Final Jeopardy: Literary Inspirations (12-9-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (12/9/2014), in the category “Literary Inspirations” was:
The peat bogs of Dartmoor, England inspired the fictional home of the beastly title character in this 1902 tale.
2-day champ, Ann Conger has won $21,799. Today she takes on these two players: Peter McGillicuddy, from Holliston, MA; and MaryBeth Chmielewski, from Westland, MI.
Round 1: Peter found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “See How They Ran” under the $800 clue. He was in second place with $4,200, $1,400 less than Ann’s lead. He bet $1,200 and he was RIGHT.
This history-making candidate is seen here
in 1984, identifying with
regular working folks.
Peter finished in the lead with $6,600. Ann was second with $5,600 and MaryBeth was last with $1,000.
Round 2: MaryBeth found the first Daily Double in “U.S. Cities” under the $2,000 clue. She was in third place with $2,600, $5,200 less than Peter’s lead. She made it a true Daily Double and thought it was “Sur”. That was WRONG.
A Montana city is named for a peak called “Big” this. show
Peter found the last Daily Double in “Female Firsts” under the $2,000 clue. In the lead with $9,400, he had $3,400 more than Ann in second place. He bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
San Francisco’s 38th mayor, she was the first woman in the post. show
Peter finished in the lead with a runaway $17,400. Ann was next with $6,800 and MaryBeth was in third place with $1,200.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle drew upon many sources for this Sherlock Holmes tale, starring a diabolical hound of supernatural origin. “The Baskerville name itself was lifted from Bertram Robinson’s coach driver, Henry Baskerville, and the old man kept a signed copy of the book’s original pressing as a sort of recompense.
The hound legend alone derives from a variety of elements. Black hounds, horses, and piglets litter the region’s folklore…. Some also point to a Norfolk legend of a beastly dog called “Black Shuck,” which Doyle would have been very likely to have heard while staying in the area.
Perhaps the greatest influence on Doyle’s Curse of the Baskervilles was the legend of Richard Cabell, a seventeenth-century squire from West Buckfastleigh.” (A Literary Guide to Southwest England: Hunting the Legend)
MaryBeth got it right. She bet $1,199 so she finished with $2,399.
Ann thought it was Frankenstein (pub. 1818). That cost her $4,000 and she wound up with $2,800
Peter thought it was Dracula (pub. 1897). He lost his $2,000 bet but still had $15,400 left to win the match and become the first new champ of the week.
Peter is a human resources director. During the chat, he told a very funny story about his experience with a fog machine he rented that set off fire alarms at a church benefit.
2 years ago:: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Businessmen”
Thomas Watson Jr. appeared on the March 28, 1955 cover of Time with the caption “Clink, Clank,” this. show
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As a Jeopardy watcher for over half a century now, sometimes I’m able to do what I did today. I said to the person watching with me, “The answer is The Hound of the Baskervilles, but one will probably say Dracula and another Frankenstein.”
When that’s exactly what came to pass, the person thought it was a rerun I’d already seen, but no, fifty years of watching a show enable a person to do this.
For instance, one day last year the FJ was “Classic Films” and the answer was:
“The first scene of this movie was shot on the first day of filming, Oct. 2, 1960 at 5 a.m. at 727 5th Avenue at 57th Street in New York City.”
And I said, “It’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but they’ll say West Side Story,” and sure enough, two of them did.
There’s an extra challenge for you on FJ: Give the correct answer, and predict the wrong answers! 🙂
there was an answer in double jeopardy that had to do with some document that a mathematician wrote.
does anyone know the question
I’m assuming you are asking for the clue –in Proofreading for $2K:
“Mathematicians were shocked to read his 1931 proof of the incompleteness of any given formal system.”
Yep. The correct response was Kurt Godel (umlaut over the “o”) of the incompleteness theorems.
Btw, this was a triple stumper.
VJ, you predicted one correct and one it was. Congrats!
There were a lot of triple stumpers in this game which surprised me. It was almost as if Peter was playing alone although his score wasn’t in the high figure range. We shall see what happens tomorrow.
Thanks 🙂 It just goes to prove that old adage: Whosoever interprets “beast” as “monster” shall lose his jeopardy bet. LOL.
Seriously, I thought Dracula had a possibility of popping up, but not Frankenstein.
at least it was not decided by quoting the title wrong. i have heard all kind of versions: the houndS of baskerville, the houndS of the baskerville, the hound of baskerville, the hound of (the) baskerville (s) and every other possible combination, mostly not realizing that baskerville was the name of a family AND a location (their estate). would have been interesting to see whether they would have accepted any of them. probably not, since an added “s” in “hound” or a “the” that was left out would certainly have changed the pronunciation.
congratulations to peter. he was good enough in regular play so that it did not matter that he apparently is not a fan of sir arthur conan doyle (or at least sherlock holmes…)
Would the answer “The Hound of the Baskerville” be okay? Does the correct answer need the “s” at the end? Just wondering.
exactly what i was wondering in the CotD talk. an omitted or added “s” or “the” would certainly have changed the pronunciation. fortunately it did not come down to this. as i said, i have heard the title in more than half a dozen versions.
(see my post here as well).
Since it’s a title, I think it must be exactly as written.
The only variation I think they accept is if the first “The” is left off.
Example: They accepted “Catcher in the Rye” from Arthur Chu in Final Jeopardy just this past March (LINK)