Final Jeopardy: Countries for Short (12-16-13)

The Final Jeopardy question (12/16/2013), in the category “Countries for Short” was:

North Korea is the DPRK; this country is the LPDR.

New champ Tiffany Gholar won $6,399 in Friday’s game by hanging on to the most money with an FJ nobody got. Today she is up against these two players: Matthew Church, from Prince George, BC, CA; and Betsy Foss, from Ann Arbor, MI.

Matthew found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “1930s Engineering Feats” under the $600 clue. He was in a tie for the lead with Betsy. They both had $2,400, $1,200 more than Tiffany in second place. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.

This massive project was the first in North America to contain more masonry than the Great Pyramid at Giza. show

WHAT IS THE HOOVER DAM?

Matthew finished in the lead with $10,000. Betsy was second with $3,600 and Tiffany was last with $1,800.

Tiffany found the first Daily Double in “Poetic Women” under the $1,200 clue. She was in third place with $1,400, $8,600 behind Matthew’s lead. She bet the $2,000 allowance and she was RIGHT.

Longfellow called her the “handsomest of all the women in the land of the Dacotahs.” show

WHO IS MINNEHAHA?

Betsy found the last Daily Double in “Bitter” under the $1,600 clue. In third place with $6,000, she had $6,400 less than Matthew’s lead. She bet $3,000, and she was RIGHT.

This bitter green liqueur is distilled from alcohol infused with wormwood. show

WHAT IS ABSINTHE?

Matthew finished in the lead with an unbeatable $24,000. Tiffany was next with $11,400 and Betsy was in third place with $9.800.

Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHAT IS LAOS?

Following the Franco-Lao Treaty of 1953, which gave Laos independence from France, the country was a kingdom until December of 1975, when Pathet Lao overthrew the government and created the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. (Laos: Historical Events)

Betsy started to write down Taiwan (part of ROC — Republic of China). She lost her $9.799 bet and finished with $1.00.

Tiffany thought it was the Dominican Republic. That cost her $11,300 and she finished with $100.

Matthew got it right. He didn’t bet a kip so he remained at $24,000, a very tidy sum for the new Jeopardy! champ.

It wouldn’t have helped them win the game, but it’s a mystery why the ladies didn’t think the country began with the letter L. Even if you didn’t know the country, that seemed pretty easy to figure out.