Final Jeopardy: State Flags (2-4-15)
The Final Jeopardy question (2/4/2015), in the category “State Flags” was:
It is mentioned in the motto on Minnesota’s flag and is depicted on Alaska’s.
In Match 3 of the Teachers’ Tournament semi-finals, the players are: MaryLou McKenna from Harwich, MA; Eric Hack, from Cape Charles, VA; and Tracy Alexander, from Tucson, AZ.
Round 1: MaryLou found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Broadway Musicals” under the $1,000 clue. She was in third place with $2,400, $1,200 less than Eric’s lead. She bet $1,400 and tried to talk it out but couldn’t get there so she was WRONG.
“We’re Not Gonna Take It” & “Don’t Stop Believin'” show
Eric finished in the lead with $3,400. Tracy was second with $3,200 and MaryLou was last with $1,600.
Round 2: Tracy found the first Daily Double in “They Said It” under the $4,400 clue. She was in second place with $4,400, $4,200 less than Eric’s lead. She bet $4,000 and thought it was Patrick Henry. That was WRONG.
“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.” show
Tracy found the last Daily Double in “The National Inventors Hall of Fame” under the $1,200 clue. She just got out of the hole and was in third place with $400, $15,800 less than Eric’s lead. She bet the $2,000 allowance and came up with “McCormick.” That was WRONG.
He gave his name to a pressure-ignited internal combustion engine & was also a linguist. show
Eric finished in the lead with a runaway $17,800. MaryLou was next with $6,800. Tracy was out of the game since she finished at negative $1,600.
NEITHER contestant got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS THE NORTH STAR?
In this State flag youtube, Alaska is at 0:06 and Minnesota is at 1:31. More info:
Alaska’s flag has 8 gold stars: 7 from the constellation Ursa Major, or the Big Dipper. The 8th is the North Star. The flag was designed by a 13-year-old boy named Benny Benson in 1927.
Minnesota’s flag displays the State Motto: “L’Etoile du Nord” (Star of the North) above scenes from the State’s Great Seal.
MaryLou thought it was a bear. She lost her $3,800 bet and finished with $3,000.
Eric wrote down Ursa Major. He bet nothing so he remained at $17,800 and he is the third semi-finalist.
Eric Hack is a high school Latin teacher. During the chat, he talked about the advantages of studying Latin — “It’s more about learning other languages through Latin.” Trebek pointed out that Greek also helps with language learning.
2 years ago:: NONE of the players got this Teen Tournament FJ in “Capital Cities” and they all finished with zero!
It’s criss-crossed by dozens of “peace walls” that separate its Catholic & Protestant neighborhoods. show
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I’m sticking with my long-held belief that public school teachers generally tend to be dumbasses.
There was a reason George Bernard Shaw wrote, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”
Exhibit A: Not a single correct FJ response all week.
And as for understanding how to play the game, today we have the case of Tracy Alexander.
Very near the end of the game, she only had $400. Eric was so far ahead he couldn’t possibly lose no matter what.
Tracy gets the DD. Given the facts above, the only thing she could lose at this point wasn’t the game, but “face.”
It’s important to stay above zero so you’ll be around for FJ, because there’s nothing emptier than that empty space where you used to be. Its silence yells out, “The person who used to be here stunk at the game!!!”
So she should have bet as little as possible, or at least less than $400.
So what does she do? She bets the maximum of $2,000.
Why? What was she trying to prove? She couldn’t possibly win the game. Was she trying to come in second? Big deal.
So responding correctly gets her hardly anywhere — but responding incorrectly gets her the embarrassment and humiliation of being one of those losers who couldn’t even stick around for FJ.
And it was embarrassing, as her “oh, well” shrug indicated.
Anyway, here’s a Big Fat Real Cigar for Eric who showed that, in spite of their depiction in popular culture and TV commercials, not all men are dumber than all women.
C’mon dude, these are real people, and millions upon millions of intelligent people around the U.S. and around the world that were taught by public school teachers. They can’t be that bad. And we got an FJ correct on Monday.
As for the late DD, recall that this is a tournament with wild cards, so second place can come into play. $6000 or whatever highest amount she could have gotten may not be enough to advance, but I think it’s worth the shot.
