Final Jeopardy: 20th Century People (12-8-21)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (12/8/2021) in the category “20th Century People” was:
Gen. MacArthur said this man’s death by “violence is one of those bitter anachronisms that seems to refute all logic”
Quarterfinal No. 3 of the 2021 Professors Tournament features: Sam Buttrey, an associate professor of operations research at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA; Lisa Dresner, an associate professor of writing studies at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY; and Ashleigh Lawrence-Sanders, an assistant professor of U.S. and African American history at The University of Colorado-Boulder.
Round 1 Categories: Found in King Tut’s Tomb – The Rules of the Game – Company Colors – More than 100 – Dealing with the Environment – Prepositional Phrases
Ashleigh found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Dealing with the Environment” under the $1,000 clue with 8 clues left after it. She was tied in second place with Lisa at $1,400, $4,000 less than Sam in first place. Ashleigh bet $1,000 and she was RIGHT.
A 2007 column by the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman is credited as the origin of this 3-word term. show
Sam finished in the lead with $8,000. Ashleigh was second with $4,000 and Lisa was last with $1,400. No clues went uncovered.
Round 2 Categories: Literary Professors – Triple Rhyme Time – Islands in the Chain – Names & Places of 2021 – A Little Math in Your Movie – “Ennial” Response Will Do
Lisa found the first Daily Double in “Literary Professors” under the $1,600 clue on the 2nd pick. In third place with $1,400, she had $6,600 less than Sam in first place. She made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT.
In an 1893 story he is described as “the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected” in London. show
Ashleigh got the last Daily Double in “Names and Places 2021” under the $800 clue on the very last pick. In third place with $5,200, she had $17,200 less than Sam’s lead. Ashleigh bet $2,000 and took a shot at it with the Black Sea. That was WRONG.
In September the last piece of a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, opposed by the U.S., was put in place under this sea. show
Sam finished in the lead with a runaway $22,400. Lisa was next with $6,400 and Ashleigh was in third place with $3,200. No clues went uncovered.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS GANDHI?
The world was shocked when Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated on 1/30/1948 in New Delhi, India. Gandhi, the most famous proponent of world peace and non-violence at the time, was shot 3 times at point blank range by Nathuram Vinayak Godse. A number of tributes are shown on mkgandhi.org, including the complete statement of U.S. military leader, Army General Douglas MacArthur, who added: “In the evolution of civilization, if it is to survive, all men can not fail eventually to adopt [Gandhi’s] belief that the process of mass application of force to resolve contentious issues is fundamentally not only wrong but contains within itself the germs of self-destruction.”
A statement from Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (who showed up in today’s game) is also on that page. He said “It shows how dangerous it is to be too good.”
Ashleigh thought it was John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, the year before MacArthur died. She bet and lost it all.
Lisa went with Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated in 1968. She also bet the farm and finished with zero.
Sam picked JFK. Having already won the game, he bet nothing. Sam Buttrey is the third semi-finalist.
A triple stumper from each round:
COMPANY COLORS ($1000) The purple feather means premium content on this streaming service
LITERARY PROFESSORS ($1200) The protagonist of this author’s 1995 novel “Wonder Boys” was inspired by his University of Pittsburgh writing professor
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Opera Title Names”
Before being consumed in flames, he flirts with a bride on her wedding day & a list of his amorous conquests is sung show
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Here’s some years I meant to post for timeline fans and future reference in case of a Born First category:
Gandhi (1869-1948, age 78)
MacArthur (1880-1964, age 84)
JFK (1917-1963, age 46 )
MLK Jr. (1929-1968, age 39)
They could also be in a category where you have to name the one who was not assassinated. Another candidate for inclusion in that —
Robert F. Kennedy (1925 – 1968, age 42 )
MacArthur was most widely outspoken in the 1940’s and early 1950’s, so I instantly reasoned that was about when the referenced death took place. Mahatma Gandhi was a noted advocate of peaceful demonstrations, but was assassinated in January of 1948. It followed that it was Gandhi who MacArthur spoke of. It’ my eleventh Final Jeopardy “skunk” (a triple stumper that I knew) for the year. Desperately trying to match last year’s twelve, but the contestants in the regular programming have been *so smart* this season, I’ve been dry since August.
I was somewhat perplexed that the Prof of History and American-American Studies didn’t know how many seats in the House of Representatives. I mean, I told my wife that I would expect her to be able to give me 30 minutes extemporaneously about Reconstruction, for example.
I wonder, also, the bona fides of the contestants. Any adjunct profs? Do they all have PhDs, or, maybe assistants, like Ashleigh is, may only have Master’s degrees? I tried to look up Sam, but, the NPS link to him was dead!
Regarding the final question, the only one that came to my mind was General Wainwright of the Philippines. I really didn’t think that it would be correct, and it sure wasn’t.. Yes, the flamboyant General MacArthur actually detested wars as he preferred a world of peace and tranquility.
Tough Final as we got a triple stumper.
Shocked that none of them got it.
I was blown away with a triple stumper too. If I had predicted I would have went for a triple solve. I’m baffled.
me too, jk. As each one went down, I thought surely the remaining players would get it. I was just flabbergasted by the end. It’s not that they didn’t pick heroic possibilities, it’s just that MacArthur was a much closer contemporary of Gandhi.
Semifinalists:
Sam Buttrey: $22,400
Gary Hollis: $20,000
Mari Canipe: $13,400
Wild Cards:
Katie Reed: $12,000 ($14,000)
Hester Blum: $12,000 ($8,600)
John Harkless: $4,000
Gautam Hans: $1
================================
Lisa Dresner: $0 ($6,400)
Ashleigh Lawrence-Sanders: $0 ($3,200)
So Katie and Hester are still tied for first at the wild card list. Which means we will have to say goodbye to today’s players Lisa and Ashleigh, they are unfortunately eliminated.
Even though Katie and Hester are tied for first, Katie had the most money at the end of Double Jeopardy!.