Final Jeopardy: Children’s Literature (12-18-13)

The Final Jeopardy question (12/18/2013), in the category “Children’s Literature” was:

Joy, Nellie & Aranea are 3 of the many children of this title character.

Current champ Matthew Church won added another 5K to his winnings yesterday, bringing him up to $29,000. Today he gets a chance for a third win against these two players: Varun Shekhar, from Northville, MI; and Curtis Morales, from Washington, DC.

Matthew found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “‘M’ States” under the $800 clue. He was in second place with $3,400, $600 less than Curtis in the lead. He bet $2,400 and he was RIGHT.

In area, it’s the largest of the 8 “M” states. show

Matthew finished in the lead with $7,200. Curtis was second with $6,600 and Varun was last with $1,200.

Varun found the first Daily Double in “Scientists” under the $1,200 clue. He was in third place with $2,000 now, $5,000 less than Curtis in the lead. He bet $1,500 and he was RIGHT.

In the mid-1660s he laid the foundations of calculus & wrote the essay “Of Colours”. show

Curtis found the last Daily Double in “Film Composers” under the $1,200 clue. In the lead with $11,800, he had $1,400 more than Matthew in second place. He bet $2,000 but he couldn’t come up with a guess, so he was WRONG.

In March of 2002, on his 16th nomination, he finally won his first Oscar for “Monsters, Inc.” show

Curtis finished in the lead with $11,800. Matthew was next with $10,800 and Varun was in third place with $9,500.

NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHO IS CHARLOTTE (CHARLOTTE’S WEB)?

Before she dies, Charlotte spins an egg sac containing her unborn offspring, which she calls her “magnum opus.” Heartbroken, Wilbur the pig guards Charlotte’s magnum opus. 514 spiderlings hatch, but all leave except three: Joy, Nellie, and Aranea. (Charlotte’s Web)

Varun drew a blank. He lost $2,301 and finished with $7,199.

Matthew, the only one to take a guess, wrote down “Mother Goose.” That cost him $8,300 and he finished with $2,500.

Curtis’ blank line cost him $9,801 so he finished in third place with $1,999.

So Varun Shekhar is the new Jeopardy! champ, winning the same way Matthew managed to hang on an extra day — keeping the most money from yet another FJ triple stumper.

We did not think this FJ was unreasonable at all since the third spider’s name was Aranea. Araneus is a spider genus and is supposed to be what the A stood for in Charlotte A. Cavatica.

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7 Responses

  1. Michael J. says:

    Im a guy I got fj right, the clue was Many children and I remembered all the spiders she had.

    • jim says:

      How can a spider have “children”??? I’m planning to email the show and ask them about that. Seems pretty misleading to me.

      • VJ says:

        Spiders can do amazing things in children’s literature.

        Edward Lear’s Daddy Longlegs could sing until his legs grew too long. He could drink Periwinkle wine and play battlecock and shuttledore with a fly who was not fit to go to court.

  2. john blahuta says:

    another win from third place.. varun’s wager was smart and risky at the same time.he presumed-correctly- that matthew and curtis would bet big, although m. did not bet it all but enough for varun to emerge as winner. curtis was almost forced to bet what he did.
    in reference to an earlier post: had there been a woman among the players i am 90% sure she would have gotten it!”children’s literature” is not necessarily a forte for men……just like “football” or “baseball” would (most) likely favor male contestants.

    • VJ says:

      LOL. I was thinking the same thing… the irony of an all male panel drawing that FJ question.

      • john blahuta says:

        i guess our point is made ! :):)

      • john blahuta says:

        ..and thanks for the compliment as well!! (as a sagittarius i despise prejudice, injustice and unfairness. not that i believe in astrology, mind you, but certain signs have some common traits, even on the outside. e.g. i could spot a female leo 9 out of 10 times. and talking to a cancer i would know in 5 minutes… but that is not the rule, just that certain signs have often minds and appearances they can’t or don’t want to hide, at least imo.