Final Jeopardy: Animal Names (12-30-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (12/30/2025) in the category “Animal Names” was:
Those returning from a 1920s expedition to Asia popularized this name for the buaja darat, or land crocodile
Week 3 of the 2025 Second Chance Tournament continues with these players: Emily Johnson, a dog walker from Honolulu, HI; Dondi DeMarco, an operations exec from New York, NY; and Ricky Chandak, a financial assurance senior from Boston, MA.
The links in their names will take you to each one’s original game, and you can see if their second chance was predicted in the comments.
Round 1 Categories: Literature of Its Era – Time for “Second”s – That’s Constitutional – Celebrities – Get That Paper – Grub Hub
Emily found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “That’s Constitutional” under the $600 clue on the 6th pick of the round. She was in second place with $1,000 now, $1,200 less than Ricky’s lead. Emily made it a true Daily Double and came up with New Hampshire. That was WRONG.
“Each state shall have at least one representative”; Delaware & this 13th state got exactly that…one show
Dondi finished in the lead with $7,200. Ricky was second with $4,800 and Emily was last with $1,400. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Winning is Difficult! – Architecture – Only Connect – What Happens in Onscreen Vegas – In the Dictionary – Mish-Maps
Emily found the first Daily Double in “Architecture” under the $1,600 clue on the 2nd pick. She was in last place with $2,600 now, $4,600 less than Dondi’s lead. Emily made it a true Daily Double and, this time, she was RIGHT.
Le Corbusier inspired this crudely named “ism” marked by exposed structures & the heavy-feeling use of raw concrete show
Ricky got the last Daily Double in “Mish-Maps” under the $1,600 clue on the 8th pick. In last place with $4,000, he had $4,400 less than Dondi’s lead. Ricky bet it all and he was RIGHT.
The capital of Haiti relocated to a maritime province of Canada & becomes this show
Dondi finished in the lead with $17,200. Emily was next with $13,600 and Ricky was in third place with $12,400. All clues were shown.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS A KOMODO DRAGON?
W. Douglas Burden was an American naturalist and author who, in 1926, led a famous expedition to Komodo Island in what was then the Dutch East Indies. There he found the creature he described as a “primeval monster in a primeval setting,” and is credited with naming it the Komodo dragon. Dr. George Burden relates in “Mrs. Burden and the Dragon”, how the explorer’s wife had a close encounter of the scary kind with a Komodo dragon, and how that later inspired “King Kong”, the 1933 film classic with Fay Wray.
I couldn’t find “buaja darat” on any page I saw on the Komodo dragon. Separately, on newspapers.com I found one article in a 9/18/1937 edition of the Illustrated London News calling the creatures dragon-lizards, and citing “buaja darat” (land crocodile) as their native name. The article devotes some space to knocking the American expedition, so it seems deliberate that it never calls the reptiles Komodo dragons.
Ricky had cayman (native to Central & South America). He lost his $5,000 bet and finished with $7,400.
Emily got it right. She bet $13,000 and finished with $26,600.
Dondi’s “Kimodo dragon” spelling was accepted. He bet $10,001 and won the game with $27,201. Dondi DeMarco advances to the finals.
A triple stumper from each round:
GET THAT PAPER ($1000) This thin type of paper used to make delicate shoji paper screens for sliding doors literally translates to “Japanese paper”
ARCHITECTURE ($2000) The California champagne brand is spelled with a K; this projecting part with a C
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “LANDMARKS”
During Pope John Paul II’s 1987 visit to Los Angeles, pranksters covered up this letter in a local landmark show
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I was 2/3 on DD, but missed FJ. Again, I hamstrung myself, thinking the continental landmass for Asia. I said “hippopotamus”, notwithstanding that’s an African animal.
I don’t recall the last time all 3 DD wagers were true DDs. Also, the “Mish-Maps” category I found to be easier, or more “natural”, if you will, than regular “before and after” clues.
A good game, though. This recapitulates to me how I miss the “wild card” spots in former tournaments. That entailed more strategic wagering, vs the now “win or go home”.
Good players,close game, a lot of knowable clues, not a lot of missed answers or stumpers. “Komodo dragon” came to mind immediately, and I couldn’t imagine it being anything else. Didn’t know what that was till I saw the very entertaining movie “The Freshman” long ago. The 3rd DD and everything in that category were pretty easy. The dictionary clues were not.
Apparently, the reason I couldn’t find much for “buaja darat” is due to spelling variations. In the 1910s and 20s, newspapers were spelling it “boeaja darat”, “buaja” was an alternate and then it became “buaya darat”. At some point, “buaya darat” became Indonesian slang for “womanizer.”
It kinda reminds me of the “coup de grâce” thing. A lot of people think it’s “coup de gras” due to misspelling.
“Coup de gras” is funny, to me, because it means “cut of grease”. “Coup” is interesting because of the phrases with which it is associated. This includes “coup de poing” (“cut of the fist”), a punch, “coup de fusil”, a rifle shot, and my beloved “coup de foudre”, a bolt of lightning, like the absolute electricity when you first meet someone that REALLY “rings your chimes”. That is specific enough that you wouldn’t say that during a thunderstorm.
“Gras” en francais means fat (grasse in feminine form).
How about “tout à coup”? I was teaching my granddaughter phrases with tout and that was one of them. I think I’ll work on “bon” next, though.