Final Jeopardy: Vice Presidents (12-9-19)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (12/9/2019) in the category “Vice Presidents” was:
George H.W. Bush in 1988 was the first sitting vice president to be elected to the top job since this man 152 years before
3x champ Jennifer Quail, a wine-tasting consultant from Dowagiac, MI, has now won $90,300. In Game 4, her opponents are: Jeff Kushner, a health care regulator from Baltimore, MD; and Ann Baur , a program manager from Seattle, WA.
Round 1 Categories: Peek a Choo-Choo – Geo, Dude – Odd-ish – Slowpoke – Nine Tales – Pokemon
Jennifer found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Nine Tales” under the $1,000 clue, with 5 clues left after it. She was in the lead with $8,200, $4,600 more than Ann in second place. She bet $1,500 and she was RIGHT.
In a classic tale General Zaroff explains that cape buffalo is not “the most dangerous game” to hunt: this is. show
Jennifer finished in the lead with $10,500. Ann was second with $4,200 and Jeff was last with $1,200.
Round 2 Categories: Quotes of Note – Real & Unreal Places – Elected Twice to the Rock Hall of Fame – From “C” to Shining “C” – Psychology Jargon – Have an Artsy Christmastime
Jennifer found the first Daily Double in “Artsy Christmastime” under the $1,600 clue on the 13th pick. She was in the lead with $14,900 now, $6,500 more than Jeff in second place. She bet $4,000 and she was RIGHT.
A collaboration of brother composer & sister librettist, this opera version of a brother-&-sister kids’ tale is a Yuletide tradition. show
4 clues later, Ann landed on the last Daily Double in “From ‘C’ to Shining ‘C'” under the $2,000 clue. In third place with $5,000, she had $12,300 less than Jennifer’s lead. She made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT.
Greek for “to cleanse” gives us this word that describes an experience that relieves pent-up emotions. show
Jennifer finished in the lead with $21,700. Ann was next with $11,200, but got her score bumped up to $15,200 on a reversal (see below). Jeff was in third place with $5,200.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
Martin Van Buren was Vice President during Andrew Jackson’s second term in office and is often referred to as Jackson’s “hand-picked successor” in the 1836 presidential election. Van Buren became the 8th U.S. President after defeating 4 Whig candidates. One of them, William Henry Harrison, defeated Van Buren in the next election.
10 Little Known Facts about Martin Van Buren
Jeff thought it was Andrew Jackson, Van Buren’s predecessor who was never a VP. He lost his $5,198 bet, leaving him with $2.00.
Ann had Jackson, too. She lost $8,701 and finished with $6,499.
Jennifer got it right. She bet $11,300 and won the game with an even $33,000. Her 4-day total is $123,300.
Reversal: PSYCHOLOGY JARGON ($2000) Most psychologists now refer to multiple personality disorder as D.I.D., or this type of “identity disorder” – Ann’s “disassociative” was initially rejected and Jennifer gave the response they wanted “dissociative.” The judges gave Ann’s response a thumbs up later.
A triple stumper from each round:
NINE TALES ($600) 2 supermarket tales: “Last Meal at Whole Foods” (2014) & this 1961 John Updike classic set in a letter-perfect store
REAL & UNREAL PLACES ($1600) Unreal: Pandemonium or “all demons”, the capital of hell in this long poem
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Ancient Symbols”
Taiji, the great ultimate, is the source of this pair that’s represented by the colors orange & azure respectively. show
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You’ll notice that had Jennifer missed with that wager, and for some reason, Jeff wagered everything, and got it right, they would have tied at $10,400, which meant that we had to go to a tiebreaker, and had Jeff beaten Jennifer on the tiebreaker, she would have lost. You can’t allow a player, who is already out of contention, back in the game. It’s basically a Cliff Clavin, and she almost woke Jeff up from the dead, but thankfully, she didn’t, because he left $2 on the table. So, it wouldn’t have mattered, and on the bright side, we FINALLY have our 1st 4-Time Champion since Jason Zuffranieri lost.
At long last, we got a four time winner. Congrats to Jennifer on getting final right. I also loved that pokemon theme category in the first round. Twenty years since that anime aired on television and it is still going strong. Three months of leader curses and Jennifer finally breaks it. I hope she wins game 5 tomorrow. Andrew Jackson’s vice president was Calhoun and van buren succeeded him later, I wonder how the opponents got this mixed up VJ?
@Lou, Calhoun had nothing to do with the clue — he was never elected president. The key was doing the math and knowing who won the election that year.
LINK: more clues from the game