Final Jeopardy: Poetic Characters (12-2-24)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (12/2/2024) in the category “Poetic Characters” was:
In an 1842 poem, it is said of this legendary character that his “quaint attire” is much admired
New champ Susan Beachy, a news researcher from Queens, NY, won $9,399 last Friday. In Game 2, she is up against: Evan Jones, a software designer from Seattle, WA; and Mike Ross, a teacher from Kansas City, MO.
Round 1 Categories: Around the Caribbean – Cheers to Beers! – That Chapter’s Named for Me! – Sports Star Records – Anagrammed Occupations – Florida Woman
Susan found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Cheers to Beers” under the $600 on the 1st pick of the round. Nobody was on the board. Susan bet $1,000 and said the world bodybuilding title. That was WRONG.
The name of this bodybuilding title was inspired by a beer, of all things show
Evan finished in the lead with $6,000. Mike was second with $3,400 and Susan was last with $1,000. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: The Wedded Opera Category – Fields – America Before the Revolution – Geographic Movie Titles – Moons of the Solar System – Add Verbs
Mike found the first Daily Double in “America Before the Revolution” under the $1,200 clue on the 13th pick of the round. He was in second place with $5,000, $9,400 less than Evan’s lead. Mike made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
In 1653 he established the first municipal government of New Amsterdam, modeling it after cities in Holland show
Evan found the last Daily Double in “The Wedded Opera Category” under the $800 clue on the 19th pick of the round. In the lead with $17,200, Evan had $8,800 more than Mike in second place. Evan bet $3,000 and was RIGHT.
The Verdi opera named for this Shakespeare character ends with a double wedding & apparently an early same sex one! show
Evan finished in the lead with $22,600 but his score dropped to $21,800 after a reversal (see below). Mike was second with $13,200 and Susan was last with $5,000. All clues were shown.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN?
In 1842, Robert Browning wrote “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” to entertain Willy Macready, a sick child and namesake of one of Browning’s close friends. That’s who Browning is talking to in the last quatrain when he wraps it up with a moral about keeping our promises. It’s a fairly long poem by my standards but it was included in “Robert Browning Shorter Poems” with other famous Browning poems. The verse referred to in today’s Jeopardy! clue appears in the 5th stanza:
“His queer long coat from heel to head
Was half of yellow and half of red,
….
And nobody could enough admire
The tall man and his quaint attire.”
The grim truth behind the Pied Piper: The BBC revisits the Pied Piper legend with a trip to Hameln, Germany, where they sell bread in the shape of rats!
Susan wrote down Longfellow and crossed it out. She said she had nothing else. Susan lost $2,000 and finished with $3,000.
Mike went with Falstaff, already a response to one of the Daily Doubles. Mike lost $3,100 and finished with $10,100.
Evan came up with Daniel Boone. Evan lost $4,601 but won the game with the remaining $17,199. Evan Jones is the new Jeopardy! champ.
Reversal: AMERICA BEFORE THE REVOLUTION ($400) New Hampshire got its own governor in 1741 after being a part of this colony for several decades – Evan said the Massachusetts Bay Colony which got an okay from Ken. The judges nixed it for TMI — Evan should have left out the word “Bay”. I looked this up before the ruling and the correct answer is “Province of Massachusetts Bay”, although Ken seemed to indicate that just Massachusetts would have been sufficient.
A triple stumper from each round:
SPORTS STAR RECORDS ($800) In 2022 this former Laker aka DJ Diesel joined Steve Aoki on the electronic song “Welcome To The Playhouse”
GEOGRAPHIC MOVIE TITLES ($2000) Keith Carradine’s “I’m Easy” from the soundtrack of this music-centric movie won a 1975 Oscar for Best Song
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “LANDMARKS”
In 2009, during a 20th anniversary celebration, it was called “an edifice of fear. On November 9, it became a place of joy” show
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Not a bad game, but Susan was silent for much of it. Living in the PNW, I figured out the beer/bodybuilder title. FJ puzzled me; my lame answer was Little Lord Fauntleroy. Really thought Mike was going to stumble on that Stuyvesant DD. (I was accepted at the HS named for him, as were four of my good friends, but I chose not to attend and never regretted it.)
Speaking of lame, Mike played for 2nd place, wagering only enough to beat Susan if she doubled in Final. He had zero chance of winning that way. He had to know Evan had to wager at least $4601 and miss FJ, so he could at least have bet around $5K.
Someone should have known DJ Diesel and the barley grain. I remember the Carradine song/movie very well. That one was tough. My late bro-in-law was into good beer and intro’d me to the one with the cool cap. I dislike opera but knew Smetana’s somehow. The “beast mounter” clue reminded me of a very funny joke I won’t repeat here.
Wow, a tough FJ to be sure, and I simply drew a blank. On the plus side, we were at least spared another preemption by a football game.
Wow – 1/3 on DD (the beer one I got right, natch), and missed FJ.
Susan seemed a little bit outmatched.
I don’t recall if it was a TS (of those listed, I missed the large majority) or not, but, the one beer clue, when Ken threw some shade – “(blank) is Belgian, this is (blank)”.
Ken’s beer remark was on the triple stumper when Susan guessed Stella Artois.
That was a rough FJ with not enough to go on. The first thing I thought of when I saw “quaint attire” was EAP’s “El Dorado” that starts out “Gaily bedight”, but I also knew Poe wasn’t around to write anything in 1842. Then I remembered the Browning poem. Someone turned the poem into an almost half-hour-long animated tale on YouTube.
I was surprised no one thought of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” when Santa shows up–
“He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot”
That was written long before the Browning poem though.
I didn’t know how much I could give away! I looked at the TS list and didn’t see it – so I looked again, and there it is!
We start the week with a triple stumper since today’s final was a tough one.
You forgot to put 21,800 for Evan because he originally had 22,600 but they had to subtract 800 from his score because he got dinged for that last clue.
Kevin, I fixed that in the part after the last round. The reversal shows the clue was worth $400 so, yeah, they took away double — the $400 he was originally awarded and another $400 for being wrong.