@Elijah, I agree. Some people try to treat Jeopardy like it’s an intelligence test which it is not. It is trivia and a game show. This fact gets lost in some comments.
It’s about having fun and tv ratings.
Thank you, Elijah and Jacob, I appreciate your comments very much. I would hate to be a contestant on Jeopardy and read some of what is written on this board afterwards. Jacob, very well said.
My impression of GBS writing that quote is that he had a bone to pick with one of his former teachers. Probably got a grade he didn’t like. 😀
He was able to become the professional he was thanks to his education and training.
OK, color me stupid. I didn’t get FJ.
Don’t feel bad. Neither did Sarah Palin.
There are only two ways I could feel about that comment:
1- Not too bad. After all Sarah Palin should have, for obvious reasons.
2- Very Bad. Are you comparing me with Sarah Palin???!!!
Holy cow! Wikipedia has comprehensive galleries of flags (LINK) with animals, stars, people, plants, trees, crescents, keys, etc. etc. etc.
Just watched the show. I have two things to say:
1) Nice to see a photo of Hedy Lamarr.
2) Congratulations Eric!
there is not much more to say. it really does not get any easier than this.
any idea why “diesel” was in the “national “hall of fame? did they give a country with the clue?? haven’t seen the show yet, so “national” strikes me a little odd??
I respectfully disagree that it doesn’t get any easier — I still think Song of Roland was easier :):)
I’m pretty sure I got the Diesel DD just the way it was but I’ll check it later.
with your :):) i know you are just pulling my leg. not everybody is such a stellar (pun intended) literature specialist….
today you could deduce from the clue, even if you did not know it right away.the song of roland you either knew or not.
same with RR. a little deduction…but not with our teachers. again a total strikeout.
Ha. There’s something about bears.
Seeing “L’Etoile du Nord” translated as ‘Star of the North’ instead of ‘North Star’ makes it more understandable why that would be written as a motto.
still means north star in french.
but overall: 3 DDs missed and now all 3 semifinalists have not 1 correct jf between them.until today i have seen neither flag (mn,ak)till i checked to see if i was right.i was not even born in the u.s. but:
YGBKM!!!
as soon as i read the clue and came to “depicted” and saw “alaska” as last word alone in the last line i had it. about 5 seconds.flags>stars>northern states> what star are we possibly talking about???
if you don’t know it, then you should be able to use deductive reasoning FCOL!!
these are teachers. i mean. these are TEACHERS??
Yeah, ok. Congrats on figuring it out, but I’m still shocked everyone sees this as so easy. It’s not like Monday where the hint was right there. Even yesterday, you can just try to think of al- words and might land on it.
Sure, a lot of state flags have stars. But most still don’t. I believe more state flags have animals than stars. And you have to think about whatever answer you provide being part of a state motto, which “North Star” is not particularly obvious as one.
And judging by Eric’s answer, he either knew what Alaska’s flag looked like or he otherwise thought of the star route and he still didn’t get it correct. I think that suggests something, and it’s not that the contestants are dumb.
maybe sometimes i get things that i consider extremely easy (reagan north star) and would not get things that other fin easy, even if you hit me with a 2×4.
but when i saw the 40 in the pres. clue and flag today, i just knew it. with “flag” somehow “star” popped into my mind and from there it WAS easy….sometimes things just click i guess.
here’s a fj
“This state is the only one that has the flag of a foreign nation ( as its canton) in its own flag”….
@Elijah, I agree that Eric knew about the stars on the Alaskan flag. I guess he thought their significance had to do with bears. Certainly not an egregious error.
@John, maybe I should have only put one 🙂 up above, because I am at least half serious. I told you that I knew about Roland when I was a little girl and I certainly wasn’t a lit expert then. I posted a link to a cool youtube high school project on Roland (and there are more than a couple). So to me those steps were
medieval literature>french>song of roland, plus my second step was right in that clue.
quicker than your steps on this
flag>stars>northern states
idk how you decided definitely on stars as your second step but the clue just gives
flag>northern states>image and part of motto
that, plus the fact that stars are a very popular item on flags. maybe it was just a lucky “jump”, but i connected “flag” – maybe subconsciously – immediately with stars. heck, we have FIFTY just on our flag.
actually the French don’t call the North Star by the State motto of MN. They call it l’etoile polaire LINK