Final Jeopardy: Reference Book Makers (2-11-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (2/11/2015), in the category “Reference Book Makers” was:
In 1863, he used the epigraph “I have gathered… other men’s flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is my own.”
The last semi-final of the 2015 Teachers Tournament is today and the teachers are: Cathy Farrell, from Wyandotte, MI; Mary Bayer, from Hoffman Estates, IL; and Colin O’Grady from Alexandria, Va,
Round 1: Cathy found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Wooden Plots” under the $400 clue. It was the last category with only three clues left after this. She was in the lead with $9,400, $5,400 more than Mary in second place. Colin’s score was changed to -$600* at this point. Cathy bet $4,000 and crossed her fingers. She got it RIGHT.
This kids’ book opens with mole “spring-cleaning his little home.” show
*Colin was penalized for leaving an “s” off Consumer Reports in response to this $800 “Here’s Your Report Card” clue: “Debuting in 1936, this product-evaluating magazine had 24 black & white pages with, of course, no ads.”
Cathy finished in the lead with $13,400. Mary was second with $5,400 and Colin was last with $400.
Round 2: Cathy found the first Daily Double in “Foreign Words & Phrases” under the $1,600 clue. She was in the lead with $16,600, $9,600 more than Mary in second place. She bet $5,000 but did not know so she was WRONG.
It’s the Italian word for “you’re welcome”, not “you’re with child”. show
Colin found the last Daily Double in “Seas the Day” under the $1,600 clue. In third place with $6,800, he had $4,800 less than Cathy’s lead. He bet $2,000 and took a guess with Queensland Sea. That was WRONG.
Both Aussies & Kiwis refer to this sea between their countries as “the Ditch”. show
Cathy finished in the lead with $16,800. Mary was next with $8,600 and Colin was in third place with $6,400.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“John Bartlett was an American bookseller and editor. He is best known for his book Familiar Quotations, which went through nine editions in his lifetime… At 16, he became an employee of the Harvard University bookstore, where he became so versed in book knowledge that the advice ‘Ask John Bartlett’ became common on campus. Eventually he came to own the store, and in 1855 he published the first edition of his Familiar Quotations, based on the notebook he kept for his customers.” (Biography.com)
The entire epigraph is shown on Bartleby’s under Bartlett’s picture.
Colin thought it was (Henry David) Thoreau. He lost his $2,300 bet and finished with $4,100.
Mary came up with (John James) Audubon. She bet and lost it all.
Cathy wrote down (Noah) Webster. She lost $1,000 and ended up with $15,800 and the last spot in finals. She will duke it out with Adam Elkana-Hale and Jennifer Giles over the next two days for a grand prize of $100,000.
Cathy, you may recall, was the lowest scoring Wild Card, while Colin was the highest scoring semi-finalist. This either proves the scripture: “the last shall be first and the first shall be last”, or Fikkle Fame’s tagline: “Sometimes you’re hot, sometimes you’re not.”
2 years ago:: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Museums”
Its collection includes a 16″ high architects’ model of its first permanent building, opened in 1939 show
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Cathy played a great game – congrats! The mishap with “prego” not withstanding. Funny that the “not you’re with child” part of the clue didn’t tip her off. But a win is a win.
P.S. I love the way Alex pronounces Dubois.
@vj, amen to your sentiment re: fj clues.
i also hope that the tournament winner will get both and deserves the win, not just win by default because s/he is the one giving the fewest wrong answers.
John – I’m gonna go out on a (crazy) limb here and bet you uma cerveja Brasileira on Cathy.
you’re on. now somebody has to be right: you picked cathy,vj picked adam and i am going with jennifer!!
I’m going with Jennifer. She’s had the highest percentage of the 3 going into the finals. But we shall see if the statistics hold up in the finals.
Jennifer 91.5%
Cathy 90.5%
Adam 88.0%
Btw, we have had wild cards win TOC’s matches before. First person to pop in my mind is Leonard Cooper. So anything CAN happen.
@VJ, it may prove something: lack of consistency. only jennifer got both fj right (WHS and jersey boys), adam got “italy” but missed “lord byron”, cathy struck out both times (today and “algorithm”)she advanced to the semis as lowest wc and got into the finals because of a strikeout. had mary been right, not even the sneaky fj wager would have helped cathy.
so logically jennifer should win the tournament and i am going out on a limb and say she WILL win it.
well, I’m not really looking at if Mary had been right in this game. She wasn’t. Cathy got an early edge with a category in her wheelhouse. That probably won’t happen tomorrow. We have seen players in this tournament have a good game, then bomb — and vice versa.
I’ll bet a cyberial White Russian on Adam.
gotcha, highest scoring to make the semis.
i raise you a cyberial hawaiian tropical drink of your choice on jennifer!
Having a clue in your wheelhouse does not always mean an advantage vj.
Yesterday we had “post mortem” and “e pluribus unum” just to give a few Latin phrases. The Latin teacher never buzzed in on ANY Latin clue let alone get one correct.
True, someone else can beat you on the buzzer but Cathy wasn’t letting that happen today, was she? She was determined. LOL!
She was determined. I liked her spunk.
before he gave a wrong answer he might have thought of ” si tacuisses philosophus mansisses”???
i hate it when i’m right like this. languages and geography dd: bust (and they were very easy). now we have 3 finalists where 2 did not come up with the correct fj in the semis.
the winner of the finals will be the one who makes the fewest (stupid) mistakes (not necessarily the best of the 3) and can restrain him/herself from ringing in when you don’t have the faintest clue.
@John, congrats. You called it. FJ seems to do the contestants in, but I didn’t think it would be this one. You’re right. I’m too optimistic.
There goes my triple solve prediction.
Noah Webster? The man was dead by 1863 wasn’t he?
Isn’t Colin an English teacher? Anyway, Cathy played a fantastic game. Really enjoyed watching this match. Cathy kept it moving. Congrats Cathy.
Also, it was nice to see a teacher finally run a category in which she teaches–Science!
Aside from the fact that Thoreau and Audubon were also dead by 1863, I’m trying to figure out what made them reference book makers. I guess it was just nerves.
imo, if they can’t make a immediate connection to the right reply, they just pluck a well-known 19th century figure that meets at least part of the clue. Thoreau and Audubon had books and lived in the 19th century.
They don’t have time to figure out how long they lived in the 19th century. Otherwise Adam would not have said Tennyson the other day when it was Lord Byron. What was funny about the Tennyson choice, though, was that Joan had noted on the CoTD that the category was misleading by using the word ‘Writers’ when they should have used ‘Poets.’ He picked a poet (albeit a wrong one) anyway.
I agree. That’s why I said it was nerves. 30 seconds go by fast.
well, poets write too, technically. but i know what you mean. maybe the j clue writers don’t see a difference between writer and poet…?
speaking of nerves: 30 seconds go by fast as you mentioned, unless you have a root canal done, novocaine/lidocaine or not..:):)
and again: i say that jennifer will win the tournament.remember,you heard it here first! (friday i might be choking on the words i’m eating..) but seriously, she is the most consistent of the 3.
dead as the proverbial door nail !