Final Jeopardy: International Literature (2-13-20)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (2/13/2020) in the category “International Literature” was:
There are reminiscences of branding cattle & lassoing steers in “Martin Fierro”, the national poem of this Western Hemisphere country
New champ Josh Gruenberg, a software engineer from Rochester, NY, won $14,601 yesterday. In Game 2, his challengers are: Meaghan Kaplan, a transformation analyst from Alexandria, VA; and Brooke MacKenzie, a lawyer from Toronto, Ontario.
Round 1 Categories: February – Cast of the TV Show – The Civil War – Just Say “N.O.” – Food & Drink Words & Phrases – The Horn of Africa
Meaghan found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “The Civil War” under the $400 clue, with just 3 clues left after it. She was in third place with $4,600, $400 less than Josh in the lead. She bet $2,000 and she was RIGHT.
Confederate troops used a high-pitched battle cry known by this 2-word name; it may have derived from fox hunting. show
Meaghan finished in the lead with $6,600. Brooke and Josh were tied in second place with $5,000 each.
Round 2 Categories: 3/4 of an EGOT – Religious Fiction – Trial Mix – Heat Street – Se”V”en-letter Words – Opera Zingers
Josh found the first Daily Double in “Heat Street” under the $1,600 clue on the 4th pick. He was in second place with $5,400 now, $1,200 less than Meaghan’s lead. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
Heat is a form of energy; the first law of this says that it can be neither created nor destroyed but can be changed. show
Brooke found the last Daily Double in “Trial Mix” under the $800 clue on the 16th pick. She was a in a second place tie with Meaghan. They both had $9,000, $6,600 less than Josh. She bet $7,700 and she was RIGHT.
During the trial of this teacher in 1925, vendors sold refreshments, bibles & toy monkeys. show
Josh finished in the lead with $17,200. Brooke was next with $16,300 and Meaghan was in third place with $8,200.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS ARGENTINA?
From TV Tropes: Martín Fierro is considered the basis of the Argentine Literature, and the pinnacle of the gauchesque poetry, and it has spawned at least one official sequel and two Ascended Fanfics by the master of Mind Screw, Jorge Luis Borges. In a rural landscape, Fierro is a gaucho that has been forced to join the Argentinian Army to fight the Mapuche and Ranquel Indians in The Savage South. There he spends three years in miserable conditions, unpaid and half naked, until he decides to go back to home…. Fierro then goes in a revenge rampage with anyone stupid enough to cross his path…”
An old clue: From 2007: LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE ($800) In the 19th century, literature about these Argentine cowboys was popular, with Jose Hernandez’ “Martin Fierro” a classic
Meaghan got it right. She bet $7,000, bringing her up to $15,200.
Brooke got it, too. She bet $1,000 for a $17,300 finish.
Josh went with Brazil. He lost his $15,401 bet, landing in third place with $1,799. That made Brooke MacKenzie the new Jeopardy! champ.
2 triple stumpers from the last round:
3/4 OF AN EGOT ($1200) Her life story itself was on Broadway in 2019; yet still somehow this one-named superstar is Tony-less
TRIAL MIX ($1600) In 1982 a Federal jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting of president Reagan
2 years ago: NONE of the players got this FJ in “Medieval Asia”
Though it means “one who serves”, in medieval Japan it was a property holder who received rent from serfs. show
Click here to leave well wishes and prayers for Alex Trebek for continuing success in his battle against cancer. There’s also a link to where you can make a donation to pancreatic cancer research in his honor.
We may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made from Amazon.com links at no cost to our visitors. Learn more: Affiliate Disclosure.
That opera category showed the extent of the disconnect between my interests and everybody else’s because I knew every opera in the category. I’d even listened to Das Rheingold, the $2,000 question’s opera, earlier that day on the Met Opera station on Sirius.
They’re all reasonably famous operas, though The Beggar’s Opera, despite its title, isn’t usually played in opera houses. The Beggar’s Opera is the first example of a new form, the ballad-opera, in which John Gay took existing folk melodies and some classical themes by composers like Händel and Bononcini, and set new lyrics to them. However, this was no hindrance to me since I’ve loved the play—arguably, the first example of musical theatre—since I was a teenager and saw the movie version with Laurence Olivier. (Not when it was new, I hasten to point out. I’m only in my late 30s. But it was on Bravo back when that station was actually an arts channel.)
It also seems to me that the Bible is usually a blind-spot of most contestants. I knew Jacob’s wives were Rachel and Leah and about Elijah being caught up in the whirlwind and I’m an lifelong atheist. I don’t know if there would have been more triple-stumpers, because they didn’t finish the category, but the fact it was saved until last is probably an indication.
@Nullifidian, I sympathize with the players — opera is one of those categories that I just can’t get a Handel on (pun intended–lol) . I did get The Beggar’s Opera though because of the song Mack the Knife.
Thanks for mentioning the film with Olivier. I will have to see it. I see that Stanley Holloway (Alfred E. Doolittle) is in it, too!
I knew the Final only because I used to buy desiccated beef liver tablets from Argentina at the health food store. So for me it was a NUTRITION Final.
Thanks for posting the Enjoli commercial, VJ, it jarred my memory!
you’re welcome, Rhonda. I never forgot that one — my mom used to do a parody of it 🤣🤣
Today was a good demonstration of why the writers sometimes include “dreaded” in the name of “Opera” categories.
Even though the $400 clue was essentially a British history clue.
Jeopardy promos always have spoiler alerts.
After going 0-for-3 yesterday, we went 3-for-3 on the Daily Double which is a lot better.
It was unfortunate that Josh couldn’t get another win. But still congrats to Brooke on winning the game and to meg on getting final right. Besides, Josh should have at least stayed with his original bet instead of risking losing the game. Hopefully Brooke can break the leader curse and get a streak running. By the way VJ, do you often hear this poem read aloud in libraries or in schools?
I never heard of this poem before today, Lou. The first part of the poem was published in 1872 and the second in 1879 but, according to wikipedia, it took until the 1910s for it to be recognized as a classic.
I had a “Hispanic Anthology” years ago, published by poet and translator Thomas Walsh in 1920. Walsh must not have heard about all that yet. Maybe he never did. He died in 1928. According to him in 1920 anyway, Olegario Victor Andrade was Argentina’s most famous poet. Nothing by Jose Hernandez was in the book. (I gave the book away when I found out it’s on Google Books)