in the lead with $5,600. Caitlin was second with $3,500 and Casey was last with $200.
Round 2: Casey found the first Daily Double in “An Autobiographical Category” under the $2,000 clue. She was in third place with $5,800 now, $1,800 less than Jason’s lead. She bet $1,800 and thought it was “Sole Survivor.” That was WRONG.
Marcus Luttrell wrote this memoir about being the only Navy Seal to come home from Operation Redwing. show
Caitlin found the last Daily Double in “Management” under the $1,600 clue. In second place with $7,100, she had $500 less than Jason’s lead. She bet $1,000 and came up with “rolodex.” That was WRONG.
Don’t fire that old duffer yet– he knows stuff about the company that’s not written down, this 13-letter type of “memory”. show
Jason finished in the lead with $10,800. Casey was next with $8,000 and Caitlin was in third place with $4,500. After the commercial, Caitlin was given back $1,600 so she went into FJ with $6,100.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT?
OK, well, here is a link to the nominations to the Supreme Court by the Presidents and whether the nomination was confirmed or not is shown in the Result column. As you can see, one of Taft’s nominations was Edward White who was actually elevated, since he had already been nominated and appointed by Grover Cleveland. So some sources list Taft with only 5 appointments while other say he tied for third place with Andrew Jackson. Taft’s wikipedia bio says he tied with Jackson, while another wikipedia list, POTUS by judicial appointments, lists Taft with 5.
Caitlin got it right. She doubled her money and finished with $12,200.
Casey had Reagan. He didn’t work yesterday and he didn’t work today either. She lost $3,800 and finished with $4,200.
Jason had Taft and inexplicably crossed it out and wrote down FDR, a president named in the clue. Wow, that must’ve hurt! He lost $4,200 and finished with $6,600. And so, Caitlin Malcuit is the new Jeopardy! champ.
No one answered Andrew Jackson, so we don’t know if that is taken into consideration if anyone called for a do-over, but the cluewriters really need to get their heads on straight with these confusing clues.
Here’s the “The Big Red Won” clue Caitlin was given credit for: “In February 1940 a Soviet barrage finally broke the Mannerheim line of this plucky Northeastern neighbor.” Caitlin said Norway and Casey buzzed in with Finland. Trebek said that Finland was to the northeast of only the European portion of the Soviet Union at that time, and that may have confused Caitland.
2 years ago:: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Cabinet Departments”
“Si ve algo, diga algo” was part of a 2011 Spanish-language TV campaign by this Cabinet department. show
We may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made from Amazon.com links at no cost to our visitors. Learn more: Affiliate Disclosure.
so we were all wrong, my prediction of reagan was at least right and all 3 dd clues missed again…. because of casey’s strange bet (had she bet it all and been right, jason would have been short exactly 1K, even had he not crossed out taft. so: strange bets again, but by far topped by the strange clue. “misleading” does not even begin to describe it. to ask the players not only to know how many nominations to the scotus presidents made, but how many were confirmed, leave alone to include a candidate who was nominated by one president as associate judge and then became chief justice under another CiC is RIDICULOUS. the clue did NOT ask for CHIEF JUSTICES.
today’s clue was -at best- a huge mix-up by the clue writer(s). i wonder if s/he or they knew about the confirmation, then elevation to chief justice. and as i said, the clue only mentioned justices, NOT chief justices. the clue writers should stick with things/facts that are NOT ambiguous!
they should bring the players back with the money before fj and then give them a clear and FAIR fj clue. the norway/finland clue was already very shaky.
>>the norway/finland clue was already very shaky, to put it politely.<< I think that Alex botched his explanation since Caitlin said Norway and he said Finland was northeast of the Soviet Union at the time which isn't right either. Far as I know, both Norway and Finland are considered part of Western Europe so the northeast part of the clue was wrong altogether.
I wondered where that came from. I had no clue as to what Alex Trebek was talking about. Jeopardy is clearly going downhill.
CORRECT!!! they should look at a map or compass…. i read over that completely….
show was preemted (elections!!!!! GRRRRR)
I yield to y’all who are better in the know…..is missing six DD, yesterday and today, in a row an unusual occurrence or not?
with that kind of contestants i am surprised they didn’t miss SEVEN…:)
Wikipedia claims that Jackson had 6 and Taft had 5 (he also appointed a previously serving member to chief justice, theoretically giving him 6 appointments total.) AWFUL clue.
Wow! That fj response wasn’t even on my radar. Went for Andrew Jackson.
I thought Andrew Jackson had appointed 6 justices to the Supreme Court. He also served as a superior court judge in Tennessee for 6 years. So this one has me baffled. I think you are correct, vj, the Jeopardy clue writers need to get their act together or perhaps my educators taught me incorrectly.
yeah, I don’t think that “perhaps fittingly” was enough to call someone wrong if they had answered Jackson, do you? (and that’s why I didn’t put in Alex’ explanation – perhaps fitting because Taft later became a Supreme Court justice)
On another note, here are the 4 clues revealed in Double Jeopardy! in Words that Start with Conjunctions. The first 3 were triple stumpers and Casey answered the last clue correctly at the very end of the round.
$200 – Dairy product term for someone who drops things a lot
$400 – To wander in search of food or provisions
$800 – This word for any painful experience also refers to a medieval trial whose outcome showed God’s will
$1600 – It’s the range with the highest peaks in the Western Hemisphere.
Am I wrong to think that this was totes easy and should have been a first round category?
no, you are certainly not.