Final Jeopardy: California Cities (2-17-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (2/17/2015), in the category “California Cities” was:
A park, elementary school and medical pavilion named for Herbert Hoover are found in this 2-word California city.
New champ Andy Axel won $1,599 in yesterday’s game with a tough FJ. Today he takes on these two players: Eamon Doyle, Berkeley, CA; and Stephanie Engel, from Douglassville, PA.
Round 1: Stephanie found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double before the first break in “NFL Team Mascots” under the $800 clue. She was in third place lead with $600, $1,800 behind Eamon’s lead. She bet the $1,000 allowance and she was RIGHT.
Sir Purr, who vacations at Kitty Hawk. show
Stephanie finished in the lead with $5,800. Eamon was second with $5,400 and Andy was last with $2,600.
Round 2: Stephanie found the first Daily Double in “Book Building” under the $800 clue. She was in the lead with $6,600, $400 more than Eamon in second place. She bet $4,000 and she was RIGHT.
Little Nell & her grandfather desperately try to hold on to this Dickens title building. show
Eamon found the last Daily Double in “Angels” under the $800 clue. He was in second place with $13,800, $6,400 less than Stephanie who had $20,200 when he found it. A clue that Stephanie had answered correctly was then thrown out because Trebek almost gave the answer away* when she buzzed in. Her score was reduced to $18,600 and she now had a $4,800 lead. Eamon bet $5,000 and guessed “seraphim.” That was WRONG.
In the bible, Gabriel & Michael are 2 of these 7 special being used by God to send messages & fight battles. show
*The $1,600 clue in “Singers on Postage Stamps” was “Tragically shot dead at 23, she was among those honored in the Latin Music Legends Series in 2011.” Trebek uttered the entire first syllable and began the second of the answer before realizing it.
Stephanie finished in the lead with $22,200. Eamon was next with $11,600 and Andy was in third place with $4,600.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS PALO ALTO?
Many things in Palo Alto and Stanford are named for former President Herbert Hoover and/or his wife, Lou Henry Hoover. Hoover was one of the first students at Leland Stanford, Jr. University, earning a degree in geology in 1895. There he met his future wife, Lou Henry, who also graduated with a geology degree from Stanford. “For the rest of their lives the Hoovers would retain a strong affinity for their alma mater, maintaining residences on the campus despite travels and residences abroad….” (NPS.gov: Santa Clara County)
One of Herbert Hoover’s nicknames was “The Hermit Author of Palo Alto.” No one seems to know exactly why. On Mental Floss, it’s mentioned as a bonus (but not explained) in 30 Presidential Nicknames Explained.
Andy just had a question mark but he learned his lesson from yesterday and didn’t bet anything. He remained at $4,600.
Eamon thought it was Yorba Linda, Tricky Dick’s hometown. He lost his $10,600 bet and finished with $1,000.
Stephanie came up with San Diego. She only bet $1,001 so she became the new Jeopardy! champ with $21,199.
Stephanie is a children’s books managing editor. During the chat, she talked about maple sugaring in her town in the spring.
2 years ago:: ALL of the players got this FJ in “Classic Jazz Songs”
The title of this 1959 instrumental is a synonym for “Time Out”, the album on which it first appeared. show
We may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made from Amazon.com links at no cost to our visitors. Learn more: Affiliate Disclosure.
The FJ question was wrong. I live 5 miles from Stanford and Hoover Pavillion is located on the campus. Stanford has its own city. Stanford CA. Just google it. The final question did not make sense. Stanford is not a part of the city of Palo Alto.
I was just having a discussion about this point with my son earlier, and it is why I began the info segment the way I did. Everywhere I looked, it said Stanford is a census designated place but it is unincorporated.
So I was saying to sonnyboy that I guess it’s like Vauxhall and Short Hills in New Jersey — they are CDPs, they have their own zip codes and post office, but Vauxhall is officially part of Union Twp and Short Hills, Millburn Twp.
Couldn’t find anything that said Stanford is considered part of Palo Alto, though, only that it is an unincorporated community in Santa Clara County.
Stanford is NOT part of Palo Alto. The address for the Hoover Medical Pavilion though is 211 Quarry Road, Palo Alto CA. Phone number is 650-723-9000 for verification.
Stanford CA is the location of the campus. It is outside of Palo Alto.
No claim was made in the clue that Stanford University was located in Palo Alto. Anyone who has ever attended there knows better.
Someone is confused.
Btw, the Hoover Institution is on Stanford University campus. Its address is Hoover Institution, 434 Galvez Mall, Stanford CA. However, it was NOT included in the clue.
I thought my comments below were clear in stating Herbert Hoover gave contributions to Stanford and Palo Alto which means they are two separate entities but I guess not.
@vj,
Overall it was a good game I thought. Stephanie is really sharp and focused. I like her demeanor.
I looked up Palo Alto on J-Archive. They have had 2 clues just giving that nickname “Hermit Author of Palo Alto” before, one in 1998 and one in 2007.
