Final Jeopardy: French Artists (12-17-21)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (12/17/2021) in the category “French Artists” was:
The catalog of MoMA’s first exhibition called this artist who died in 1891 a “man of science” & “inventor of a method”
Today is the final final match of the 2021 Professors Tournament and we will have a winner when it’s over. Will it be: Sam Buttrey, an associate professor of operations research at The Naval Postgraduate School In Monterey, CA; Ed Hashima, a history professor at American River College, Sacramento, CA; or Alisa Hove, botany professor at Warren Wilson College In Asheville, NC?
That will depend on who has the highest score today after adding in these scores from yesterday: Sam $20,000; Ed $4,600; and Alisa $3,800.
Round 1 Categories: The History of England – Math, Professors – Miscellany – Percussion Instruments – Movie Taglines – Before & After
Ed found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “History of England” under the $600 clue on the 4th pick. He had $600. Nobody else was on the board. Ed bet the whole $600 and he was RIGHT.
One eye, one arm but all man to Lady Hamilton, in 1799 this naval hero disobeyed an order to leave Naples (& the Lady). show
Sam finished in the lead with $6,800. Ed was second with $5,200 and Alisa was last with $3,000. No clues went uncovered.
Round 2 Categories: Law – Poetic Objects – Home, Sweet Home – Refugees – Celebrities – Latin Mottoes & Phrases
Sam found the first Daily Double in “Latin Mottoes & Phrases” under the $1,600 clue on the 7th pick. In first place with $8,800, Sam had $2,400 more than Ed in second place. He bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
The motto of Johns Hopkins University “Veritas vos liberabit” translates to this familiar phrase. show
Ed got the last Daily Double in “Poetic Objects” under the $800 clue with 14 clues left after it. In first place with $12,800, he had $800 more than Sam in second place. Ed bet $2,200 and thought it was a crown. That was WRONG.
Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King” describes this “with jewels… on the hilt. Bewildering heart and eye” show
Ed finished in the lead with $15,400 and Sam was second with $13,600. At negative $1,800, this match was over for Alisa. No clues went uncovered.
Only ONE of the two contestants playing Final Jeopardy! got it right.
WHO IS GEORGES SEURAT?
The MoMA exhibitions archive came online in September 2016, which included the catalog for the first exhibition in 1929. At the time, Cecilia Wong wrote about why Alfred Barr, founding director of MoMA, chose to feature Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Georges Seurat as pioneers “who founded new traditions, and more important perhaps, rediscovered old ones.” Pointillism was Seurat’s contribution. Barr wrote that “Seurat was the inventor of a method, the constructor of a system without parallel in the history of art for its logical completeness. What other man, artist or layman, came so near realizing the 19th century illusion of possible perfection through science?”
Note: Ms. Wong also mentions Claude Monet in the article, which is relevant today because it shows that Ed’s response was not a bad guess.
Sam got it right. He bet $2,000 and that brought him up to $15,600 today. His $20,000 from yesterday was added in and his final score was $35,600.
Ed was going for Claude Monet but couldn’t get the “t” in. He lost $13,700 and finished with $1,700 today. Yesterday’s $4,600 was added in and his final score was $6,300.
Alisa’s final score was the $3,800 she finished with in yesterday’s game.
Sam Buttrey is the winner of the 2021 Professors Tournament. He wins $100,000 and a guaranteed spot in the next Tournament of Champions. Ed Hashima is the second place winner of $50,000 and Alisa Hove is the third place winner of $25,000.
2 triple stumpers from HOME, SWEET HOME:
($400) This historic German region was home to Hohenzollern Castle, a home to Frederick William IV, king of that region
($2000) This home stands as a “shining brow” on Frank Lloyd Wright’s favorite boyhood hill in Wisconsin
2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Business Name Sakes”
It’s the last name of the man who said, “Our whole concept was based on speed, lower prices & volume…My god, the carhops were slow” show
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Alisa looks just like Ruthie from the tv show 7th Heaven.
Thanks for the Descartes joke, Jason, and the pronunciation pointer on the clue response.
@Michael, thanks for setting that Hohenzollern Castle clue straight. Yikes!
@Jacob, I’d also like to add my congratulations and thanks to the professors.
The clues were mean to Alisa.
VJ wanted something positive, so here it is: Ed got it right with the hard G for Descartes. Alex and successors ALWAYS got/get it wrong. So, props to Ed! Likewise, Sam killed it on the math questions. The “mode” was directly in his wheelhouse!
And, that reminds me of a joke. This is one of those you either get, or you don’t, but, I would be surprised if you erudite folks don’t.
So, René Descartes is in a bar and finishes his beer.Bartender says, “Hey Descartes – you want another beer?” Descartes stands there for a moment, and say, “No, I don’t think so” – and, he disappears!
Like this joke as always. Nice take on “cogito, ergo sum.” Thanks Jason.
What a clever joke, thanks for sharing it with us, Jason.
Congratulations Sam. See you in the TOC.
