Final Jeopardy: America at War (12-28-22)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (12/28/2022) in the category “America at War” was:
Until the Civil War, the Jan. 8 date of this battle of dubious military importance but big morale value was a national holiday
9x champ Ray Lalonde, a scenic artist from Toronto, Ontario, has now won $255,100. In Game 10, he takes on these two players: Omkar Bhatt, an attorney from Chicago, IL; and Jamie Fletcher, a retired librarian from Troy, MI.
Round 1 Categories: Compose Yourself – 6-Letter Verbs – Car Collisions – Oscar Winners on TV – Here Comes the Bribe – All Dressed in White
Ray found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Here Comes the Bribe” under the $1,000 clue on the 12th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $4,400, $3,600 more than Jamie in second place. Ray bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
In Rome in 69 A.D., Marcus Salvius Otho bribed this security force to murder the emperor Galba & have Otho put on the throne show
Ray finished in the lead with $10,600. Omkar was second with $2,800 and Jamie was last with $400. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Literary Character Names – A Category of Chance – The Human Body – World Capitals – Eponyms – It Had to Be Hugh
Omkar found the first Daily Double in “World Capitals” under the $1,200 on the second pick of the round. He was in second place with $3,200, $7,400 less than Ray’s lead. Omkar bet $3,000 and went with Cape Town. That was WRONG.
Of South Africa’s 3 capitals, this judicial one is alphabetically first show
Jamie got the last Daily Double in “Literary Character Names” under the $800 clue on the 5th pick of the round. In second place with $2,000, she had $7,000 less than Ray’s lead. Jamie bet $2,000 and thought it was Voldemort. That was WRONG.
wizardingworld.com tells us this villainous last name means “bad faith” show
Ray finished in the lead with a runaway $23,400. Jamie was in second place with $4,400 and Omkar was last with $4,200. All clues were shown.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS?
The January 8, 1815 Battle of New Orleans was the last battle of the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. It was a decisive victory for the Americans after a series of earlier battles in December 1814 and one on New Year’s Day 1815. Doubt has been cast on the importance of the battle because American and British commissioners signed a peace treaty in Ghent, Belgium on Dec. 24, 1814. However, the Louisiana State Museum says: “The American victory in the Gulf region forced the British to recognize United States claims to Louisiana and West Florida and to ratify the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war. The Battle of New Orleans also marked the state’s political incorporation into the Union.”
The Battle of New Orleans made General Andrew Jackson wildly popular. Wikipedia says the anniversary of the battle, “the Eighth”, was made a Federal holiday in 1828 (when Jackson was elected President) and remained so until 1861. However, there’s a difference between “Federal” and “national.” The Historic New Orleans Collection states that January 8th was “long celebrated as a national holiday, an occasion for chest-thumping speeches, music, parades, and banquets. These observances were often tied to Jackson’s political rise and his association with the Democratic Party.” According to the Congressional Research Service: “The first four congressionally designated federal holidays were created in 1870.”
Omkar wrote that he had fun. He lost $4,199 and finished with $1.00.
Jamie got it right. She added $4,000 to her score and finished with $8,400.
Ray got it right, too. He bet $6,600 and won the game with $30,000. Ray is now a superchamp with a 10-day total of $285,100.
2 triple stumpers from the first round:
COMPOSE YOURSELF ($600) From the 1870s, “Marche slave” & the opera “Eugene Onegin”, by him
ALL DRESSED IN WHITE ($600) It’s white, it keeps you alive, it’s an extravehicular mobility unit better known by this alliterative name
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Men of Medicine”
After giving birth in Paris, American Marjorie Karmel wrote “Thank You” him & co-founded an org. now named for him show
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Those stumpers and FJ were too tough for me, although I did know the Downs/Trebek game show from having watched it when I was young. Also tried out for it in NYC very long ago. My well-read aunt turned me on to JD Salinger when I was in college, so I knew the character’s name.
Regarding FJ, I figured that the battle was part of the War of 1812, but I just couldn’t come up with the specific one.
I am happy to see Ray winning game 10 and I hope he ties with Johnathan Fisher in game 11 soon.
Weird … I posted a 2nd comment and now the 1st has disappeared.
Congratulations to Ray on #10. He’s a likable fellow, but that swaying is distracting.
So, I guess I’m still struggling to understand the distinction between a national and Federal holiday. I think all federal holidays are established by Congress, whereas national holidays are observed by all the states, regardless of whether they are federal holidays? Kinda like a Venn Diagram?
DC, different sites say different things about the difference between national and federal holidays. Some say there is no difference in terms of what is open and what is closed. However, federal holidays are established by Congress, then the President signs it into law, Juneteenth being the most recent.
Actually, I could not find any law making January 8th a national or federal holiday, but from what I saw online today, it is still on the books of the State of Louisiana!
P.S. I don’t know why your first comment disappeared but I found it and restored it.
Thanks for all that VJ. The definition of a federal holiday seems clear cut, but the national holiday much less so.
Yeah, I guess people use the two words interchangeably though. I honestly think the whole thing somehow got twisted over time and January 8th was mainly celebrated in Louisiana.
I am sure that WIlliam Weyser would say darn those daily doubles to Ray’s challengers.
And no Hugh Grant! Those blue eyes are famous in the UK….
Neither Grant nor O’Brian showed up in today’s extra J6! clue:
He wrote 8 “Dr. Dolittle” books in the 1920s
That horrible Hugh Lofting, VJ, lol
Nor Huey (Hugh) Lewis.
And let’s not forget Hugh Masekela who had a No. 1 hit in the late ’60s with the instrumental version of “Grazing in the Grass”.
Speaking of No. 1 hits, Johnny Horton’s “Battle of New Orleans” was a No. 1 hit in 1959. All the kids would laugh and snicker at the line “and really gave ’em …. wellllllll”
Sorry this comment is late, VJ – but I loved those two songs (for totally different reasons!) Glad they have not been forgotten! Seems there are a lot of Hughs out there. Well done to commentators who brought them up.
No apology necessary, Sam! when I was a kid, Johnny Horton’s Greatest Hits was one of the albums that my parents played when we were going to sleep. (Another was Johnny Mathis). I played Johnny Horton for Nikki when she was just a little one. She loved his song “Whispering Pines” and would ask me to put it on when she went to bed.
I was disappointed that they didn’t have Hugh O’Brian in the “Hugh” category. I wonder if Ray knows who he was.
Ray didn’t go in all on the first daily double he found in the first round. But he is now a 10 day champion and becomes the 16th player to win at least 10 games and the last superchampion of the year 2022. So far no one has ever lost in their 11th game. We’ll see what he does in the penultimate game of 2022.