Very interesting — one was a TS, and the other a contestant got it right. And in the meantime, like you said, nobody explains how he got the nickname…
My guess is there was some sarcasm involved that nobody got after a while. It was one of those “you had to be there’ things.
Also here is a list from Business Insider of the 25 Most Famous Stanford Students of All Time. LINK.
Thanks, VJ. the info you provide always prove to be invaluable.
Good game, congrats to Stephanie!
Although she won anyway, it was unfair for them to take away her $1600 because of Alex’s slip of the tongue. Someone here (Jacob?) once said that Alex lets his mouth say things without realizing it, or something to that effect. Senior moments happen, I guess.
Yeah, she was very gracious about it. I would have been ticked off but ultimately, it didn’t affect her ability to win.
One funny thing that happened today was when the answer was birdbrain and Alex said, why are you smiling and looking at me when you say that. LOL!
Also, Cece, I thought it was funny that California cities and 2-word cities are 2 more categories San Francisco would fit in — this clue shows up right after SF and U.S. Cities got mentioned by us yesterday
Yeah, that birdbrain remark was instant classic. LOL! I don’t remember if his comment was before or after his slip of the tongue. Hilarious, regardless.
That’s right — San Francisco would’ve fit in today’s category. I couldn’t come up with Palo Alto today. I spun my wheels too long and had nothing. I was there once and thought it was an ugly place. I guess I don’t like valleys.
It was before (just checked). It was cute. “I resent that”, Alex joked.
they do. plus, alex sees the answer selena in front of him, stephanie rings in, both start with an s…would have been funny if stephanie’s name were selena!
somewhat like when the answer is “victoria falls” or “queen victoria” and a player named victoria rings in…
eaman’s logic for his bet is a little odd, unless he thought stephanie might stay put, then he would have the chance of a tie and a tie breaker question. but since he was wrong as well it became a moot point.
I agree they would have tied if she had wagered zero.
Perhaps that’s what he was thinking which is a weird thought. Given he was from California and the category was in his backyard I was surprised he didn’t go bigger.
I really thought he would nail fj. At this point I’ve thrown in the towel on fj.
@ jacob
you are too optimistic, my friend. at least in terms of fj.
from what i gathered so far from our
earlier conversations, your knowledge and experience are way above average, even j players, and so you apply YOUR standards (“glasses”…limit order” ) to everybody else.you overestimate them… unfortunately you have to lower the bar for most others, fj contestants or not. jeopardy, schmeopardy…:):)
and so far we are 0/6 in fj this week…..
going for a new low for one week i guess??
@John, I’m not too optimistic. I predicted only 1 correct fj. I’m just not pessimistic. I fall somewhere in the middle.
Also, I have had many misses on certain clues. You just don’t focus on them.
Btw, don’t know if anyone is interested but I read a fantastic book this summer “Secrets of Silicon Valley” by Deborah Perry Piscione. In it she mentions Herbert Hoover’s ties to Stanford and Palo Alto along with other facts such as the area’s history, Stanford’s history, and the area’s influence as we know it today.
i was too optimistic even with the one, but there are so many cities too chose from, so the zero is not a shock for me, as i said in the CotD talk.
expect a few more “tougher” fj clues for the rest of the week,they want to put some distance between the tt and the “regular” players to make the teachers look better.that was my thought in CotD.
yesterday a very tough fj (unless you are directly involved in some way with greek mythology},today too many options. it will not be till next week before we have a triple solve or even 2. at least that’s what i think. let’s watch how the remaining 3 fj clues for this week will shape up.
Evidently none of the contestants watch C-SPAN. I love C-SPAN and frequently it airs from the Hoover Institution located on the campus of Stanford University.
They have some great speakers on C-SPAN from there live since it is a research center.
There is frequent mention of Herbert Hoover’s past
contributions to the University and city of Palo Alto and as vj pointed out in her recap one of the first students to attend there.
Palo Alto is also headquarters of Tesla Motors founded by Elon Musk and Hewlett Packard. It is in Silicon Valley which is always in the news.
Oh well! Congratulations to Stephanie. She’s a fantastic player and got NO incorrect responses in spite of Alex penalizing her for HIS mistake of starting with an “S” sound.
We haven’t had a triple solver since the January 14th, 2015 episode when all 3 players, John Schultz, Joshua Qualls and Cyndi Pruss, nailed a Final Jeopardy! question about Florida, and that was John’s 5th and last win. Will we ever get another triple solve again?
We’ll get another triple solve when we get another 5-day winner. 🙂
yeah, like on “st.nevermore” day….:):):)
Funny you say that, John. In Brazil we have an expression “Dia de São Nunca.” I’ve never heard a similar expression in English before. :):)
Thanks, Cece! I was just mad about the results because I thought that on the day Jennifer Giles won the Teachers Tournament, she kind of put a hex that no one would ever come up with the correct response again, and I wanted that curse to be broken, same with the triple solves.