Loved the collegiality between the contestants. First Tournament I can recall that focused on a specific occupation. The professors demonstrated good sportsmanship and class by agreeing to participate during a pandemic.
Kudos to all of you for your generosity and willingness to put your research and lecture responsibilities on hold for a short period of time so Jeopardy could try something new and different.
Yes, the collegiality was welcome. I didn’t see any poor sportsmanship, at all, and it was refreshing to see how sincere they were.
They really messed up with the question about Hohenzollern Castle. First of all, the castle is in Swabia, not Prussia, which was the expected answer (I know, I grew up within an hour’s drive from it!). Frederic William began the construction, but died before it was completed. Neither he nor any later King of Prussia lived there. The castle was never intended as a residence for the Kings of Prussia, but rather as a monument to their distant ancestors, who indeed inhabited a castle in the same spot during the middle ages.
I watch Jeopardy everyday and just wanted to give my opinion… I thought the material on the Professor Tournament was much harder than regular Jeopardy. I would especially say the Daily Doubles and Finals. I enjoyed the tournament and contestants, and am not complaining.
I agree, Travis, particularly about the level of difficulty in Final Jeopardy! I only got 3 right out of 10 clues in the 2 weeks That means I got the answer right within 30 seconds (but not deducting any seconds for not having to write it down).
Those 3 were in the quarter-finals. Holy smokes! I can’t remember another time when I didn’t get any right in a whole week!.
I did find it very funny today when all 3 contestants rang in on that Prufrock clue with wrong responses. I said the right answer out loud as soon as Mayim finished reading the clue. I’m watching the show with Nikki. She doesn’t know if I’m right or wrong (but she knows I know a lot of poems).
Then Ed buzzed in with teaspoons. Mayim: “No.” Alisa buzzed in and tried tablespoons. Mayim: “No.” Then she offers it to Sam and he tries “spoons.” We both laughed when Mayim confirmed that I was right. (ha ha ha… told ya!!)
The only thing that wasn’t funny about it — it was a $2,000 clue. Alisa couldn’t afford to be wrong on that because she was already $200 in the red. There were 11 clues left after that and she was only able to buzz in on one $400 clue. It wouldn’t have made any difference in the results, but she would have been able to participate in Final Jeopardy! if she just passed on Prufrock.
Insipid! Hahaha. What a great description of this tournament. How many FJ’s did they get right? You can count them on one hand. And that pathetic DD wager when he had a chance? Holy Cow!
Thursday the rather easy PT FJ in WORLD WAR II GEOGRAPHY was a Triple Stumper. But today’s PT FJ was super hard and I had no clue at all in FRENCH ARTISTS.
It’s too bad alisa couldn’t build up momentum today. But still congrats to Sam on his big win today. I remember visiting moma seeing some of seurat’s works. I liked this tournament but overall, will be very happy to see Amy back to continue her streak.
just one of my million peeves from this forgettable tournament is Ed’s measly wager on his DD today when he knew he was trailing by a huge amount from yesterday.
glad to turn my back on two weeks of insipid, uninspiring, and unknowledgeable contestants (yes, that includes the winner who shouldn’t have been here after that harebrained wager in the semifinal).
pps: sorry for my rant VJ. i read your “wah wah wah” comment yesterday 🙂 but these so-called profs were just too much (or too little).
well, maybe you just shouldn’t watch the show if it upsets you that much, klm. I’m not telling you what to do and I don’t mean that in a sarcastic way.
You’re reminding me of my SVU recaps– the statistics showed a decent amount of people were reading the recaps but I had passed the point where I found the slant on that show silly and/or entertaining at all. I was seriously disliking the show. I tried to find something to like about it but I couldn’t so I just stopped watching it. That was a while ago. My daughter said she’d let me know if my two favorite characters made special appearances but so far they have not.
sorry VJ, meant no disrespect to the show or to you. for me the star of the show are the clues, and they are rarely upsetting. it’s the contestants sometimes and the host sometimes who annoy me. see mayim didn’t once say that the contestant could bet “up to a $1000” when a contestant had less than that amount.
another reason this tournament didn’t capture my imagination is that there was no build up to it. no idea how the profs were chosen or anything. for us viewers, the contestants seemed to be pulled out of the blue and put onto this elite podium. at least with regular contestants, there is one previous-day champ that one can relate to and u also know the other two deserve their place on that stage.
anyways, looking forward to normal proceedings from monday.
Yesterday Ed bet $800 on a DD when he only had $600 without Mayim mentioning the $1000. I don’t know why she doesn’t say it but that shows the players know that rule.
I SO agree. Why even play?
Actually, Alisa’s final score is $3,800. Because she finished DJ in the negative, she couldn’t play FJ! today but she had $3,800 from yesterday and that is her 2 day total. Also, for one of the first time that a player finished DJ in the negative or with no money in the second half of the finals, they just walked away from the podium. Usually, they just stay there and someone announced the final 2 day total.