Final Jeopardy: Literary Characters (2-6-24)
The Final Jeopardy question (2/6/2024) in the category “Literary Characters” was:
A 1902 work says an enigmatic character has a half-English mom & a half-French dad, but this name of his is German for “short”
Today’s Champions Wildcard contestants are: Deb Bilodeau, a restaurant server from San Francisco, CA; Crystal Zhao, a tech consultant from Bloomington, MN; and Matt Harvey, a healthcare administrator from Providence, RI.
Round 1 Categories: The 1970s – 2 Books in 1 – Actually, This Is My First Rodeo – Famous Pairs – Avengers, Who Said It? – 13-Letter Words
Deb found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Famous Pairs” under the $1,000 clue just before the commercial break. In second place with $4,000, Deb had $1,000 less than Matt’s lead. Deb bet $2,300 and was half right but that wasn’t enough so it was WRONG.
Depending on whose journal you read, it was either in October or November of 1871 when they first met at Lake Tanganyika show
Matt finished in the lead with $5,600. Deb was in second place with $3,500. Crystal was last with $1,600. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Around the Atlantic – Layers – It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! – At the Tiny Desk Concert – Sooner – Later, Dude
Matt found the first Daily Double in “Sooner” under the $1,600 clue on the 9th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $10,800, $4,100 more than Deb in second place. Matt bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
This folk singer was born in Okemah in 1912 & named for President Wilson show
Matt found the last Daily Double in “It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane!” under the $2,000 clue on the 19th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $16,400 now, $6,900 more than Deb in second place. Matt bet $4,000 and came up with stork. That was WRONG.
During World War II one job of Howard DGA-15 was as a Navy air ambulance with this bird name that’s associated with nursing show
Matt finished in the lead with $16,000. Deb was in second place with $10,700. Crystal was last with $5,200. All clues were shown.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS KURTZ?
Kurtz is a main character in “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad, first published in book form in 1902. Cliff Notes calls Kurtz “enigmatic” in its character analysis and describes him as “a petty tyrant, a dying god, an embodiment of Europe, and an assault on European values.” Elsewhere, you can find simpler descriptions of Kurtz as a man corrupted by greed.
The other elements of the clue appear in Part I: “His mother was half-English, his father was half-French. All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz….” and “Kurtz—Kurtz—that means short in German—don’t it? Well, the name was as true as everything else in his life—and death.”
An old Daily Double: CLASSIC LITERATURE ($2000) He penned the immortal 1902 line “The horror! The horror!” – They were the famous last words of Kurtz, but they wanted the author and David Madden got it right.
Crystal had no response. She lost $300 and finished with $4,900.
Deb wrote down “Hi Mom” and stood pat on $10,700.
Matt’s amusing response was “Shorty”. He lost $5,401 and finished with $10,599. Deb Bilodeau advances to the semifinals.
2 triple stumpers from the last round:
SOONER ($400) Born in Tulsa in 1962, this country singer known for “The Dance” once tried his hand at baseball while already famous
IT’S A BIRD! IT’S A PLANE! ($800) This Grumman amphibious plane essential to the defenders of Bataan is not named for an amphibian, but for a water bird
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Historic Geography”
This city on the Rhone River that is partly a World Heritage Site was Papal property until the French Revolution show
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Our first triple stumper this week since the final was a tough one.
I have been studying German for over two years on Duolingo, and didn’t know the word for “short”! Once I cheated and used translate, then, I figured it out.
The Gordo clue was a bit of a bummer, too, as Gus WAS Virgil Ivan Grissom’s nickname, and John Glenn was from Ohio, where he was also a 4 term Senator!
Gratz to Deb!
Studying German for 2 yrs reminded me of my granddaughter studying Spanish in middle and high school for several yrs. One day I asked her how to say “ready” in Spanish and she didn’t know. At the time, her mom was a bank manager in Houston. When I told them the word, my DIL realized she had been hearing the Hispanic tellers say that to customers every day without knowing what it meant.
I had several Spanish language courses some 18-25 years ago along with a number of Spanish language CDs. In fact, I had a live Spanish teacher who taught me reading and pronunciation at work. In addition, I entered a Spanish language school while I was vacationing in Mexico (but only for 4 days), and I also took a local adult Spanish language course. Yes, I even vacationed in Mexico 4 years in a row so I certainly knew how to get around over there. Since that was some 18-25 years ago, I seldom read or spoke Spanish from then on. No, I didn’t come up with the Spanish word for ‘ready’ either (listo/lista), but I surely do recognize the word. Back then, I would have easily come up with that Spanish word.
Well, the study methods you mention might be better than the language instruction kids get in school. Personally, I think a person can probably build a better working vocabulary by watching cartoons in the desired language, listening to music and reading translations of books they already know in English. To that end, I gave my niece a French bible.
I had an introductory German language course some twenty years ago, but the word for ‘short’ wasn’t mentioned. Actually, I instantly knew the Spanish word for ‘short’ (corto), but that didn’t help me any.
When I was in college, more than 30 years ago, my roommate had to take a language, and he took Spanish. I recall, he translated one of the other cadet’s name – John Shorter, whom he translated as “Juan Mas Bajo”! (“John More Short”!)
Head-scratcher of a FJ, but my lame guess of Kurt wasn’t far off.
Matt was the best of the three, but couldn’t quite get to runaway status.
Deb’s $0 wager was spot-on.
A bit hard to believe she got Livingstone but not Stanley.
Country singer/The Dance/ baseball wasn’t a giveaway, but there was enough there that someone might have known it.
The country of Colon was pretty easy. These youngsters didn’t have a clue about “The Rest of the Story” legend among radio show hosts. Likewise, they could not be expected to know that you can’t always get what you want when it comes to public protests.
At one time I knew all the original 7 astronauts, but blanked tonight on Gordo. Guess I no longer have the right stuff. Glenn, Carpenter, Grissom, Slayton, Shepard, Gordo, one more.
Now I know there are at least three people who don’t know how long one has to ride a bronc to succeed. It was even the title of a movie.
Personally, I would have given you at least a half credit for FJ as you likely had done better than most.
Thanks. Somehow I thought of curtail (shorten), which quickly led me to Kurt. Had I deduced what the actual novel was, or the much later movie, then I almost certainly would have come up with the true name.
I did a tad above average in the game, and was desperately trying to come up with the German word for ‘short’ in FJ. Failing that, I missed the FJ as it was a tough one.