Final Jeopardy: Ancient History (11-4-19)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (11/4/2019) in the category “Ancient History” was:

According to Herodotus, a messenger was sent 150 miles from Athens to Sparta, just before this 490 B.C. battle

The 2019 Tournament of Champion begins today! The first quarter-final match features Kyle Jones, 7x champ ($145,403); Anneke Garcia, 4x champ ($104,497); and Gilbert Collins, 5x champ ($84,201).

Round 1 Categories: I Appointed That Supreme Court Justice – Homophones – Say Yes to the Chess – Poets & Poetry – Auto Fill – The Harvard Lampoon

Gilbert found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Supreme Court Justice” under the $600 clue on the 9th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $1,800, $800 more than Anneke in second place. He bet it all and he was RIGHT.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg. show

WHO IS BILL CLINTON?

Gilbert finished in the lead with $7,400. Anneke was second with $3,400 and Kyle was last with $1,200.

Round 2 Categories: Opera & Ballet – Alliteration on the Map – Hardpodge – Abbrevs. & Acronyms – To the Stars – The Party of the Second Part

Kyle found the first Daily Double in “Opera & Ballet” under the $1,600 clue on the second pick. Nobody got the first clue so the scores were the same as above. He bet the $2,000 allowance and he was RIGHT.

You’ll find the Queen of Night in this, Mozart’s last opera. show

WHAT IS “THE MAGIC FLUTE”?

Kyle found the last Daily Double in “Alliteration on the Map” under the $2,000 clue on the 9th pick. In second place with $6,800, he had $600 less than Gilbert’s lead. He bet $4,000 but had no guess so he was WRONG.

Before 1910 the area that’s home to the southern tip of Africa bore this name. show

WHAT IS CAPE COLONY?

Anneke finished in the lead with $11,400. Gilbert was next with $9,000 and Kyle was in third place with $8,400.

TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHAT IS MARATHON?

On Runner’s World, ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes tells “The Real Pheidippides Story”: “The story that everyone is familiar with is that of Pheidippides running from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce Greek victory, a distance of about 25 miles. But first he ran from Athens to Sparta, to gather Spartan troops to help the Athenians in combat against the Persians. The distance was much more than a single marathon, more like six marathons stacked one upon the other, some 150 miles.” Karnazes also relates how he participated in a modern-day Spartathlon, retracing Pheidippides’ 150 mile-run and has a map showing the route. Very interesting indeed!

Here is a link to the passages (105, 106) where Herodotus wrote about Phidippides in Book 6 of his “Histories”. Herodotus never mentioned anything about the 25-mile run.

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Kyle got it right. He bet it all and finished with $16,800.

Gilbert got it, too. He bet $7,801 to finish with $16,801.

Anneke wrote down “Justice for Barb!” She lost her $6,601 bet and landed in third place with $4,799. That made Gilbert Collins the first semi-finalist.

There will have to be 4 really high second place scores to beat Kyle for a Wild Card. The FJ! clues we are now following in the “2 Years Ago” games come from the corresponding matches in the 2017 ToC. In the first QF (linked to below), Pranjal finished in the same range as Kyle and he got in the semi-finals.

2 triple stumpers from the last round:

ALLITERATION ON THE MAP ($1600) This nickname for Dong Ap Bia mountain in Vietnam was inspired by a brutal battle that took place there in 1969

TO THE STARS ($800) In 1960 NASA made this German-born man the first director of the Marshall Space Flight Center

More clues on Page 2

2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Music History”

This 1880 piece was written more than 6 decades after the Battle of Borodino, the conflict it commemorates. show

WHAT IS THE 1812 OVERTURE?

Click here to leave well wishes and prayers for Alex Trebek for continuing success in his battle against cancer. There’s also a link to where you can make a donation to pancreatic cancer research in his honor.