Final Jeopardy: British Authors (2-18-19)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (2/18/2019) in the category “British Authors” was:
Born in 1866, he has been called “The Shakespeare of science fiction”
New champ Amanda Holm, a project manager from Livonia, MI, won $13,200 last Friday. In Game 2, she is up against: Rachel Fabi, a public health bioethics professor from a Syracuse, NY; and Doug Wilham, a H.S. athletic director from Louisville, KY.
Round 1 Categories: Tell Alls – Languages – Saving the Animals – The Bill of Rights – Vocabulary – Depression-era Dining
Rachel found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “The Bill of Rights” under the $800 clue, with 7 clues left after it. She was in second place with $4,000, only $200 less than Amanda’s lead. She bet $2,000 and she was RIGHT.
Key phrases in this amendment: “witness against himself” & “twice put in jeopardy” show
Amanda finished in the lead with $6,600. Rachel was second with $6,400 and Doug was last with $800.
Round 2 Categories: All Tels – Textbooks – Still I Rise – Name the Venue – Antebellum – Use Your B,R, A, I, N Power
Doug found the first Daily Double in “Textbooks” under the $1,200 clue on the 3rd pick. He was in third place with $1,200 now, $5,400 less than Amanda’s lead. He bet $1,200 and he was RIGHT.
A classic of foreign policy, “diplomacy” by this former Secretary of State includes the story of the reopening of China. show
Doug found the last Daily Double in “Antebellum” under the $2,000 clue, with just the “Venue” category left after it. In third place with $6,400, he had $5,000 less than Amanda’s lead. He bet $1,600 and he was RIGHT.
The 1454 battle of Stamford Bridge between Nevilles & Percys presaged this larger war of 1455 featuring other families. show
Amanda finished in the lead with $13,400. Doug was next with $9,200 and Rachel was in third place with $8,400.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
In the 19th century, H.G. Wells was one of the pioneers of the science fiction genre, along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. “The Time Machine” (1895), “The Invisible Man” (1897) and “The War of the Worlds” (1898) are among Well’s sci-fi classics. Sci-fi writer Brian W. Aldiss (1925-2017), who was a vice president of the H.G. Wells Society, is credited with describing H.G. Wells as “the Prospero of all the brave new worlds of the mind, and the Shakespeare of science fiction.” Also see India Today’s article, 6 future predictions by HG Wells, the father of sci-fi, that came true
A 1990 clue: ENGLISH LITERATURE ($600) Though famous for his science fiction, his best-selling work was “The Outline of History”
Rachel thought it was Asimov. She didn’t bet anything so she stayed at $8,400.
Doug came up with Jules Verne, though he knew Verne was not British. He lost his $7,601 bet and had $1,599 left.
Amanda went with Clarke. She lost $5,001, dropping her down to $8,399. That made Rachel Fabi the new Jeopardy! champ.
A triple stumper from each round:
VOCABULARY ($600) Spoken in the country next door, it’s basically Dutch with softer sounds
TEXTBOOKS ($800) This anthology of English Lit is now in its 10th edition, supervised by Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Word Origins”
The first recorded use of this word in print was when Nathan Hope posted an image of his busted lip online in 2002. show
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perplexed why 2nd place player bet the way he did in final. instead of betting all his 9200 he only bet 7601 so he’s betting as if he knows the answer but wagering to beat the 3rd place player by $1 if she got it right and bet all her 8400. why not bet 9200 if confident, and hope leader gets it wrong.
Had the leader gotten it wrong and Doug right, he would have won anyway, had #1 (Amanda) gotten it right, SHE would have won since she guarded against Doug. So wagering more would have not benefited him. He did what he could, but since all 3 struck out, Rachel won with a sly but also risky bet. I guess she anticipated a TS (at least hoped for one). When it comes to foreign things, whether that’s people, geography, history etc then often players have problems, exactly as was the case today. Only one picked a British writer (Clarke), 1 a French (Verne) and 1 an American (Asimov).So strategy won Rachel the game. Had Doug stayed put today, then HE would have won.
The game was just added to j-archive. Here are their automatically-generated wagering suggestions, which would agree with your view that the his wager was not optimal:
who knew the runcible clue from The Owl and the Pussycat?
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
which they ate with a runcible spoon
And that $1 costs Amanda in the end, but congratulations, Rachel on winning $8,400, and at least, we have only 1 regular game left, before the All-Star Games start, which I’m really excited for. So, let’s see if we can end the regular games on a high note tomorrow.
This should have been a walk in the park. If these guys ever heard of the Morlocks in the Time Machine, that should have pointed them to HG Wells. A smart bet by Rachel though I hope she can build up on her win after the all star games concludes. Also John and VJ what are your favorite lines from the Time Machine? Low scores today but still though a good game.
Lou, I saw that “Time Machine” movie with Rod Taylor back in the day but I don’t remember any lines from it. Never read the book.
LINK: 10 more clues from the game
I don’t want to be to critical, but about half of the 12 TS would have been solved in a Teenage Tournament. (Speedy, USS Maine, Gaza Strip,Lyre (e.g.)… It seems the game was not exactly one for the history books. But then you have some really exciting games, some are “run- of- the- mill”,and some are just below average. Doug’s bets at the DDs were inexplicably low as well, especially given the position(s) he was in when finding them, especially the last one with just five clues left and trailing by 5K ! You play to win, do n’t you?
I thought the same thing. This was a weak group tonight. Not remembering ‘The Maine’, and not knowing the Punic War after the Peloponnesian War was ruled wrong, shows that this group was weak. There were other Triple Stumpers tonight also that should have been answered.
If I were on the show tonight I would have won. I just hope to pass the April online test.
My concern that misspelling could be a problem never became an issue. Nobody wrote down WELLS/WELLES. initials or not.
Congratulations to Rachel, a smart/risky bet, similar to Amanda’s on Friday. Well, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. In today’s game by ONE buck…We’ll see what Rachel can do.
Just 31 K before FJ, low DD wagers, probably quite a few TS… I deleted my remark in the CotD that Jules Verne could be a wrong answer (since he was French and not British, his name also being French. ) Seemed to be too far out in left field. As the Beatles sang: I should have known better… Asimov and Clarke (2001, A Space Odyssey) were at least somewhat in the ballpark, though Asimov was American , only Clarke was British, but born well into the 20th century and died 2008. And we are back to the old short term champion routine, looks like Eric was the exception of this season’s rule.
You’re right. We start off the week with a TOUGH FJ, and all three picked the wrong century, indeed. And I agree, you live by the sword, you die by the sword.
I got the Final, but I would have written “Welles”.
@Albert
If you had written H.G. in front of it, they would have ruled you correct. Even though “Welles” would have been Orson, the right initials would have given you a “correct” ruling, since you would have specifically referred to the British writer, and the pronunciation is the same. Without the initials, I think your answer would not have been accepted, since “Welles” alone would have been the American guy with the radio show. Sometimes too much info can hurt a player, in this case it would have been necessary (if one misspelled the last name). The H.G. would have saved you.
I think you are correct that “H.G. Welles” would have been accepted.
I think it’s possible they would have accepted just “Welles”. Because Orson Welles was not an author, they might give them the benefit of the doubt that they intended the science fiction author whose last name is pronounced the same as “Welles”. Can’t say for sure though because I don’t think a similar situation has ever occurred.